How to Remove Overgrown Ivy | Ask This Old House

[@TexasGTO]

When he scraped it with his nail, I nearly passed out.

[@michaelmase5498]

omfg and he keeps doing it over and over and over

[@lucaslarson430]

Had to skip by. Nearly threw my phone out the window

[@adamcosta4610]

i chewed the inside of my bottom lip and shook LOL

[@whit3man61]

goosebumps i was not ready for that

[@natejenkins786]

I had to cover my ears.

[@billwilmington8284]

Pushing on ya gutta. You shuuure you wanna do that Maaaak?

[@yourunmarathons]

hhahahahahahahahaahahaaaaaaaa

[@ryantfinchum]

LMAO

[@Ss31994]

I’m crying HAHAHAHAHA MAAAAK

[@kyndread71]

When he pronounced the Latin name of the vine, I played that over and over.... and pictured him being a professor in a hoity-toity college. LOL

[@theyhatekath]

Is thwat thwe bwoaston awccent

[@derewreck]

Legend says Mark is still removing the sneakers to this day

[@1tiredcitizen796]

I worked on a house years ago that had ivy covering the exterior walls. They removed the ivy and found that the ivy had penetrated the stucco and after removing the stucco to replace it they found a large number of the wall studs to be rotten from the years of rain getting in. A paint job turned into a major remodel.

[@jeffstike3195]

"I got one other thing I want to try " Comes back with a flame thrower!

[@humbledman5617]

Comes back with a group of Mexicans 🇲🇽

[@jackson6350]

Jeffstike 31 lol

[@BillyN31]

Jeffstike 31 😂😂🤣

[@daviddaywalker3844]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@daviddaywalker3844]

@@humbledman5617 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@moondog573]

I have watched a lot of these videos, and seen a lot of projects, I think this is the first time I ever heard them ask if they are sure they want to move forward.

[@hesrey6734]

Funny... correct

[@verygoodboy2688]

@Ms. Tal painting your entire house is free?

[@verygoodboy2688]

@Ms. Tal My god you're dumb. You have to paint the house after you take it all off. Of course demoing something is free. That's not the entire scope of the project. Please think before you speak

[@verygoodboy2688]

@Ms. Tal Apparently you have a 2 year old's 'I can't see it so it doesn't exist' mentality. They're showing one part of the project, and very clearly state that after it's all removed the house will need to be painted. 2:00, remember to listen. You can listen to what they're saying by using your ears. Just pointing that out since you obviously don't understand any other basic concepts.

[@verygoodboy2688]

@Ms. Tal Just stop. Use common sense. You yourself said they're removing paint. If you're removing the paint it needs to be replaced, it's common sense. Just realize you are wrong and stop embarrassing yourself

[@dillonparadelas5752]

I’m gunna go out to the “cahhh” and see if I can use anything to get off these “sneekahs” -Roger 2017

[@michaelm.3328]

I just can't imagine why some homeowners want or even allow ivy to grow on their house like that. I guess some of them think it looks good but it can do tremendous damage to the siding or brick.

[@Ariel1S]

Only the tendril type will cause damage The glue type, like what's shown in this video, causes absolutely no damage.

[@doofsdoofs]

Free cold insulation in the summer, free heat insulation in the fall and spring

[@MrKirby365]

I am now the proud owner of house that I cannot understand why the fck they wanted Ivy to be a part of it... That has been the thing I have spent the most work on since I got the house and it was level two hording. I have cleaned out over thirty seven fifty five gallon bags of trash plus I still need to get a dumpster To get rid of all the big trash and I still think the ivy is worse to deal with. I'm so thankful my home doesn't look quite as bad as that but it's pretty close

[@defensegeneral9893]

It’s ornamental

[@Personlpp]

I'm afraid of heights. So climbing the ladder would be the hahhd pahht.

[@joshuadupont7172]

Michael K Oh hell yeah lol

[@valmcandrews3659]

Lol

[@go86go]

I can't climb leddahs

[@ryantfinchum]

He's going to his cahhr to get some tools..

[@robertstallworth2060]

Ahhhhhahahahahaaaa! 🤣🤣🤣

[@mousearebec]

That "corner" ladder did NOT look that stable at all.

