The asphalt on my driveway is starting to lift up, due to a root from my neighbor's tree. A couple of years ago I took a piece out of the root and that seemed to solve the problem. Recently the crack in the driveway has gotten bigger again. I don't imagine the root would expand as it rots, so I would think there must be another root- but I can't find it. Any ideas as to what is happening? Thanks. Frank
Could be another root deeper down pushing soil up, pushing up your driveway.
I don't know if you live in a colder climate but you could have frost heave. Water is going down in the old crack, freezing and expanding resulting in the driveway to heave up. It's important that when you start to see cracks in your driveway or sidewalk that you seal them right away to prevent this from happening.
If you do decide to cut more roots be very careful not to weaken the tree's support. Some tree's roots grow very close to the surface and when you cut them the tree can become unstable. A few years back in my neighborhood, a guy was replacing his sidewalk and he cut some tree roots back to have a nice level walk. Six months later the tree came down in a light windstorm and landed on a passing car, killing a
4-year-old girl in the car. I lost track of the story but I believe the guy ended up going to jail. It was proven that his actions of cutting what he thought were just a few roots undermined the tree's support. Be careful cutting roots.
Wow. Terrible.
I worried about my tree falling down when I cut a couple of its roots.
A pine tree.
I think it's too far from the street for this to hit a car.
It would take more than just that.
That this would happen would have to be foreseeable by that person (not judged by the same standards as a tree surgeon, but by the standards of an average person) for him to be negligent. I guess it might be since I thought of it in advance, and I'm not especially educated in this. But to be criminally negligent, I thought more, that is, worse behaviour than mere negligence, was required. Maybe he was told not to do it? By a gardener or someone? Maybe he *was* a tree surgeon?
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