We're in a detached 1870 Victorian house. Investigating some damp on an exterior wall we discovered that under the carpet (it's a concrete floor) are some very fine tendrils extending a fe inches from under the skirting board.
I at first thought it was dry rot but the strands have a bit of strength akin to worn out cotton and we're fairly sure they are roots.
Now the wall itself has no visible issues (other than low-level rising damp) and a builder we had on site (fitting a stove) didn't express concern, only curiosity, but I'd obviously want to get to the bottom of it.
To give a bit more detail, this room has a concrete floor (possibly laid later, we're not sure if it was cavity to being with) which is actually slightly below the outside ground level... there is rising damp the whole length of the house exacerbated by the fact this is the north side of the house. Directly outside the wall is a concrete slab car port perhaps 4m wide. Then our driveway. So there is nothing growing within 20-25 feet of the house and hasn't been for decades, but the roots are clearly newer than that.
We do have a row of mature sycamore trees about 20-25 feet away the other side of the drive and car-port which are probably of order 60 foot tall. I don't know anything about the root systems of sycamores particularly but the general guideline that root systems extend at least as far as the canopy would out the edge of the house in the firing line.
I can get photos if people are interested but I wonder what your thoughts are? We will check the rest of the wall internally but so far it seems only a small stretch of wall is affected so if roots are breaching, they are only tiny ones worming through not big ones pushing the bricks apart (yet?). What might we want to do to the wall to check and repair damage, and how might we prevent it happening again... obviously removing the trees is an option but I also wondered about some sort of barrier.
Lastly - how worrying IS this? Is it the sort of thing that sometimes just happens with old underground mortar, or does it imply certain collapse, or something in between
Update with photos:
'Roots' inside:
Outside. There is a drain between the house and the concrete slab. Floor level is actually the bottom of the drain so the slab is higher but not touching.
The external wall, car port, drive and the row of trees (just visible among the leylandii hedge)
Ivy on the car port, actually rooted in the ground. Pretty big.
And a plan of the car-port... trees are actually trunks 12-18 inches, ~23 feet away.
I at first thought it was dry rot but the strands have a bit of strength akin to worn out cotton and we're fairly sure they are roots.
Now the wall itself has no visible issues (other than low-level rising damp) and a builder we had on site (fitting a stove) didn't express concern, only curiosity, but I'd obviously want to get to the bottom of it.
To give a bit more detail, this room has a concrete floor (possibly laid later, we're not sure if it was cavity to being with) which is actually slightly below the outside ground level... there is rising damp the whole length of the house exacerbated by the fact this is the north side of the house. Directly outside the wall is a concrete slab car port perhaps 4m wide. Then our driveway. So there is nothing growing within 20-25 feet of the house and hasn't been for decades, but the roots are clearly newer than that.
We do have a row of mature sycamore trees about 20-25 feet away the other side of the drive and car-port which are probably of order 60 foot tall. I don't know anything about the root systems of sycamores particularly but the general guideline that root systems extend at least as far as the canopy would out the edge of the house in the firing line.
I can get photos if people are interested but I wonder what your thoughts are? We will check the rest of the wall internally but so far it seems only a small stretch of wall is affected so if roots are breaching, they are only tiny ones worming through not big ones pushing the bricks apart (yet?). What might we want to do to the wall to check and repair damage, and how might we prevent it happening again... obviously removing the trees is an option but I also wondered about some sort of barrier.
Lastly - how worrying IS this? Is it the sort of thing that sometimes just happens with old underground mortar, or does it imply certain collapse, or something in between
Update with photos:
'Roots' inside:
Outside. There is a drain between the house and the concrete slab. Floor level is actually the bottom of the drain so the slab is higher but not touching.
The external wall, car port, drive and the row of trees (just visible among the leylandii hedge)
Ivy on the car port, actually rooted in the ground. Pretty big.
And a plan of the car-port... trees are actually trunks 12-18 inches, ~23 feet away.
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