Sycamore trees near an old house.

[Suvie]

Hello

 

I bought a house about year and a half ago - a run down detached house (used to be end of terrace, rest of the terrace was demolished in the 60s or 70s) in Lambeth.  We started  big refurbishment works couple of months ago and as we are getting ready to erect scaffolding for roof works, we were going around the neighbour's gardens that back onto our north wall, I found a Sycamore sapling (don't know if it can be called a sapling anymore, it is approximately 4-5m tall already) and rooted not more than 0.5m  from our house.

The neighbour whose garden it is in thought it is in her next door neighbour's garden, but it is not, so by the sounds of it, it is definitely not planted by either of them, but self seeded from the giant Sycamore that is at the end of our garden (not in our garden, but another garden backing onto ours). 
I am I correct to assume that the young tree is way too close to the house, especially considering that we are on clay soil, the foundations are about 3 bricks deep (so essentially non existent) and there is also a vertical crack running up all the way to the roof not far from the young sycamore.

 

Should I also speak to the neighbour who lives in the flat with the big sycamore in the garden to get it cut down a bit?

 

Attaching some photos for reference. 

 

Any advice would be really helpful, and if any consultants near SE5 London would be up for coming to have a look, please get in touch, happy to pay for professional advice. 

 

Edited July 30 by Suvie
spelling mistake

[peds]

The bricks and mortar side of things I can't offer any advice, but personally I'd be taking that little sycamore out yesterday. Definitely in the wrong place.

[Steven P]

Yup, ask the neighbour to remove the tree as soon as they can or ask if you can do so. Might need digging out or checking every so often that it hasn't started growing back again.

 

Not sure if the little tree would have caused that crack, might be another cause to investigate.

[openspaceman]

7 hours ago, Suvie said:

Hello

 

I bought a house about year and a half ago - a run down detached house (used to be end of terrace, rest of the terrace was demolished in the 60s or 70s) in Lambeth.  We started  big refurbishment works couple of months ago and as we are getting ready to erect scaffolding for roof works, we were going around the neighbour's gardens that back onto our north wall, I found a Sycamore sapling (don't know if it can be called a sapling anymore, it is approximately 4-5m tall already) and rooted not more than 0.5m  from our house.

The neighbour whose garden it is in thought it is in her next door neighbour's garden, but it is not, so by the sounds of it, it is definitely not planted by either of them, but self seeded from the giant Sycamore that is at the end of our garden (not in our garden, but another garden backing onto ours). 
I am I correct to assume that the young tree is way too close to the house, especially considering that we are on clay soil, the foundations are about 3 bricks deep (so essentially non existent) and there is also a vertical crack running up all the way to the roof not far from the young sycamore.

 

Should I also speak to the neighbour who lives in the flat with the big sycamore in the garden to get it cut down a bit?

 

Attaching some photos for reference. 

 

Any advice would be really helpful, and if any consultants near SE5 London would be up for coming to have a look, please get in touch, happy to pay for professional advice. 

 

 

 

 

No point leaving the sycamore there, could become a bigger problem.

 

Interesting photo showing that settlement crack. How old is the wall? It looks like it was built in two phases.

 

Those yellow stocks are soft and they are variable because the amount of cooking they undergo depends in their position in the firing clamp, the good bricks for exterior work were the ones in the middles and the less fired ones on the outside got used internally.

 

Was this an original internal wall? I'm thinking it would have been built with lime mortar which would have accommodate the movement and then set itself again without affecting the stocks, it looks like it has been repointed with strong portland cement, this being stronger than the bricks has caused them to crack through the bricks.

[peds]

I'm just in awe at the knowledge on display on this forum sometimes. 

 

Like, have a picture of some bricks... 

 

"Yeah, here's a Googlemaps pin for the brickworks they came from, I can narrow it down to a period of about 3 years when this batch was made, and it looks like they were an AM bake not a PM because of some of the lines, which means they were definitely fired by this one specific guy. Here's a list of his favourite foods, and he had a phobia of ants. Sorry I can't be more helpful than that, have you got another photo from a slightly different angle?"

[Dan Maynard]

Sycamores are the tree that keeps on giving, when you have a decent one like that nearby you are forever blessed with an endless supply of seedlings in every corner of the property. Paths, drains, gutters, plant pots, anywhere.

[Suvie]

15 hours ago, openspaceman said:

No point leaving the sycamore there, could become a bigger problem.

 

Interesting photo showing that settlement crack. How old is the wall? It looks like it was built in two phases.

 

Those yellow stocks are soft and they are variable because the amount of cooking they undergo depends in their position in the firing clamp, the good bricks for exterior work were the ones in the middles and the less fired ones on the outside got used internally.

 

Was this an original internal wall? I'm thinking it would have been built with lime mortar which would have accommodate the movement and then set itself again without affecting the stocks, it looks like it has been repointed with strong portland cement, this being stronger than the bricks has caused them to crack through the bricks.

 

Yeah that cement pointing has caused some issues around the whole building. This used to be the end of terrace, so not internal wall, but the whole house is a bit shoddily built so no surprise if they used the less fired ones on the exterior of the building. 

[Suvie]

2 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

Sycamores are the tree that keeps on giving, when you have a decent one like that nearby you are forever blessed with an endless supply of seedlings in every corner of the property. Paths, drains, gutters, plant pots, anywhere.

Yes it is insane how prolific they are here, I keep seeing them everywhere now

[Suvie]

If I need help with removing the above tree, are any of you based in London or near by? 
I think I need to hire an expert to remove it in the next couple of months.

 

(The small one next to the house, not the giant one end of the garden) 

 

Edited September 16 by Suvie

[Stere]

Such a small tree just  could be done in 10mins with  £10 bowsaw......&  some loppers

 

No expert is needed anyway....

 

 

[sime42]

25 minutes ago, Stere said:

Such a small tree just  could be done in 10mins with  £10 bowsaw......&  some loppers

 

No expert is needed anyway....

 

 

 

Exactly. Plus a bit of glyphosate, or similar, to stop it coming back, which it will inevitably if left to its own devices after being cut down.