Subsidence and tree roots

[jjll]

I was asked a question by a client today who has a 3m high leylandii hedge near a neighbours house/garage which is potentially causing minor subsidence on one corner.

The soil is on shrinkable clay, so there could be a case.

The hedge has been well kept and the client was keen to keep the hedge but mitigate the issue.

While talking over a few options, the question asked was if they could water the ground regularly over the dryer seasons to reduce the effects of subsidence.

 

I’m sure in order to do this, you would need a monitored and sophisticated system to ensure the soil moisture content was brought back to field capacity and maintained there, which I would image is near enough impossible. But if it could be done, would it actually work?