My yard tends to flood so I am raising the whole yard 16 feet by having fill brought in. I had a company lift the house and put in a new basement. I removed all the fences and posts. The filling has begun. The problem are my trees. I thought that when soil was dumped around trees, the trees would just rise to the soil level. It's not working that way. I guess I need to add something to the trees. What can I do to make the trees lift to the new soil level? I must have dumb trees because they are only about 20 feet tall and if they stay where they are, there will only be branches showing.
You should have built dam walls around the property, then let it flood, which would have floated the house _and_ the trees to whatever level you wanted. My guess is that you're pretty damn high.
Sixteen feet? I think your only two choices will be to: 1) have the trees dug up by a professional, do the 16 foot fill, then have them replanted on top of the 16 foot fill; or, 2) have the trees removed, do the fill, then plant new trees. There is no magic way to bury a 20-foot tree with 16 feet of fill and have it survive.
Trees are made of wood. Wood floats. With enough water, the trees will float to the surface. Get out your hose.
Option 2 -
Get a lot of 2 x 4's. Cut the trees off at the current ground level. Set them aside. Add your fill. Stand the trees up and brace them with the 2 x4's. Wait for the roots to grow back. Remove the 2 x 4's. Build a shed.
On Thu, 25 Oct 2007 14:25:03 -0400, "BETA-32" wrote:
The solution which will work to the ultimate is not to wreck the trees, house or lawn. Four hot air balloons are needed. Then sink four screw in stakes simlar to those spiral things used to tie a dog outside on the lawn, but much larger. Place one in each corner of the yard. Connect the hot air balloons and inflate them using their regular propane fired devices. While the balloons are inflating, take a large chain saw and cut all the way around the edge of the lot, going about 2 feet deep. Be sure to cut the entire perimeter of the yard. After a few minutes the entire yard will begin to lift, house, trees, grass and everything. You will need an expert on hand that knows how to control hot air balloons so the yard stays fairly level, and does not float away. Raise the whole yard about 50 feet in the air, have your dirt fill delivered immediately, so have the trucks waiting and ready. Dump the 16 feet of fill and carefully lower the yard back into position. You might need a few cables and large tractors or skid loaders to pull the yard into position to insure it's positioned properly and within the lot lines. Once the whole thing is lowered, remove the balloons and stakes and you are all set. You wont even notice that your house and yard are 16 feet higher since your whole yard will look the same as it did before. Just be careful when you have your "job completion" beer party. Anyone who gets too drunk might fall off the edge of the yard and end up in a hospital.
This may well be a joke especially at 16' -- but it is not uncommon to salvage mature trees 8' below finished grade by building a protective wall around a tree. Like a very deep "pot bunker" you might see on a golf course. I assume the walls are placed at the drip line. If you have 50 to 100+ year old trees on a college campus, or public park they are irreplaceable and thus extremely valuable. Hence the expense is well justified.
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