Tall tree in garden, what are the complications?

hethmar

I love trees - we have a very long garden and the trees and bushes give so much food and shelter for wildlife - as dizzi says, its a pleasure to watch them.

However, after living in paradise for 15 years we got neighbours from hell, who hate nature full stop. They chopped down over 30 mature trees on their land - yes, their choice and perogative, but then started eyeing ours and whinging about light etc. The NFH then chops every single twig and leaf over his boundary off the trees - again his perogaive but looked damn silly. SO, just be prepared for a bit of neighbour problems if you get a nature hater next door

Silly thing is, the trees he whinged about are on our self sufficiency program, eg we cut them down in turn as we use the wood for our heating. Had he not kicked off, the ones he caused probs over would have been down to about 12 ft now, but now OH is letting them grow away

Would add that those trees he removed from his clay land, the other neighbours side have now seemed to have caused heave as the neighbours wall has a number of very deep cracks appearing. Further, all these houses were build individually on an old water meadow. The trees removed a lot of the surplus from the very high water table. His land is now like a bog during the autumn and winter and they never go outside.

hshen

I just went over and checked out the situation more closely.

The tree is a good 7 metres away from the house.
And there are a line of trees of similar size/age, presumably planted together.
So that should take care of any neighbourly problems as we are all in it together.

Given that the lender's surveyor didn't flag this up to the lender leads to me believe it's not really a likely problem.

I'm going with "if it ain't broken don't try to fix it". I like to have a tree around anyway.

pinkteapot

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I would, that tree sounds much too close to the house and I'd be worrying about what it might be doing to the foundations.

And the drains. Can cost a fortune if tree roots pierce the drains, although house insurance will normally cover it. You can have a drains survey down before buying I believe that will check them out.

hshen

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

you may also have issues with insurance as a frequent question is do you have any trees growing within 5/10m of the house...

FYI I just did a quote from money super market.
First time - tick 10m tall tree with in 5m
Second time - untick

As far as I can see this had no effect on the premium.

Orpheo

According to Mrs Orpheo, RHS qualified horticulturalist, the problem isn't necessarily damage caused by the rather than the amount of water the tree takes in. Large trees are "thirsty" and take a lot of moisture out of the soil reducing the volume of the soil and this can cause subsidence. Cutting the tree down may not be the end of your problems as with the tree absent, the soil will then begin to retain more moisture which expands the soil volume and then pushes upwards causing heave.

clutton_2

drains will only be replaceable on an insurance policy if they have been damaged by an "insurable risk" - which may be tree roots, but you need to check your policy

hshen

Orpheo wrote: »

According to Mrs Orpheo, RHS qualified horticulturalist, the problem isn't necessarily damage caused by the rather than the amount of water the tree takes in. Large trees are "thirsty" and take a lot of moisture out of the soil reducing the volume of the soil and this can cause subsidence. Cutting the tree down may not be the end of your problems as with the tree absent, the soil will then begin to retain more moisture which expands the soil volume and then pushes upwards causing heave.

Thanks for the info!
I had come to the conclusion not to mess with it.

The area I'm buying is known for its dampness. I think there's potential for a nice mutually beneficial relationship there. So the tree stays!

Errata

hshen wrote: »

The tree is approx 5 metres away from the house. 3-4 metres from the patio.
Patio is hovering above ground.

From memory the area immediately surrounding the tree is higher than the rest due to root growth, approx 1.5m in diameter.

I'm fine with the leaves and not been able to grow anything.
The garden is fairly small and paved with stone at the moment.

I do like trees and prefer not having to cut it down if I don't have to...
Should I get a specialist in to take a look?

A specialist will be able to tell you if the tree is healthy or diseased as unfortunately there are a number of diseases these trees are now prone to.

sonastin

My last house had a mature horsechestnut tree smack bang in the middle of the (small) front lawn, subject of a TPO. Biggest problem it caused me was covering the car in sticky sap in the spring. In winter the shelter from the bare branches prevented the car getting to frosted up. Had grass all round and other plants growing under the spread. Only got round to having the gutters cleaned once in the 8 years I was there so there might have been a load of leaves blocking them but not so as I'd noticed! The tree was there long before the house was built so I think the roots / soil moisture had reached equilibrium long before the foundations were dug. Never had any issues with getting insurance either.

Kyrae

Glad to hear the tree is staying! I think too many people seem to panic and cut trees down that really don't need cutting down at all. It's lovely to have a big tree in the garden, our family home where I grew up had a big tree in the garden and it was lovely watching nesting birds in the summer and birds using the feeders hanging from the branches. Current house I live in had no trees so we've had a plant a couple... and trees aren't cheap to buy!! Consider yourself lucky you've got a nice big tree for free and it'll provide lots of enjoyment! Could even hang a swing from a nice strong branch!!