root inspections

[Ian Flatters]

Ok

 

I've been asked by the LA to give a root inspection of a site i surveyed a few months back. The building that is proposed to be built is about 2m outside the Rpa of a ash tree and there is a driveway (mud and stone drive) between the house and tree. Im not expecting to find any large roots but i've been asked to do it. So im going to hand dig the trench 1m away from the proposed footings to see what i find. So what im asking is well as this is my first root inspecton what should i write about? I will be adding loads of photos and the trench depth will be about 1-1.5m deep as this should find any small roots that are about.

 

Help and a little guidence from those who have done these would be gratefully appreciated.

[Amelanchier]

If you're digging through compacted stuff like an old driveway just be careful you don't accidentally shove the spade / breaker bar through the roots! Easily done when you're trying to get past the top layers. You probably won't find anything but Fraxinus are known for their shallow pioneer rooting habit so depending on the rest of the site you might find one or two larger bits.

 

Just photos as you go, gently bently like, take a can of paint to circle roots for the pics (they tend not to show up so easily with poor light), and a ranging pole/metre stick to show depth. Mark the presence of significant >20/25mm roots on a sketch plan. Its up to you really - you might want to to a photo set at each 50cm depth or use a tape along the top edge to show distance from a set point.

 

Depending on your instruction/brief you'll just be recording the presence or absence of roots. If you haven't been paid to provide an opinion on them - don't!

[Ian Flatters]

Cheers Tony. Good note on the ranging pole and paint. Stevens requested it so hope he won't pick it apart too much.

[Amelanchier]

Cheers Tony. Good note on the ranging pole and paint. Stevens requested it so hope he won't pick it apart too much.

 

Ha, no comment!

[David Humphries]

If you can budget it in, I'd advise going down the Airspade route.

Can be hired along with an air compressor.

Much more root freindly.

 

Not sure you should need to be searching anywhere near 150 cm for roots that far out.

 

As Tony suggests, marking is good, plus also scale.

 

 

 

.

[Amelanchier]

That was a lucky find Dave!

[David Humphries]

There was an absolute hoard Tony, guess I should declare as Treasure Trove.

 

 

Or perhaps there was just a great big hole in me stride pockets

 

 

 

 

 

.

[Ian Flatters]

Yeah the client specified the depth with the tree officer as they are the proposed footing depth. Heck i can't complain im getting paid to dig that deep by the hour. Hope to find gold just like you:biggerGrin:

Edited March 15, 2010 by Ian Flatters
ramble