Overgrown conifer starting to knock wall over

matthirst

The picture below explains the story really, the conifer outside my house has overgrown to the point of breaking the supporting wall.

What options do I have here? If I trim it down, will the root still continue to grow? It'd be a shame to get rid of it, but if it will only get worse, it'll have to go!

-taff

It will only get worse. And your wall is already broken, so now it's just a case of waiting for it to fall completely.

Apodemus

-taff said:

It will only get worse. And your wall is already broken, so now it's just a case of waiting for it to fall completely.

Yep!  I’d move the car!

TUVOK

Time for chainsaw action!

kazwookie

Move the car, the wall will fall over it is just a case of when.

Get the tree cut right down, and the wall rebuilt

Davesnave

Dispense with the wall and save the tree! Alternatively, dispense with the house.

When we rented a house on a slope like that in 2009, it was gradually sliding down the hill, or at least the front was. Check it's the tree that's to blame, though in fairness, there's nothing to indicate the house is shifting.

[Deleted User]

It's sad to see plants that have been sited wrongly that then have to be destroyed   
So many times trees, especially the coniferous ones, get sited completely inappropriately  and then get hiked out; in this situation though i can see that it probably has to go though, shame it couldn't be extricated intact and replanted though   

Farway

Catsacor said:

It's sad to see plants that have been sited wrongly that then have to be destroyed   
So many times trees, especially the coniferous ones, get sited completely inappropriately  and then get hiked out; in this situation though i can see that it probably has to go though, shame it couldn't be extricated intact and replanted though   

I suspect they start life in some ones imagination as nice small evergreen shrub

Those old enough will remember all the rockeries of the 60s / 70s with little conifers planted, like a miniature alpine scene?

-taff

I've got a nine trunked fir monstrosity i the neighbours garden right on the boundary which is slowly destroying my concrete fence posts thanks to someone not thinking ahead....It's got six less branches now and we have wood that's seasoning....

MovingForwards

I had two monster ones taken down, 3 weeks after moving in. Having the stumps removed would have cost a lot more than the felling.

One has altered a free standing dry stone wall, the other was taller than the building, with a root system to show how well established it was, this one is being slowly worked on to get rid of as much as possible.

As said above, when planted someone would have been carefully tending to it, then a new owner just left it to its own devices.

Yours is small enough to take down yourself, but you will need your wall fixing / redone. Do move your car as your insurance won't cover any damage to it.

Davesnave

-taff said:

I've got a nine trunked fir monstrosity i the neighbours garden right on the boundary which is slowly destroying my concrete fence posts

I can't do 9 trunks, but we have this one across the valley...