Hi
Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place, but I have a question that I couldn't find the answer to with Google and the people on here clearly know what they're talking about.
Basically, I'm having an extension built on the back of the house. In the middle of the garden is a TPO'd oak tree (thriving and lovely). The RPA is 9.6m. The area in which we are building is well within this 'area' however the base of the tree is 2 metres below where we're building and the site is at the top of a steep bank. In other words, if you imagine a set of steps, the base of the tree is on step one and we're building on step ten.
We've just spent a small fortune on having piling foundations (and various other measures) in accordance with a report we had completed prior to planning. However, the building regs chap came to visit when the ground had been cleared and could see no good reason for the piling as there were clearly no roots in the area and no prospect of interfering with the tree given the height differential.
Do tree roots grow upwards?
Were these measures expensive overkill?
Many thanks for your help
