Urgent Leylandii advice please

Davesnave

bouicca21 wrote: »

Being an academic I have but a faint grasp of practicalities, but I believe that 1930s type buildings had 3 foot foundations and by the time solid floors came to be standard (early 1960s??) they were much deeper. I have a vague memory of my dad saying in amazement that the extension he built had to have 15 foot foundations.

Someone more knowledgeable will now come along and contradict this ...

My 1930s house had foundations slightly under 1 foot deep. That wasn't ideal, but it was still standing the last time I looked.

A metre is a good average nowadays, but it depends on ground conditions. When my brother in law hit solid rock at around 0.5m, the building inspector said that would have to do.

A 15' foundation would be very special, implying problems with the site or a very large basement. I built an extension in 1989 which had a stepped foundation down to 2.3metres in order to deal appropriately with a sewer. I though that was deep!

Money's take on of building techniques is a little unorthodox. Goodness knows what she would make of some houses near me, with their walls composed mainly of mud! They have, however, been there a good few hundred years and look set to do a few hundred more.

Davesnave

Leylandii are much maligned. They are quite wussy as trees go, and like pheasants, seem to have much less 'meat' on them than first appearances suggest. Trying to turn them into firewood is a very disappointing experience.

Their roots are shallow and not very aggressive or wide spreading, compared with poplar or willow. A poplar within 20m of your house or drains is bad news.

bouicca21

There are two possible reasons for the 15 foot foundations (no basement!).

Either
1. My memory is totally wrong. (This may well be the most likely explanation).
or
2. It was about the soil. The house was built on horrible sticky yellow clay and there had been a lot of subsidence in the area.