My Ivy has ran wild, while I wans't looking over th last 5 years
Now that I notice it it has spread right up the side of the house and across the roof tiles, is it safe or will it destroy the roof?

Outdoor wrote:
My Ivy has ran wild, while I wans't looking over th last 5 years
Now that I notice it it has spread right up the side of the house and
across the roof tiles, is it safe or will it destroy the roof?

I doubt it will do any damage. Trying to pull it off will do a lot more
damage than leaving it. It may be keeping loose tiles in place and stopping
them falling off!

If you really want to get rid of it, cut it away without pulling. If that's
not a real option, the only way would be to spray it with glyphosate or some
other powerful weedkiller and let it die off. It would leave a mess for
quite some time...

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

Jeff Layman wrote:
Outdoor wrote:
My Ivy has ran wild, while I wans't looking over th last 5 years
Now that I notice it it has spread right up the side of the house and
across the roof tiles, is it safe or will it destroy the roof?

I doubt it will do any damage. Trying to pull it off will do a lot more
damage than leaving it. It may be keeping loose tiles in place and stopping
them falling off!

If you really want to get rid of it, cut it away without pulling. If that's
not a real option, the only way would be to spray it with glyphosate or some
other powerful weedkiller and let it die off. It would leave a mess for
quite some time...


I took one off a neighbour's wall that was at least 30 years old. Dug
the roots out in the spring, left the rest to die off for 6 months, then
used a 4" scraper and a garden spade to separate it from the brickwork.
No damage to the pointing, but it was fiddly getting it out from behind
the guttering.

On 19/11/07 18:34, in article , "Outdoor"
wrote:


My Ivy has ran wild, while I wans't looking over th last 5 years
Now that I notice it it has spread right up the side of the house and
across the roof tiles, is it safe or will it destroy the roof?



As the ivy matures and stems thicken I would have thought it would do a lot
of damage to tiles, guttering and drain pipes. Don't pull it off, or not
yet. Cut it at the desired height and leave to die back, then get it off.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:49:22 +0000, Sacha
wrote:

On 19/11/07 18:34, in article , "Outdoor"
wrote:


My Ivy has ran wild, while I wans't looking over th last 5 years
Now that I notice it it has spread right up the side of the house and
across the roof tiles, is it safe or will it destroy the roof?



As the ivy matures and stems thicken I would have thought it would do a lot
of damage to tiles, guttering and drain pipes. Don't pull it off, or not
yet. Cut it at the desired height and leave to die back, then get it off.

We pulled living ivy off our red brick house, and it left a terrible
mess behind. I wish now that we had cut it and let it dry out first. A
lesson learned!

On Nov 19, 6:34 pm, Outdoor
wrote:
My Ivy has ran wild, while I wans't looking over th last 5 years
Now that I notice it it has spread right up the side of the house and
across the roof tiles, is it safe or will it destroy the roof?

--
Outdoor

What I hear is that if the walls etc are in good condition then it
will actually protect the wall to some extent but if it gets under
tiles etc then it will lift them.

I have to do this a lot, one of my least favourite jobs...

From what I have seen, yes, it WILL eventually damage your roof, by getting between the tiles and, as Sasha said, the thickening of the stems then forces the tiles apart.

In your situation, I'd pay a window cleaner to go up a ladder and cut it just below the gutters, taking care to cut every stem. I'd then cut every stem myself, at a lower level, wait until the leaves go brown then lever off one stem at a time - if you pull them downwards and outwards, you can often get great long streamers of them off (hence the "cut at the top" advice, to avoid damaging the roof/gutters).

Then you can, if necessary, pay a roofing company to go up and check the roof, removing the dying ivy that's up there, and replacing any damaged tiles/gutters. Hopefully you will have caught it before there's much damage.

NB if you live in a bungalow, you can do most of this yourself!!

The urban myth about ivy damaging walls relates to the days of soft lime mortar: modern mortar is pretty impregnable BUT in my opinion I'd take the ivy right down anyway as it holds dampness and insects against the bricks.

Good luck with the job.

Oh, and yes, I'd also dig the root out and spray any tiny re-growth with glyphosate-based weedkiller ie Round-up.

Rachel

"Rachel Aitch" wrote in message
...


The urban myth about ivy damaging walls relates to the days of soft
lime mortar: modern mortar is pretty impregnable BUT in my opinion I'd
take the ivy right down anyway as it holds dampness and insects against
the bricks.

The walls under my ivies are bone dry- but yes, they are host to insects and
spiders. And birds, so I'm happy.

I took down the ivy on the house because while I enjoyed the annual routine
of maintenance I realised that as I age it won't always be possible. The
only ivies we have now are on the garden wall.

Mary

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
| "Rachel Aitch" wrote in message
| ...
|
| The urban myth about ivy damaging walls relates to the days of soft
| lime mortar: modern mortar is pretty impregnable BUT in my opinion I'd
| take the ivy right down anyway as it holds dampness and insects against
| the bricks.
|
| The walls under my ivies are bone dry- but yes, they are host to insects and
| spiders. And birds, so I'm happy.

Whenever this has come up before, it has been pointed out that ivy
usually keeps the wall drier than it would be otherwise, but sometimes
makes it wetter. It all depends on the circumstances.

And, of course, bricks are not damaged by either spiders or insects
though, if global warming continues apace, people in some parts of
Lincolnshire and similar locations may have to worry about their
brickwork being damaged by teredo.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.