The Willow is going

[Workingman]

It sits between my place and the block next door. The tree surgeons have been round and lopped all the new growth and branches in preparation for bringing the damned thing down.

In some ways it is a shame as it is a mature tree, but its root system is causing structural damage to the paths and drains. The large Oak in the green is also going for the same reason.

Over the years we have lost Elm and Ash due to disease, but they have been replaced with new growth and given time they will mature into fine trees.

It's the cycle of life, I guess.

[Kaz]

It is, and the structural damage would have been a worry.

[Workingman]

Kaz, the two flats next door are already affected.

The upper one was sold and refurbished and a lot of the walls were replaced with studded frame types because they were so bad. Downstairs then started to redecorate and found cracks under the old wallpaper. They thought that they were due to work done upstairs so called in the insurance. The surveyor found that the cause was the tree roots so that is one reason why they are being removed.

It looks as though once the trees are down the foundations will need underpinning.

[JoM]

That daft sod next door to us has planted a willow in his back garden right next to the fence between them and the house on the other side, about 15ft from the back of the houses

Right against our fence, which is just five and a bit panels in length as we only have a small garden, he's planted a flowering cherry and a maple and right next to their house is an evergreen which is covering the vent from their boiler (probably should mention he's a senior fireman so should be a bit more aware of safety issues?). We're replacing the fence later this month, the flowering cherry has already damaged a post because it's growing against it and blowing against it when its windy, so there's bound to be some root damage occurring when we dig down to cement in the new concrete posts.

[Workingman]

Jo, he's an idiot.

Willows love wet ground, that's why most are on river banks, and the roots will spread outwards just below the surface to find water. They can apparently spread to three times the height of the tree.

The tree surgeon described ours as one of the world's biggest weeds.

I think the same is true of Sycamore / Maple ... and they can grow into big beasts in no time.

[meriad]

Right against our fence, which is just five and a bit panels in length as we only have a small garden, he's planted a flowering cherry and a maple and right next to their house is an evergreen which is covering the vent from their boiler (probably should mention he's a senior fireman so should be a bit more aware of safety issues?). We're replacing the fence later this month, the flowering cherry has already damaged a post because it's growing against it and blowing against it when its windy, so there's bound to be some root damage occurring when we dig down to cement in the new concrete posts.

Crikey Jo; what was he thinking???? And in all honesty, I'd ask him to cough up for some if not all of the cost to replace your fence esp if his tree is causing damage. Or you could accidentally somehow damage the tree whilst digging