Engineering solution for wall, being pushed over by tree.

[AHPP]

Fell it. Some engineer driving to his office, then to the site, then back to his office, making and transporting the extra wall materials, builders driving back and forth rebuilding it however many times; all unnecessary financial and environmental cost.

[Chippy]

could the wall be built around the tree, like this

[Ratman]

Ones gota give?! Either Wall goes but you say thats not an option. Or tree has consent to be dropped even with a TPO?!.....
cos of wall and a mega engineering plan with a big cost, i’d say it out weighs a fell and removal i rekon.

[scbk]

Cheat, remove a couple metres of wall, and put something like this up instead

 

https://www.rubberduckbathrooms.co.uk/vox-motivo-mattone-rosso-brick-wall-effect-upvc-panels-250-x-2650mm-4-pack?source=googlebase&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqrz5tMue4gIV65ztCh27owWbEAQYASABEgI10vD_BwE

 

 

No one will ever know

[Guest Gimlet]

I'm a bricklayer by trade and I had a similar job to this about ten years ago on a Victorian brick and flint garden wall. Except my trees were ash. 

 

As others have said you have to span the main roots but in my case I did it with an arch because it was appropriate to the period of the wall. Three arches in fact, one of them curving laterally in an S shape. The highest point of the arches were only about 10" above the ground when it was finished. Building those was straightforward (though constructing the turning piece for the curved one was a headache). The slog was digging out. First you need to expose the roots so you can see what exactly it is you've got to span and then the foundations have to be much deeper than the roots so there's no danger of them getting underneath and causing heave again. Mine went down about five feet. Into flint... It cost a fortune but fortunately the client was well off and liked trees and old Victorian walls.

A couple of roots I cut and sealed with stockholm tar. It was a bit of a stab in the dark (and the only non-toxic sealant I could think of that I had to hand) but it seemed to work. Ten years later there has been no further movement. That's not to say there won't be in the future. With big trees you're buying time rather than making permanent fixes and there are no guarantees. 

 

I think I was also lucky to be building on a chalk and flint substrate because that type of ground structure is very resistant to drought shrinkage which is greatly exacerbated by nearby trees. Trees get you both ways, heave and subsidence. 

If you're on a clay, gravel or sand substrate you'll be lucky to stop future movement unless you can dig through it and find some bedrock to build off.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Gimlet

[openspaceman]

7 hours ago, Chippy said:

could the wall be built around the tree, like this

I'd have thought that was a good demonstration of a lot of money spent to no avail.

[difflock]

8 hours ago, Chippy said:

could the wall be built around the tree, like this

That will be a Council job, the planning and execution of the wall building took so long, that the tree had already died and been removed by the time the wall finally got built, but the drawings had to be obeyed!

[aspenarb]

You could always trim the wall back two feet both sides of the tree and get some railings made to bridge the gap. If the railings transoms were incorporated into the brickwork it would add some rigidity , if they were brought to the face side of the wall that would give the tree another 9" of movement. Tree looks like it could do with losing a bit of weight roadside though.

 

Bob

[Gary Prentice]

11 hours ago, AHPP said:

Fell it. Some engineer driving to his office, then to the site, then back to his office, making and transporting the extra wall materials, builders driving back and forth rebuilding it however many times; all unnecessary financial and environmental cost.

If you're throwing environmental costs into the equation, then to get a true cost/benefit analysis you need to include all the social/economic/enviromental benefits that a mature tree in an urban setting provides. 

[Mark Bolam]

10 hours ago, Chippy said:

could the wall be built around the tree, like this

Aye, that went well, didn't it?