Weeping willow- too close to house?

[eggsarascal]

Er, that IS what Riggerbear said. If there is a source of moisture and nutrients, like from a crack in the pipes, then the roots will follow it and take advantage of it. They may also use the condensation formed around old metal pipes, but they're not going to do a smash n' grab and break into your sewers.

 

Yes they will, take it from me ive worked on drains and sewers (two different things) for many years. All it takes is a small amount of ground movement to allow roots in to the system so what most people or indeed insurance companies consider to be a broken pipe isnt. A weakened glaze on a clay pipe will weep water, and this attracts and allows the roots in (this doesnt even show on a cctv survey). In my village these kinds of pipe have been in since the sixties. In new houses you will be lucky if the infrastrucutre has even been joined properly, especially with newer plastic piping. Any compromised pipework will cause dampness and roots will prevail where water exists. Upon digging it often appears the roots have "dived" towards the damp soil and the pipework.

 

A camera survey will give you peace of mind...for now. i then refer back to the statement about how young your tree is, cut it down whilst it wont cost you more in sewer work as well as arb work.

[brassmonkey001]

get used to not being able to see out of your windows and permanently clogged gutters.

A very good point. There's a lot of stuff comes off a willow seemingly all year round.

 

If you're going to do the work yourself, have a quick check with your Tree Officer that there aren't any planning contraints, or it could end up a very expensive bit of gardening.

 

Where I work, some years ago there was plans to extend one of the buildings. There was a very large, very old Oak in the way of the proposed extension and it had a preservation order on it. They cut it down anyway and took the hit from the resulting fine, the reasoning being that the tree is now removed and the profit from the new contracts to be gained from the factory expansion would soon pay for the fine.

They never extended the building but the Oak is still gone.

[janey]

Yes they will, take it from me ive worked on drains and sewers (two different things) for many years. All it takes is a small amount of ground movement to allow roots in to the system so what most people or indeed insurance companies consider to be a broken pipe isnt. A weakened glaze on a clay pipe will weep water, and this attracts and allows the roots in (this doesnt even show on a cctv survey). In my village these kinds of pipe have been in since the sixties. In new houses you will be lucky if the infrastrucutre has even been joined properly, especially with newer plastic piping. Any compromised pipework will cause dampness and roots will prevail where water exists. Upon digging it often appears the roots have "dived" towards the damp soil and the pipework.

 

A camera survey will give you peace of mind...for now. i then refer back to the statement about how young your tree is, cut it down whilst it wont cost you more in sewer work as well as arb work.

 

So we're in agreement then - roots will only follow and exploit a source of water and nutrients

[Jamis]

[Amelanchier]

So we're in agreement then - roots will only follow and exploit a source of water and nutrients

 

Unfortunately not according to:-

 

D, Ridgers, K, Rolf and Ö, Stål. (2006) Management and planning solutions to lack of resistance to root penetration by modern PVC and concrete sewer pipes. Arboricultural Journal 2006, Vol. 29, pp. 269–290

 

Essentially Ridgers et al set up a field trial with intact and variously damaged pipes within a realistic usage situation and planted hybrid black pops above them. Six years later, they airspaded them out and looked for root intrusion. Poplar roots had managed to breach the normal spec seals within both new types of drain and even past an additional external tape seal in one instance. Roots were found to breach the drains around its entire circumference not just below the water level. The authors considered likely that the additional condensation around the increased surface area of the joints increase root proliferation which increased penetration.

 

This is one of our industries best kept secrets! I remember discussing this paper with some LA colleagues who were previoulsy unaware of it. Despite its compelling conclusion they were adamant that they would not revise their policy on drain damage...

[gibbon]

Heres a Willow thats too close to a house.

[josharb87]

Its fine If you get pleasure out of it, and you're neighbours are happy with it, keep it, get an professional arborist in to subtly reduce the tree to propper reduction points as and when it gets too big for you, its surroundings, or too close to the house. In a few years time it may need to be reduced frequently, maybe once a year, maybe once every 2 years, as unfortunatly trees do have a habit of growing!

 

If we keep felling everything because theres a drain in the next county, a house within 100M, leaves on the lawn, urban areas are going to look very dull soon.

[janey]

... Poplar roots had managed to breach the normal spec seals within both new types of drain and even past an additional external tape seal in one instance... The authors considered likely that the additional condensation around the increased surface area of the joints increase root proliferation which increased penetration.

 

This is one of our industries best kept secrets!.. QUOTE]

 

That's very interesting and I'll have to dig out that article.

 

I still can't totally accept that a tree will expend the energy producing roots and breaking through drain seals unless they are exploiting a resource that is already present, even if it's in miniscule quantities. Whether that's from a minute amount of seepage or from the condensation.

 

Hmm, I'm off to find someone with a handy pile of Arb Journal back issues

[log dog]

think i would tidy tree up you could get that into a lovely shape ! dont get hung up about issues that may or may not happen

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

just pollard it once a year or bi annualy and keep it mop headed at its current or slightly larger size.