Place Trees Carefully

Trees grow, be careful where you place them.

I am writing this article after doing some work with trees and tree roots. To be honest, Jeff did most of the work.

The project that we are working on has a number of trees on the property. A couple of the trees were place a bit too close to the structures on the property. As discussed in an earlier post, there was a large pine tree (50′) that did some damage at the front of the house. The tree was placed about 15′ from the house, but was only about 8′ from the sidewalk/front steps. The tree was probably placed too close to the home, or was allowed to grow too long. The root structure ran under the front sidewalk and steps and lifted it up about 1 foot. This caused quite a water problem in the basement due to all of the water pitching back toward the structure.

After working for quite some time to pull up the existing concrete and clear the roots underneath, we are ready to reset the front walkway and steps.

Another issue with a tree on the property was in the back yard. There was shed that was placed about 5′ from an existing tree. I am sure that it was fine when placed, however, 5 years later, the shed was raised up about 8″ on 1 side. This was a rather easy fix by elevating the oposite side of the she (it does not sit on a foundation). It would have made more sense to move the shed, but since there is electrical conduit running underground to the shed (which we didn’t want to move at this time), we opted for a fix that should last a couple of years. If we own the property for an extended period of time, we will move the shed away from the tree and run new electrical line.

Just wanted you to consider what that three will do over the next period of years before placing an outbuilding or planting a new tree close to a structure.

Don’t even get me started about the leaves and pine needles.