On Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:20:10 -0000, "Jo" wrote:

We have recently moved house and in the past couple of months have
experienced a large amount of cracking in the property. We feel that this
is largely due to the heavy snowfall/wet weather etc and the surounding soil
being very much clay-based.
However, a largish crack at the front of the house has worried us and a
structural surveyor has suggested that this is due to a climbing rose tree
which is planted outside the front of the house. We are dubious as we
weren't aware that such plants were deep rooted.
Is this likely to be the case? We do not know an awful lot (if anything)
about roses so any info would be helpful.

Jo


It's a case of what came first. Our climbing rose grew into the small
cracks and made them wider. The builder had to put some of those
twisty rods into the wall when the cracks were repaired. The rose was
cat down at the same time. It took a while for it to grow back up the
wall but there are no new cracks. My conclusion is that roses don't
cause cracks but they will grow into any cracks that already exist.

Steve

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