removing tree, chance of subsidence?

[fuzzyone]

Hi guys,

A friend told me to check with the pros but its sort of too late but thought I'd still check.

The house i bought has this tree in the garden, the tip is as high as the upstairs windows, we've cut this down as we are going to lay patio across the the garden. only the stump is left which I was going to remove on the weekend but I'm thinking how deep are the roots?

Is there a chance for it to cause subsidence if i removed the roots? The pic below shows the tree when we first moved in, few months later we cut it down which was a month ago.

The distance is approx 2m+ from the stump to the house, are we doing more bad than good?

If we get rid of most of the stump and say we just leave the smaller roots, it cant magically grow another stump can it?

thanks for looking!

 

[HERTS P&D]

See below:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roundup-Kil...Q286/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1343853910&sr=8-5

It works very well.

Andy

 

[r896neo]

don;t worry the roots of conifers are less troublesome.

No need to treat the stump with weedkiller either. A conifer like that will not re-grow at all from a stump.

You can either dig it out or grind it down to an acceptable level with a stump grinder.

 

[fuzzyone]

i'm more worried about the roots, we're going to dig it up as we dont have a stump grinder, theres 3-4 of us so shouldnt be too hard.

so after i take out most of the stump, would the roots not grow back? if not, when the roots die, do you think they are thick enough to cause any damage to the ground if its shrinks?

i suppose once i dig it up I can then see where the roots are and how thick they are.

 

[jdpjamesp]

we're going to dig it up as we dont have a stump grinder, theres 3-4 of us so shouldnt be too hard.

Famous last words!! Reckon it'll be a hefty job, but well worth it. I personally wouldn't worry in the slightest about the subsidence issue, and there's no way any remaining roots will regrow at a later stage. Get rid of the stump and the roots around the immediate area of the stump, fill in the hole and move on.

 

[fuzzyone]

haha, yes indeed!

well, its going to be proper old school cow boy way, a few shovels, saw etc, tea and biscuits at the ready with some f and blinding sessions lol

thanks for help all! will post pics up when its done after the weekend.

 

[jdpjamesp]

Get your hands on a mattock if you can, and if that's not possible a small hand axe will be very useful for cutting through roots below the ground.

 

[wrathkeg]

I second the recommendation of the mattock. I have one (the Roughneck fibreglass one, from screwfix) and it is great. One side for 'digging' and the other for chopping through roots, with the weight of the mattock itself doing a lot of the work for you on the downswing. Dunno why they aren't more widely recommended really.

One other tip: don't start to dig right by the stump but dig well away from it where the roots will be much thinner and easier to chop through. The temptation (for me anyway) is always to dig right by the stump, but that never really works.

 

[fuzzyone]

yes, i did the exact same for a rose tree which was much smaller, had to start digging outwards so I could get the damn thing out! just left the small roots in as it goes under the old patio. Will prob come out once i start lifting those

 

[r896neo]

Rotting roots will not matter unless you intend to pave the area.

If i have have a tree stump in an area that is getting paved i dig it out and then put 4 inches of concrete with steel mesh in it over the area where it was

 

[fuzzyone]

We've dug the stump out finally, took a few hours but it's out. Most of the roots went side ways rather then going down into the ground. One part of the thick root went into the neighbours side so we just cut it to the fence.

Now it's time to level the floor and think what I need to compact the ground