[@Engineer9736]

The bottom was too far out from the house according to their own ladder safety video.

[@DiscoFang]

Mickey Cook Neither did it have padded stand-off brackets like was pointed out for the straight ladders.

[@Mike1614YT]

@ganymedeIV4 says the guy with a limp

[@bjornjoseph]

Its spelled cornuh

[@danielmann5427]

@@Engineer9736 It's looks fine to me. I clean windows. I am up and down ladders just about daily. The best method is to stand on the foot of the ladder raise your arms parallel, the tips of your fingers should just touch the ladder. That's the angle you want.

[@lapieuvreoptimale]

I want to see the end result

[@nutz4gunz457]

LaPieuvre Optimale It’s not finished yet, they are still sanding to this very day.

[@chrisfi3d]

Yep. I heard he had kids and they moved out last year - couldn’t stand the sander noise anymore apparently.

[@origins777]

@@nutz4gunz457 word on the street, they just finally finished the front. Moving on to the big side now.

[@tammystewart10]

@@origins777 seriously?

[@origins777]

@@tammystewart10 sarcasm.😁

[@gnomesgardens4393]

Oh god why did Roger always meet people called Maaahk.

[@hmac2476]

I've seen many of your projects I have learned and enjoyed them. I would like to ask that u also show the subject once the project is completed lands cape, lawn revitalized, hedges grown, ivey removed etc

[@mackwood2164]

I got vines off my house by killing the main root points at the gound, letting it die, then next season It was easy to remove.

[@nunyabiznis817]

Removing isn't hard. It's the repairing of the aftermath that is more labor intensive. In fact, it's easier to remove when it's still alive.

[@alifah34]

How did you kill it?

[@neoasura]

@@nunyabiznis817 Maybe where you live, but here in Michigan, the Winter will take care of any leftover Ivy once you kill off the roots.

[@ThePolicenaut]

alifah cut the root

[@northpolltv6598]

@@alifah34 ivy is hard to kill. The surest way is dig up as much root as you can then douse what's left with "Roundup" foliage killer. Nothing else will do, it's got to be Roundup.

[@kalijasin]

Sanding it before painting is good though. Will help the prime coat stick really good.

[@zaxarispetixos8728]

Story time when my uncle was young he was going to the school and they had a teacher that was from the town and did not know about ivy my uncle was born in a village and one day she asked if any of the childern could bring some ivy to plant in a big wall in the school yard my uncle told her that he would bring some. Then he told this to my grandfather and he said is she crazy she will destroy the whole yard but he agreed to let his son have some they planted it and it turned into a monster the routes where huge like a tree it destroyed the wall that was made of rocks and 10-20 years they renovated the school and the had to bring a bulldozer to dig out the wall and get rid of the ivy

[@seededsoul]

Zaxaris Petixos great story! 💯

[@japengon]

It looks nice with the plants , the problem is that US homes are made of wood. Here in Mexico are made from concrete and the vines helps with the high heat

[@venividivici4253]

Great acting here. Feels natural and not scripted.

[@sean6077]

if that was my house, i'd just rip the siding off with it and put on new siding. no way would i pull off all that ivy, then sand, then primer, then paint. i'd just get new, pre-primed siding and go from there.

[@bobsacamano251]

Legend has it, he's still there working, scrapping with his finger nail.

[@AfricanSouthernCross]

“There’s one more thing I want to try”, comes back with loads of cardboard boxes and says move house 😂😂😂😂😂

[@BillyN31]

Mark Shaw 😂😂😂

[@daviddaywalker3844]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@whocares0692]

Or burn it down

[@alshoreibah4423]

I had the same problem on my brick house. Fortunately a power washer took off all that ivy and made my brick look like new...!

[@luckyvet]

Off hand question, if you had a more durable surface (brick) could you 'pressha warsh it?

[@vladimirenev1847]

That mahk guy responds like a 2003 npc

[@Sifer2]

He could be a character in Shenmue. "Sounds Good"..."Ok".

