Leaning pines over garage

[Jack Taylor]

Hello,

 

I’m looking at these pines leaning over a garage and could do with some thoughts and sounding board for what I will recommend.

 

There are 7 pines in a row behind this garage providing a visual screen to the properties behind. Three of these pines (on the left as you’re looking at the garage) appear to have fairly significant leans towards the property and over the garage. It looks like more than 3 but some of them are multi stemmed. The owner naturally has some slight concerns but would rather they are retained.

 

What I’m unsure about is whether the lean is significant enough that these trees are in danger of falling under extreme weather. My head is telling me that the best option is to recommend removal, but I’m wondering if there are any other options for them, i.e. removing some of the lower branches that hang over the garage and crown thinning to balance the weight of the trees.

 

My only concern with removal is the exposure of the other trees in the group to weather conditions. Would this be a concern to anyone else?

 

Thanks for any thoughts or help I can get!

 

 

 

[AHPP]

I was going to write, "If in doubt, do nowt." Then I got to the second and third pictures. Bloody hell. They do look threatening. Has anything happened to the ground on the lifting side of the root plates?

[Jack Taylor]

Ha, that’s what I thought too when I moved round to view from that direction. These are fairly large trees with no other obvious defects and no lifting of the root plates or exposed roots. The lifting side actually slopes down away from the garage and no roots exposed there. Not sure if that sloping is historic or always been like that…
 

I’m wondering whether the building of the garage a couple of decades ago affected the roots on that side to cause the lean initially but yeah no signs of lifting. I’ve asked the homeowner about when they noticed the lean, like has it been gradual or come on more recently.

[Steve Bullman]

i'd be cautious about removing any of them and leaving others standing...also not sure crown lifting is the best idea, just going to make them a bit more leggy.

The one near the garage, might be worth taking a measurement from the apex of the roof to the trunk so you can monitor if the lean increases over the next few months. If it does you probably have your answer.

[AHPP]

What Steve said. All or nothing. Raising, thinning or isolating is just going to potentially yield a raised, thinned or isolated tree sat on the garage, plus you've messed with nature in the intervening period and let wind through, doing no doubt complex things. Not worth the headache. Man plans, god laughs.

And what Steve said about the measuring. My first thought was a screw, a plumb bob and a mark on the floor but whatever. And yes, checking after weeks/months, not years. Better yet, plumb bob, mark on the floor and have the customer check daily.

 

I bet the slope in the neighbours' is recent and something to do with this.

 

What sort of area is this? If you climbed one of the trees and looked left, would you see miles and miles of wind fetch coming off the sea or something?

Edited 7 hours ago by AHPP

[Steven P]

would something like google or bing maps give enough resolution to work out if they are leaning more - I think with google there is a way to go back in time with the images - might have to look at the street view images to get the best pictures

[AHPP]

Bit rough. You'd want to line some things up like a rifle rear and fore sight. Streetview photos are never going to be taken from the same place.

[Mark Bolam]

They look fine to me.

 

 

[Stubby]

40 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

They look fine to me.

 

 

The garage wont last long I recon Mark .

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, AHPP said:

I was going to write, "If in doubt, do nowt." Then I got to the second and third pictures. Bloody hell. They do look threatening. Has anything happened to the ground on the lifting side of the root plates?

Isn't the apparent lean an ephemera of a relatively wide angle lens?

 

Look at the way the RHS building seems to lean the other way.