discuss.housetalk.net

[ned]

For you parents out there, do you remember that there was a story that if you lifted your child over your head every day then when the child was grown and weighed 250 pounds you would still be able to lift him over your head. In my case I gave up at 18 pounds. Which leads me to my subject of roots.

I was snooping around the foundations of an old house last week when my eye noticed something that looked like a boa constrictor wrapping itself around the bottom of the house. After my heart rate slowed down I was able to determine that rather than a large snake, this was in fact a root from an old sugar berry tree. It was big and where it slid between the bricks the foundation was split.

What happens with roots are that when the tree is a baby it slides teeny tiny little roots through or under your foundation. As it grows bigger and bigger, two things can happen. The first is that it will conform to the foundation and simply wrap itself around the footing and cause no problems. The problem arises, however when the root decides to swell and make room for itself. A tree root is able to grow thicker and thicker actually lifting the house as it grows. I have seen foundations moved as much as three inches by a tree root.

There is another hidden problem that can arise from roots and that is what can happen when the tree dies. Sometimes the root under the foundation is so large that when it dies and decays the house will actually settle into the void where the root used to be. This is the reason that building code requires that there are no roots or old stumps in the excavation for new footings on new construction.

The long and the short of this is, try not to allow trees to grow close to the foundations of your house. If they are already there then keep an eye on them and cut them down if it appears that trouble is brewing.