[@fgcvhhbvjhbj]

Builder: "Don't fall off the ladda" Mahk: "I'll see what I can do"

[@benmenke]

Makes my skin crawl 1:53

[@erikmartir9312]

I had to take my headphones off, I'm still crawling.

[@DiscoFang]

Ben Menke haha ditto! And fingernails on a chalkboard don't seem to effect me but that did!

[@wcsd9577]

For a project that size and height, especially for someone not accustomed to tall ladders and using power tools simultaneously, it might be better to just buy some used scaffolding and work your way around the building, one section at a time. Clean, prep, and paint at your leisure in safety, and scaffolding is much more comfortable work on for hours on end. Then sell the scaffolding when you are finished, likely for what you paid for it.

[@seededsoul]

WCSD Scaffolding!..great idea.

[@recordball]

Maak, I’m going to go out to the Caa and get something to get rid of these sneekas!

[@crazykev6491]

Drink every time owner says “I’m up for it”. 😂

[@optimus_prime_____]

I live for the 2pac that starts playing in the background @ 2:58. Lol I’d love to see an update of what the house now looks like

[@sminthian]

I didn't realize TOH was still around. I spent 2012-2016 redoing a foreclosured 1912 house in Rhode Island. They could have done sooo many shows with that place.

[@cliffcarlo180]

Back in the 50s and 60s, Ivy was being sold at garden centres with the advice to let it grow up your house wall. Then, of course, the problems occurred that this was indeed an extremely bad idea. In the 80s while working for a garden maintenance company we had dozens of customers who asked for their ivy to be removed. We would cut it off at the base of the plant, then another cut a couple of feet up. As the base tried to regrow we would attend and spray or paint with a very strong licenced herbicide. The top growth would slowly die and drop to the ground. 12 months later we would attend and remove the now very dead ivy by hand which was so much easier than trying to remove a very stubborn living ivy plant.

[@Cragified]

Depends entirely on the species of vine. If it uses the pads like here then it's easier to take off live as it will come down together instead of breaking apart. However, if it is the kind and twirls around things then that stuff you have to kill first or you'll rip whatever it's attached too off trying to get it down.

[@cliffcarlo180]

There are about 5 species of Ivy but only two were widely sold at garden centres. Ivy, any plant of the genus Hedera, with about five species of evergreen woody vines (rarely shrubs), in the ginseng family (Araliaceae). The name ivy especially denotes the commonly grown English ivy (H. helix), which climbs by aerial roots with adhering disks that develop on the stems. These were the two species that were treated and removed as described causing little or no damage to the supporting wall or structure.

[@Cragified]

Far more then Ivy has been used to 'adorn' the walls of structures. Climbing hydrangea, Schizophragma, and wisteria to name a view. Notice I said vine, not Ivy in my previous reply.

[@ItsAllGood550]

@@Cragified Are those vines also bad? I'm guessing that anything growing on a structure is bad. Sorry, new to gardening.

[@truantray]

The problem is cheap American houses with cheap siding. No issues with brick or stone houses.

[@AndWeDanceVlog]

Got to the end an all I wanna see is the final product 🙃

[@SalvadorSTMZ]

He sold the house and joined rodger for some hawtdaawgs.

[@ebneigh5191]

JFK wasn’t assassinated, he became a landscaper.

[@sacredinferno2112]

"If you feel any resistance then stop" Proceeds to yank at the ivy multiple times throughout the video 😂

[@walterbrunswick]

A little resistance is good, but no more than 45 ohms

[@cup_and_cone]

Hand sander??? Never heard of a pressure washer?! You have to paint as it is...

[@addman]

ya that's what i would of tried first

[@cup_and_cone]

Legend has it, he's still out there on a ladder, sanding to this very day. Maybe the crew showed back up the next day and realized their new homeowner prank was a bit harsh, lent him a washer.

[@CrazyRoadblockisbae]

Even a sand blaster would be better.

[@ImTheJoker4u]

Pressure washer aint gonna cut it on those pads. They stick like super glue. The entire building must be sanded, primed, and painted, which is why its a bad idea to let ivy grow on your house. Its a ton of labor to remove it when it inevitably becomes a problem.

