Quote:
Originally posted by ned
Bry wrote:
snip
What would be a good distance for such a house
with a horse chestnut tree and a type of duglas fir? I would like
them
quite close to the house.
A horse chestnut can grow to a height of 115ft (35m). Depending on
soil conditions, a good general rule of thumb would be that the root
system might extend the same distance, ie 18m radius. But, roots will
take advantage of any 'easy' opportunity and will invade pipes and
cracks to cause havoc where least expected.
And should you live in a tornado belt, would you want a tree of that
size toppling on your house?
I wonder if that is why it is not advised to plant trees near houses.
;-)
The Douglas fir might grow even taller. Say 180ft. and would be at
even greater risk to wind damage.
--
ned
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Thanks for the height info, I was expecting them to grow big and fortunatly planned ahead with the places to put them.
As for tornados, well we don't have many problems with those in central London. lol. I can just picture the news headline, "A giant twister has risen out the Thames and is headed towards Holland Park!". Anyway, I don't think dropping one of those trees on my house would be a good idea, although it's allready been hit by a bomb...
By close to the house I was thinking of 21 meters for the fir tree and 18 for the horse chestnut. I currently have some very old trees (one is dated around 1900) which are so close to the house I can easily reach out the window and touch the branches. The only trouble I did have was roots getting in to an old broken drain pipe, which only happened after the pipe failed. If anything goes wrong I can allways remove the tree in the future.
Bry