How to remove buried plastic sheeting from dirt
Avoid using a sod cutter, which will shred the plastic into confetti that stays in your yard for years. Because the sheeting is often trapped beneath layers of packed earth, extracting every piece by hand is extremely difficult and fragments will likely remain in your new planting spots.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
How to remove buried plastic sheeting from dirt
- 1Doing it by hand with a spade and rolling up sod like a carpet to peel the top plastic with itDid this help you?
- 2Cutting narrow trenches to get down to the plastic and using a box cutter to cut it into strips before pullingDid this help you?
- 3Renting a mini excavator, dingo, or skid steer to rip it all outDid this help you?
- 4Rolling a heavy-duty magnetic sweeper over the surface repeatedlyDid this help you?
- 5Raking the topsoil loose to expose more metal before using a magnetDid this help you?
- 6Digging up the contaminated dirt and running it through a sifterDid this help you?
- 7Removing the dirt completely and replacing it with new soilDid this help you?
- 8Picking out the nails slowly by handDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“What is the best way to deal with this old fire pit at my new house? I have been cleaning up this spot routinely for the past four months but more nails and screws are constantly rising out of the ground. I'd love to get some grass growing but would like to solve this problem.”source ↗
“I love using my giant 36 inch magnet roller but it won't rip buried nails up out of the dirt”source ↗
“a sod cutter will 100% shred that plastic into confetti you'll be picking out of the dirt for years.”source ↗
“There's still spots in my yard I'm finding plastic that I've already planted in, and it's really difficult getting every single bit.”source ↗
“I recently went through the same when replacing an old grass/gravel fire pit area with a flagstone fire pit area. Ended up with a 5 gallon bucket full of nails, screws, etc. picked out by hand as I went.”source ↗
“when the sod comes up, I found there's a layer of black plastic underneath...then a layer of packed earth and then another layer of plastic.”source ↗
Where this came up
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