[@Pinkyjojo29]

I use pressure washer on my metal siding all the time .works great

[@Heddrick]

They're still shooting the episode to this day. Damn those sneakers!

[@dopefacekilla]

Just finished the back side, headed around front...

[@iceman242436]

-stares at house covered in more green than an Ewok tree fort- “You’ve got some ivy.” Roger Cook = Legend.

[@keith6400]

I had a guy that wanted English ivy removed from a stone house. There were about forty places where it emerged from the ground with different sized stalks and trunks. I cut them all off two and ten inches from the ground leaving a foot wide void. I put a commercial stump killer on all the bits coming out of the ground and told the guy to leave it six months before we pull the top bits of his walls. He phoned nine months later when it had all died. The whole lot was pulled off in one complete piece. It was the exact shape of the house including dormer windows coming out of the roof. The big thing is letting stuff die off before pulling as all the little tendrils let go.

[@keith6400]

@Moon Pie Could well be the climate. In Cambridgeshire United Kingdom it is very seldom hot but often very mild and damp to wet. Are you referring to a USA location in perhaps an area where it is significantly warmer? The stuff I worked with covered an entire house but with a maximum of ten plants emerging from the ground some had trunks wider than an inch.

[@scallywag1716]

I would have kept on driving by the home and not even give my wife a chance to see the inside. That’s an insane amount of work. I hope he got a hell of a deal on the home.

[@audreywegener]

Scallywag we did and it turned out amazing too

[@bearo5658]

audrey wegener true that hehe

[@Brandon_Jackson]

3:15 “turn it sidewords” that’s a new one😄

[@---cr8nw]

"Sidewards"

[@kelleyhice]

Yanking out vines is a do it yourself project. Sanding and painting your house is not. If the siding has to be replaced leave the Ivy up or let the contractor do it when the dumpster is in your driveway anyway. If you have to do it then pour ground clear and cut the largest roots at or below the ground first. Wait a few weeks until everything is dead and brittle. Wear gloves and pull from the ground up and you can get most of it without ladders or scaffolding. The rest will die off and fall.

[@Jaxon_Wii]

Hi TOH, why wouldn't you first spray the ivy with some sort of vegetationcide? Wouldn't it dry up the ivy and then make the ivy easier to remove by hand and scraper?

[@theartoftech]

'Taking some paint off....unfortunately, taking some paint off...again, taking some paint off' :D Good job guys!

[@MikeTheMaker1]

Sanding the entire outside of the house?!?!? No thank you

[@plumbingstuffinoregon2471]

The only other time I've seen that much ivy on a house is if it's abandoned! Holy crap!

[@ppumpkin3282]

Solution is simple. Cut the vine at its stem and let it die. Should be apple to easily pull it off then. Any parts of the Ivy that remain green go back and cut the stem. I've done this on Ivy and any vine that climbs trees many times. You just have to be willing to have your house look ugly while it's dying off. Even if it doesn't completely die off the tenacles will weaken.

[@luckyvet]

Back when we were young and energetic like this homeowner - unafraid of overwhelmingly painful jobs like this. Now I look at these jobs & get knots in my stomach.

[@BossladySupreme313]

I have these on my house now. They made it all the way up my chimney. It's very beautiful, but I'm afraid they will grow down it and cause some damage. This video helped out a whole lot.

[@aaronlaluzerne6639]

Why not use a hose pressure washer to pressure wash all the plant material off?

[@barneysykes4013]

My recommended does present me with some gems sometimes

[@bryghtgyrl]

When it starts to leaf he has to damage the leaves then paint it with herbicide. Ivy has a thick waxy layer on the leave that block the herbiside

[@aaronbays4]

Never knew ladder had an h and another a in it lol. I think I would have left that vine on there until I was ready to replace the siding. Scraping it, sanding, primer, then paint sounds like more $$$$(labor) than just ripping it off and replacing it. I also didn't think you could paint alumimum siding, figured it would be very difficult to get the paint to stick/stay on long term.

[@davidkilzer2462]

Would a pressure washer work to get the “sneakers” out

[@nowirehangers2815]

Take ya paint off too

[@mublikbublik7911]

@@nowirehangers2815 Not if it's electric

[@edwardfabik3582]

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Because you know the homeowner pays all costs on This Old House.

