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Adams Arboriculture
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Trees near houses and structures

A mature tree close to a building is one of the most common reasons people call an arborist — and one of the most common situations where the tree turns out to be fine.

0415 105 592Call 0415 105 592or send the address across

Proximity on its own is not a finding

Trees and buildings have coexisted for a very long time, including at distances that look alarming. A tree being close to a structure is the reason to have it assessed; it is not the conclusion of the assessment.

What matters is what the tree is actually doing. Is there structural damage, and is the tree causing it? Are roots lifting a surface, or has that surface failed for another reason? Is the canopy over the roof healthy and well-structured, or does it carry a defect?

Those are separable questions, and answering them usually narrows the situation considerably from "there is a large tree next to my house".

Tree roots running beneath the cut edge of a concrete slab, exposed where the excavation has been opened alongside it
What was actually under the slab. Proximity told you nothing; opening it up did.

What roots actually do

Roots follow moisture and oxygen through the path of least resistance. They do not seek out pipes or foundations, and they are not capable of the deliberate targeting they get credited with.

What they can do is exploit an opportunity. A pipe already cracked leaks moisture, and roots proliferate at the leak — which is a symptom of the failed pipe as much as a cause of further damage. Surface roots lift paving because paving is thin and roots thicken. Soil moisture change near footings is a real phenomenon in reactive clay soils, and it involves the soil and the structure as much as the tree.

A mature tree growing close to a brick house wall with surface roots running through the garden bed toward the footings
The proximity is obvious. What it means requires looking at the tree, the surface and the structure separately.
  • Lifted paving or drivewayCommon, usually a surface issue, and frequently resolvable without removing the tree.
  • Roots in pipesWorth establishing whether the pipe failed first. Roots exploit leaks more often than they cause them.
  • Overhanging limbsA risk question — what the limb is, what condition it is in, and what is beneath it.
  • Debris in guttersA maintenance issue, and not a structural finding about the tree.
  • Cracking in a structureMay involve soil movement, footing design and drainage. Engineering and geotechnical input belongs here alongside arboricultural input.

Where a structure is cracking, an arborist assesses the tree's contribution. Establishing the cause of structural movement is an engineering and geotechnical question, and this business will not assert what belongs to another discipline.

What can be done short of removal

More than most people assume, which is usually the useful part of the assessment.

Root pruning, where the assessment supports it and the tree can tolerate it. Root barriers where a specific conflict needs managing. Surface reconstruction that accommodates root growth rather than fighting it. Targeted crown work to address a specific overhanging limb rather than the whole canopy. Or monitoring, where the situation is stable and the alarm was about proximity rather than change.

Removal is one option among those, and it is the right one sometimes. It is not the default, and it is worth being confident that it is necessary before spending money on it — particularly since the tree may also be protected.

The tree may also be protected

Whether you can act at all is a separate question from whether you should. Councils across South East Queensland protect vegetation under local laws, overlays and orders, and a tree in a back yard beside a house can be protected while a larger one down the road is not.

That check runs against the address and it is worth doing early — before booking a contractor, and before assuming the decision is yours alone.

Common questions

About trees near buildings

Have the situation assessed

  • There is no distance that settles it. It depends on the species, the size, the soil, the structure and its footings. Plenty of houses sit safely beside mature trees at distances that look uncomfortable, and occasionally a smaller tree in a poor position is the greater issue.

  • Usually not. Surface lifting is often resolvable by reconstructing the surface to accommodate the roots, sometimes with targeted root pruning where the assessment supports it. Removing a mature tree to fix a paving problem is a large response to a small one.

  • It may be a contributor and it may not. Structural movement involves soil, drainage and footing design as well as vegetation, so establishing the cause generally needs engineering or geotechnical input alongside an arboricultural assessment. An arborist assessing what the tree contributes is one part of that.

  • There may be a right to do so and there may also be a council approval required, depending on whether the vegetation is protected. Poor pruning also damages trees and can create the very defect people are worried about. Worth establishing both the legal position and the arboricultural one first.

Adam De Regt marking up site plans spread across the open tailgate of a ute, protection fencing behind him on the site

Contact

Send Adam the address and he will take it from there

For many protected vegetation questions, the property address is enough to start checking. Call, or send the details below.

Adam De RegtConsulting Arborist (AQF Level 5)
0415 105 592Call 0415 105 592info@adamsarboriculture.com.au

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