Hey guys, I am looking for suggestions involving some rooty ficus trees.
Here is the situation: we purchased our house (technically a free-standing condo) about a year ago. We have a good sized ficus tree in our front year, as does our neighbor (and many of the other houses in the complex). We have had concerns about the tree roots damaging the driveway (appears to already have a crack from roots) and possibly water pipes. While planting today we found roots next to our house which appear to come from the neighbors tree.
We will most likely remove our tree and replace with something with less-aggressive roots this year. We spoke to the neighbors about their tree and offered to split the cost of they want to remove it but they declined.
Our tentative plan is to go to the HOA and get some sort of rule against these trees or somehow aid us preserving our property. I am looking for some sort of official or semi-official document which provides guidelines regarding tree type and placement to support this. Does anyone know of where to look? My google searches have not been helpful so far.
Alternative answer: is there some other way of dealing with this? The only other thing I can think of is to dig a trench and bury some type of barrier to keep the roots away from structures. I think this will be difficult because it would need to be deep and will already have roots in place.
Here is the situation: we purchased our house (technically a free-standing condo) about a year ago. We have a good sized ficus tree in our front year, as does our neighbor (and many of the other houses in the complex). We have had concerns about the tree roots damaging the driveway (appears to already have a crack from roots) and possibly water pipes. While planting today we found roots next to our house which appear to come from the neighbors tree.
We will most likely remove our tree and replace with something with less-aggressive roots this year. We spoke to the neighbors about their tree and offered to split the cost of they want to remove it but they declined.
Our tentative plan is to go to the HOA and get some sort of rule against these trees or somehow aid us preserving our property. I am looking for some sort of official or semi-official document which provides guidelines regarding tree type and placement to support this. Does anyone know of where to look? My google searches have not been helpful so far.
Alternative answer: is there some other way of dealing with this? The only other thing I can think of is to dig a trench and bury some type of barrier to keep the roots away from structures. I think this will be difficult because it would need to be deep and will already have roots in place.
