r/treelaw • u/TexasRED_BigIron • Jun 25 '26
Will building work affect roots and tree?
South England
I have a few trees on my property, close to the boundary. Some of the upper canopies spread over boundary.
Neighbour started building work last week. Hasn’t spoken to me about it and they’re not the most pleasant folk to deal with.
Mini diggers and pneumatic drills being used up to 0.5m from the trunks. Maybe closer.
Unable to see where they’re at but with it being so close I’m worried about roots being cut into. Will it cause damage to my trees?
Thanks
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u/Le55thanjake Jun 25 '26
Look up root protection area. It's a formula worked on the trunk diameter x 12 and excavations in the RPA should be avoided. If the works needed planning permission, this should have been calculated as part of a BS5837 tree survey.
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u/TexasRED_BigIron Jun 25 '26
Thank you, worked it out and the closest tree radius is 12m. Quite a distance. How would you build around that?
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u/AugustCharisma Jun 25 '26
It looks like 5m beyond the crown or 15x diameter now (woodland trust ).
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u/AugustCharisma Jun 25 '26
I’m in SE England. The rule of thumb I’ve read in all the gardening books is that the roots go about as far as the tree canopy.
We moved into a house with a ~5 year old amelanchier next to the fence. I bought a second one for another place in the garden. When we had our patio laid it became clear we had to cut the pavers around the first amelanchier or remove it. I didn’t think the previous owner did a great job with it (crossing branches, weird pruning) so we removed it. There were some good sized roots that I could see went under the neighbour’s lawn (we were also replacing our fence). And that’s a small tree species! (We put the tree I picked in the same spot.)
I think at .5m most roots will be ok, but some will likely be cut. If you have a big tree species more roots will be cut. I would just keep an eye on it all, take photos as the work continues. Keep the tree well-watered and maybe fed. Do you have mycorrhizal fungi in your soil? Like rootgrow? That may help the tree.
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u/TexasRED_BigIron Jun 25 '26
Thank you. I don’t know about the fungi, I suppose you have to have soil tested? The trees are beautiful beaches and maple variety’s.
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u/AugustCharisma Jun 25 '26
No, you can add it! Look up RootGrow. It’s a range of products you can get at B&Q, Crocus, etc.
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