Overheard a guy at the hardware store telling his buddy to just cut the roots hitting his sewer line.

He was buying a saw and said he'd 'just take a foot off the big maple in the backyard' to fix it. I didn't say anything, but that's a surefire way to kill a tree or make it unstable. It's a plumbing problem, not a tree problem. How do you guys handle clients who want to solve everything with a chainsaw?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan10011d ago

My neighbor did that exact thing last fall, cut a bunch of roots from his oak. The tree fell on his shed this spring during a storm. People often go for the quick fix without seeing the whole system, and it usually backfires.

zarat3811d ago

Wait, he cut the roots last fall and it fell this spring? That's so fast! I figured a big tree would take years to show damage, not just one season. Really shows how delicate that balance is.

blairc9011d ago

Yeah, that timeline checks out. Read an article by an arborist who said cutting major roots is like removing load-bearing walls from a house. The tree might look fine until the next big wind or heavy rain, then it just goes. Did the article mention what a safe distance from the trunk is for root work?