[@philbarrows424]

That homeowner is facked!!! “ I’m gonna go to the caah, and get something for the snekahs” never comes back....

[@jimmycao7418]

Lol

[@OAN-123]

🤣🤣🤣

[@livnatbianco]

I did vinegar then bleach then rubbing alcohol then ortho then gasoline then bleach again it wilted two days and came right back

[@Blobjonblob]

I remember doing this on an old stone house that was covered head to toe in ivy, took me three solid days I hate ivy with a passion.

[@Rapture582]

Ivy is beautiful

[@tonymcrae6510]

Man I removed thick vine off customers house yesterday and it was nowhere near this easy OR clean. I was dead when I got home. I fought with it all day. Have more to do I but I don't go near service lines....especially on a metal ladder.

[@vinnypinatelli221]

Thats gonna look so much better

[@scoobyloo3157]

Any chance of seeing the end result, now that it's two and a half years on? That's the bit I was looking forward to!

[@marieapple6866]

Could definitely tell this is a first-time home buyer to buy a house that has all those weeds growing on a house! I was the first time home buyer back 30 years ago and there are certain things that I would not want on a house I would buy. Vines growing on the house would definitely not be for me! I have a few other things but the vines are a no-brainer! Good luck guy cuz you're going to need it.

[@audreywegener]

Marie Apple for your information, all the vines were removed and the painting job was perfect. my first 6 years of life were in this home and it was nothing less then i beautiful clean home

[@_DeadeyeGaming]

Instead of ladders, you should’ve rented those like bucket thingys that they use for electrical lines

[@mikeo8890]

Cleaning off the sneakers is the hard part, you can touch and scrape the sneakers on a stucco or brick, house follow up with a power wash.

[@ullgeologist]

I’d like to see the finished product. Did the homeowner go through with it all the way or not?

[@ES-fr3yz]

I paakt my caah in the Haavad yaahd. Then,I went to the baah. When I left the baah,I couldn't find my caah and had to call my fathah.

[@arhamgomez1652]

LMFAO ur killing me smalls🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Sean-me4fv]

I used a wire brush, and then a sander, and then repainted.

[@nowirehangers2815]

Thank you

[@spiritusinfinitus]

Or do it the easy way. Cut all the plants at the roots and at regular intervals, and then... Do nothing for a month. Then come back and remove it with a ladder when the plants are dehydrated and dying. Much easier to remove with less potential for damage. And then, as others have suggested, pressure wash it clean.

[@kepstein8888]

I was wondering about that. I've done that for ivy in trees, and it eventually gets brittle and crumbles away on its own.

[@DanSwanson2070]

What if you used RoundUp on those leaves? Wouldn't it kill the main plant? I know that stuff is not the safest, but...

[@austinstubblefield9907]

I have a similar issue. Ruined a lot of my siding and brick.

[@DementedDistraction]

"It's poooshin' on ya guttah." "Ya shyura ya wanna do dis Maaawk?" "Weeruh nawt gettin' all deese sneekuhs off, and dat's gonna be da haaawwd paaawwt."

[@ddoyle11]

Sorry, but that is not Ampelopsis Brevipedunculata; whose nature for clinging is via slender tendrils that twirl around an anchor point, not via aerial rootlets and matted pads as this one does. Also, the berries on this vine are not the small, delicate, porcelain blue, green and white color that gives A. Brevipedunculata its common name; Porcelain Berry. The leaves on this vine are thick, heavy and dark green, unlike the thin, delicate, tri-lobed, serrated leaves on A. Brevipedunculata, which can sometimes be marbled with white and soft pink. This appears to me to be Hedera Helix, which can be quite destructive to structures because of its weight and prying attachment pads.

[@mongustungua]

what a fucking nerd (joking)

[@bRad-ns6iy]

Olivia Salazar 46y

[@tylerk.7947]

ddoyle11 you are dead on man. I was skeptical at first when he called it ampleopsis because I’ve wrangled that plant many times before. This plant does have climbing characteristics far more like a hedera than ampleopsis. I’ve never seen ampleopsis climb siding like that and have as many tendrils. Also the berries don’t look like porcelain berries at all, but far more like hedera. Good call on the ID and so happy to hear some plant nerdiness in the comment section =]

[@timhill4045]

Tyler K. Wrong.

