tree growing in gully!!!!

[oldgirl]

Hello everyone. I have a rather strange problem. Hope one of you can direct me in the right direction. Also apology in advance if my terminology is incorrect. Eg is it a gully or gutter.it's the bit on the ground where the water goes in from a downpipe from the roof gutter.
I have a young tree growing from a very clogged up gully.it is about 2" or 3" in diameter. There appears to be 3 thick roots going well into the gully. I cut the tree as much as I could. But I simply cannot dislodge the roots.
I'm thinking of having a go with a chisel and hammer. I've no idea how deep these roots are. I have not succeeded as yet in clearing this gully of the muck. It's a slow job as roots don't allow me to use anything bigger than a spoon.
I do have one of those drain insurance with British Gas. But I don't know whether this would b covered by them.
Any suggestions?

 

[Burnerman]

Welcome back!
That's a gully, and below the surface the drain goes around a curve and back up again, so forming a water trap.
The tree must have been there a while!
The gully will likely be made from salt glazed pottery and is therefore pretty fragile, so a hammer isn't recommended.
Best dig out all of the soil that you can, and work the stump until it frees up a bit, I think, and chop the obstruction into pieces if you can.
John

 

[oldgirl]

Hello Burnerman. Thank you. Gully it is. I'm afraid I have no idea how long it's bn there but as you say probably a long time. I must say that since I'm now left to look after the house, I'm trying to do regular inspection of the house. Initially I was very scared. But since joining this forum, I don't panic anymore bcause I know that I'll get good advice here to solve problems. Sorry I digress.
The problem in cutting it is the lack of space.i have cut with a small saw as much as I can.
If were to put a thin chisel in the centre of the root to split it and making sure I don't go deep, do you think I will damage the drain? Sort of doing a little bit at a time.what do you think? Or is it time to call the professionals? If yes, then who? tree surgeons?
The roots seem to be glued to the sides of the gully. I actually stood on the bent protruding trunk and this had no effect at all.
Also i haven't found any grating as yet!

 

[oldgirl]

Hi Burnerman. Meant to add that I'll do some more cleaning around the roots and sees if my saw can cut them up any more. Will b back 2moro eve to report progress and may b able to post pics of the gully/roots.

 

[mattylad]

Perhaps using some stump killing fluid might also help to kill the roots.

 

[jj4091]

You say you have insurance for blocked drains with Brit. Gas. Certainly sounds like a blocked drain to me, call them out.

 

[Burnerman]

For sure, I think this wee tree has been there for some time!
It's very easy for tree roots to pass through the joints of salt glaze pipe so you can expect them to be quite well established underground.
Really the only thing you can do is to split the trunk bit by bit and extract the chips of wood.....not the easiest task by any means so maybe you have a handyman you can call, who may even be able to speed things up a little with a drill?
Heavy handed work will definitely knock the bottom off the salt glazed gully so care is needed.
Do show us a picture if you can!
Regards
John

 

[Nigel_Cro]

Somebody who knows more then me will probably say I am talking rubbish...

But - if the tree is still alive/growing you could try drilling a hole down the centre of the stump and filling the hole with some really strong weedkiller. This will kill the tree over time and should at least stop things getting worse. Once the tree is dead it should be easier to remove.

I know this is a long way from being an immediate solution, but it may prevent damage.

One other thing I was thinking... Could you use some type of acid to eat away the roots?

 

[oldgirl]

Thank you Burnerman, mattylad, jj4091and Nigel_cro for your posts. I have pics. Not easy to see I'm afraid as muck is black and so is the tree trunk. Ì have researched and found out that Roundup Tree stump killer may work. But II'mgoing to try and eek out as much as I can. Yes I've got my neighbour to give me helping hand with drill. His son is going to chisel out as much as possible. But 2moro morning I'll give British Gas a ring and ask them if this is covered.
Otherwise II'mquite happy to get rid of it slowly but surely. The stump is live bcause the only reason I discovered this was when I saw tree growing next to wall. I cut it down and saw the extent of growth. This gully serves both the semi (our house is semi) but for some reason the down pipe and gully is on our side. (This is also the case for roof water gully at the back of the house. But the house next door is converted in to flats and they never do anything. Their roof gutters are in terrible state and the water is coming on our side as the gutter joints are broken/open.i wonder whether it's all just our responsibility).
Sorry to post this late but it took me ages to upload pics.i keep forgetting how to do it! !!

 

[oldgirl]

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• 28 Aug 2014
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• 28 Aug 2014
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[Burnerman]

Good grief that's like something from a horror movie
The tree has obviously been there so long that I would think it has grown through a break in the gully......I can't see how it's grown so big otherwise!
I think some excavation is in order here.....does the gully actually drain at all?
John

 

[EightyTwo]

When you say "chisel", I assume thet you mean a wood chisel and not a cold chisel! The wood chisel would shift wood but don't hit the clay gully. A big wood drill bit in an electric drill would be safer. A "3D" or a "Titanium MAD" bit will allow you drill curved holes down the stump and along the roots and you can pull them sideways to chew out more wood.

I don't think that you can rot out wood with any acid that you can easily buy (concentrated sulphuric might do it and conc. nitric definitely will but you end up with cellulose nitrate that will probably blow your house up!!) but a strong alkali like caustic soda will soften it up and start to break it down. It's nasty stuff, though, and you don't really want to put it down a surface water drain, gloves and eye protection are a must (and don't wear polyester!).

Golly! I just saw the pictures!! It might be worth getting the jet washer out to clear the muck. It'll be fast but messy Then you'd get a better view of the problem. I'm with Burnerman, you might need to dig the whole gully out and replace it...

 

[Bosswhite]

Cant see the Insurance covering that, the tree looks like its been there a few years.

I would say that is a replacement Gulley job.

 

[oldgirl]

John( Burnerman)and eighty two. Thank you for making me laugh! ! I mean that in a good way. So you are horrified. So am I. But I'm keeping cool. Now that you know the extent Pl tell me what I should do? call British Gas? or a proper professional handyman who can do the digging? one thing for sure if you don't know what course of action to take then I'm doomed.
Ok. Who is the right person for this job? to make matters worse, that part has bn concreted but I'll have to look at it again during day light to see how far the concrete is from the gully. I've had bad experience with builders recently who have taken advantage of my ignorance and it's obvious when they come here to the house that there are no male family members around. . Eg.i paid for re plastering damaged walls. To save money I decided to paint these walls. And guess what? All they did was rub down the wall and put plaster soooo. .. thin that when I came to paint , it all peeled off on the painting roller .!!!They were suppose to remove old plaster. Then I was done by the builder who did block paving. They all came from "check a trade" After that I joined this forum to get advice which I certainly get.
So Pl do tell me what I should do next. As b4 you saw pics, my plan of action was to chisel (wood) out as much as possible and then put stump killer. Obviously thinking it will kill root and all but you now don't seem to think that. Obviously I need someone who knows what they are doing.
Thank you.

 

[oldgirl]

The gully appears to work ok as I have not seen any sign of dampness on the inside wall. But today I think I managed to get quite a lot of muck out and can now see the grating! !!!!