builders at it again

stirmantrees

Did a another job for a client the other day. Weve been doing a little bit of talking about construction damage around here and thought of you guys when i pulled up on this one.
5 years ago they built the house and excellent driveway. all 9 trees are either dead, dying, or at the very least have 1-2 good size dead leaders.
its not looking good.
here a couple of pics. pretty sad.

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Garry Brockley

I wonder if the roots were compacted by machinery when the building work was carried out?
what was the base like on them? was it rotten?

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stirmantrees

you know it was.
there was not an exceptional amount of decay at the visible trunk

Gunslinger

Did the driveway really kill this tree? I see tree all over the place as big as that sandwiched between roads, sidewalks and driveways without any visible damage.

stirmantrees

i think it was everything that went into making the driveway and the building. all the trees right next door at the park are still succesful with normal dead.

Eric Frei

My hunch is the ole scrape the root plate then compact a little so the lawn looks nice.

Old trees like that are less tolerant of compaction, fill and grade change. It doesn't take much but it does take time for the tree to decline, up to 10 years.

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stirmantrees

i did not see trees prior to construction but root protection was probably nonexistent. its a big driveway. and a big hous2- maybe 12000 squ. feet

stirmantrees

good place to park excavators is under trees ofcourse