Felling two mature oak trees near house

[ashley horner]

Hi everyone,

 

I have two mature oak trees which I am thinking of felling in order to create a driveway for parking a couple of cars.  The photo shows the two tree and their proximity to the house (approx. 7 meters).  The house was built in 1956 and I assume that the trees pre-date the house, neither of the trees have a TPO.

 

I am based in Woking, Surrey and the online Cranfield soil map says that I have "slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils".

 

The trees are on a raised bank with a road on one side and an area of grass on the other (between the trees and the house).

 

Now, I will say that I really don't want to fell these two trees as they are truly magnificent, however we do need to be able to park our cars and the driveway barely fits one car.  I know that the definitive answer is to have someone investigate this on-site but I would also welcome your expertise, experience and any guidance.

 

So, my questions:

 

1. do I need to take out the trees at all?  The driveway will need to be dug down 200mm, the driveway contractors that I have spoken to are more than happy to cut through the roots but they are not experts.  I have dug at approx. that depth running from the tree to the house and can see a few roots, some approx. 1.5 cm in diameter, others much smaller

 

2. if I did fell the trees, what would you think the likelihood of heave is?

 

3. lastly, what type of person is best to advise on this?  I have searched for soil analysis on google but I just come up with companies that undertake large commercial projects

 

Any thoughts/comments would be really appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Ashley

[Gary Prentice]

On 06/11/2019 at 18:33, ashley horner said:

The 2 cars are parked on the grass now which is where the driveway will be created.  The grass is rapidly turning in to a mud pit.

I'm assuming that you're not from a arb background, but if I'm teaching my grandmother.. I'm sorry.

 

Most tree roots will be found in the top 300mm of soil. On some soils a single vehicle pass will damage roots due either to shearing stresses or by soil compaction ( compressing/compacting the soil to an extent that inhibits physical root growth and/or the permeation of moisture and air.) I think that the higher the clay content/smaller the soil particle size is, the greater the risk of damage - so on a sandy soil you might be dodging a bullet a bit as to damaging the roots

 

But avoid digging, you will damage the fine 'feeding roots' that these trees rely on. It would be safer to use Cellweb than grids, I'm pretty sure that councils don't accept grids as a satisfactory means of protecting tree roots from traffic, but I stand to be corrected on this, it's just in my experience.

[openspaceman]

54 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

I'm assuming that you're not from a arb background, but if I'm teaching my grandmother.. I'm sorry.

 

Most tree roots will be found in the top 300mm of soil. On some soils a single vehicle pass will damage roots due either to shearing stresses or by soil compaction ( compressing/compacting the soil to an extent that inhibits physical root growth and/or the permeation of moisture and air.) I think that the higher the clay content/smaller the soil particle size is, the greater the risk of damage - so on a sandy soil you might be dodging a bullet a bit as to damaging the roots

 

But avoid digging, you will damage the fine 'feeding roots' that these trees rely on. It would be safer to use Cellweb than grids, I'm pretty sure that councils don't accept grids as a satisfactory means of protecting tree roots from traffic, but I stand to be corrected on this, it's just in my experience.

I think he will  need to scrape off the mud and get a reasonably level area  and lift the paved path to the front door before deploying the teram and cellweb. At least drainage is not an issue being on a hillside.

 

The soil is sandy and has good bearing capacity, many older houses only have 60cms footings here.

 

The thing I notice is that the front of the bank has been eroded already by lorries mounting the kerb to pass cars on this narrow rat run.

 

At least the oaks are to the north of the property so shading is less of an issue but they will have grown quite a bit in the last 60 years.

 

I wonder if @Deafhead is reading this as he an his father may well have built the original house prior to the extensions.

[ashley horner]

11 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

I'm assuming that you're not from a arb background, but if I'm teaching my grandmother.. I'm sorry.

 

Most tree roots will be found in the top 300mm of soil...

thanks for the detailed info Gary - very useful

[ashley horner]

@openspaceman - looks like you know the road!  Thanks for the further info on soil.

 

Ashley

 

PS: is that your dalmatian in your profile picture?  We have one too, liver spotted.

[openspaceman]

4 minutes ago, ashley horner said:

@openspaceman - looks like you know the road!  Thanks for the further info on soil.

I should do my late sister lived 3 houses up and @Deafhead and I quoted for my first elm felling job on the field at the back , but didn't get it.

4 minutes ago, ashley horner said:

 

Ashley

 

PS: is that your dalmatian in your profile picture?  We have one too, liver spotted.

Yes, my daughter's but he's a mongrel.

[Deafhead]

10 hours ago, openspaceman said:

I think he will  need to scrape off the mud and get a reasonably level area  and lift the paved path to the front door before deploying the teram and cellweb. At least drainage is not an issue being on a hillside.

 

The soil is sandy and has good bearing capacity, many older houses only have 60cms footings here.

 

The thing I notice is that the front of the bank has been eroded already by lorries mounting the kerb to pass cars on this narrow rat run.

 

At least the oaks are to the north of the property so shading is less of an issue but they will have grown quite a bit in the last 60 years.

 

I wonder if @Deafhead is reading this as he an his father may well have built the original house prior to the extensions.

I did wonder if it was in H--- H--- Lane, but no not one of ours.

[Steven P]

I'm no expert but lookig at the photo and coversation, if digging some soil out could be an issue, can you raise it up? If yuo had a nearly level etrance to the house, instead of of a step you have what 75mm? you can raise the soil level up by?

[Rough Hewn]

One way membrane, 150mm celltech stuff,
Fill it with pea shingle.
You can drive 20 ton plant over it.

[emoji106]

[daltontrees]

If the grass area is turning into a mud pit, a lot of damage will already have been done. Don't scrape anything, level it off with clean sharp sand, then apply Terram + Cellweb as per manufacturer's spec. Overfill with chuckies. Cheaper than most other driveway solutions.

[Rough Hewn]

If the grass area is turning into a mud pit, a lot of damage will already have been done. Don't scrape anything, level it off with clean sharp sand, then apply Terram + Cellweb as per manufacturer's spec. Overfill with chuckies. Cheaper than most other driveway solutions.

The job in the photos, we air spaded first due to compaction of clay soils.

[emoji106]