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PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:51 am 
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I have a mature cedar elm with a 25' drip line. Would it harm or kill the tree if a concrete slab for a home addition is poured to within 5' of the trunk, covering about 30% of the drip line? The slab edge must be 24" deep, so how much damage is done to the cedar elm's mature root system? It has had a concrete driveway slab within 4' of the trunk on the other side of the tree for 20+ years with no problem, and this slab would be removed and the earth left exposed. So, will this tree survive if a slab is flip-flopped from one side to the other - I really like this tree and do not want to remove it entirely as has been suggested by architect.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:56 am 
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Yes it will harm it.

The driveway might be closer, but the tree grew under that. The slap will be suddenly removing/blocking access to a whole section of soil and air, this will likely shock the tree. Also, you'd be knowingly putting a new foundation over known existing root which can sometimes be trouble for a foundation.

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Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:40 pm 
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Yea... you could have issues.

The old slab didn't have any root zone underneath to speak of -- roots don't grow/migrate to where they cannot get water. Not only will you be tearing up roots 24 inches down, you will also forever be removing the rest of them from the nutrient system of the tree... they will likely die underneath the new slab.

That being said, do you know what kind of root that tree has -- is it a tap root, like a pecan? The reason I ask is because that kind of root system grows mostly straight down and does not flare out nearly as much as a flare root.

I have a ~20 year old papershell pecan on my property line, 2 feet from the foundation of my garage. Five springs ago my neighbor built a garage in his back yard -- 4 feet from the opposite side of the tree. He cleared out his whole back yard at the same time, stripping a foot of dirt off and replacing it w/ new topsoil. The tree is doing fine to this day, even though that slab is now there.

Can you build up?? :wink:

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