[@mpwall123]

I love the look of vines on a home, call me old fashioned. I suppose they are more appropriate for brick exteriors, but are there any other varieties of vines out there that are less damaging to siding of this nature?

[@MommaFig1]

Boston ivy. It's beautiful with lovely fall color. After the leaves drop it pulls off easily. Let it regrow every year No problems

[@novasoccer]

Would love to see the finished product.

[@censor1934]

Old school clip! Love it.

[@johnmartinez7440]

I hope he got a bargain on the house itself with all that ivy. Wish they'd add the final shot in for these videos - we want to see how it looks now!

[@hfd268]

They ended up moving was just too much work

[@advancekashmir9846]

@@hfd268 lol!

[@dudleydooright]

0:22 - That's not trained ivy. I have several that have grown that way on my house. They like to grow along those seams and they do it all by themselves.

[@nowirehangers2815]

Yes they absolutely do

[@bloodhoundtown]

The palm sander worked nice

[@genuEngine]

they got the 'hod pot' done

[@nunyabiznis817]

I disagree, getting those "sneekahs" off the siding and then priming and painting...that's the hod pot.

[@poshko41]

One of the genius owners of my house thought it'd be a smart idea to plant ivy like this right by the AC condenser... Thank god it wasn't as much as this, but I had the exact same issues dealing with residue after pulling all the vines off by hand. Sanding was the only effective solution and I had to use so much elbow grease that I ended up sanding through the paint to the bare aluminum in some places. Do not plant ivy.

[@nicholassmith82]

I would lose my mind if I had to hear the noise of a palm sander 8 hours a day for the next 20 years.

[@clodiasnano500]

Wow good video

[@fartpluswetone8077]

It's advisable to wear gloves, preferably tough gardening gloves or work gloves, when handling any plant or task such as this.

[@ministrollamadefuego9161]

grat job! And how much should I charge for this job?

[@bestever7046]

Wow what a job!

[@deesten52]

I came here to figure out how to fix mine. My vines grew out of control! Growing up and under the siding!! (We didn't let it grow...we just bought the house) . I'm not looking forward to fixing this.

[@nowirehangers2815]

How did it go? Just starting the same job

[@sleddy01]

I thought that you could cut the base of the ivy and the vines at the top would die.

[@ForvoQuizlet]

Hope Roger is doing okay. Don't hear much about him but I know he was sick a few years ago.

[@1lapmagic]

The laddah company dropped awf some laddahs, we'll get stahtted

[@WayneMiller-zx4cv]

My wife must have lived there before I met her. I'm a carpenter, no matter how bad I tell her that is the plants are still more important.

[@dkgong]

RIP Roger

[@micahrowe]

Sidewords. Never heard that one before. Soopah!

[@cattleNhay]

Maaak, you gotta attach daa laaadaaa to da cooonar of da haaaus

[@davidsonlankford1168]

Should have pressure washed it after pulling off ivy.

[@QuantumRift]

Herbicide? Hint - where you cut that IVY stem, take some tape (doesnt matter what kind, duck tape, etc) and wrap it AROUND the cut, so you build up a 'cup', with the cut face of the stem on the bottom. In that 'cup you make, pour some table salt, and let nature take its course. No herbicide needed.

[@gerasssss]

I love Rogers accent 😂

[@maxHeadroom325rayxerin]

i love how most comments are mocking the video

[@Aquariun9iteMMare]

"Let's get stahted Mahk. First thing to notice on these stabilizing baws..."

[@Sifer2]

I like how the guy is trying to clean it off with some strong cleaner that is stripping off the paint. And using heavy duty gloves for it. Then Maahk just tests it with his finger.

[@pkfan5112]

I would cut off on the very bottom contact, dig out the roots let it dry for several weeks, the remove the upper stuff.

[@darylfitz4189]

Roger: Hand me those lop-ahs. Apprentice: Hands Roger a hotdog.