Landscaping projects are often on the list of renovations that most homeowners want to perform. These may entail laying down a new front lawn or installing a new water feature in the back yard. Regardless, before all this work can get underway any elements that remain from the existing landscape need to be attended to. Among these, there is sure to be one ore more sick or unwanted trees.
Sick trees can fall victim to insect infestation and fungal growth, so they are best-taken care of swiftly before any of the other aspects to your new yard begin to materialize. Homeowners can have various motivations for wanting to remove a live tree. Its roots may be damaging the home’s foundation by exerting excess stress on it or they may be simply dehydrating the underlying soil so that the structural integrity of the foundation is compromised.
Regardless, tree removal can be a complicated process that may take several days to complete without the use of specialized equipment. When homeowners get in touch with an arborist, they are often displeased to find that removing the tree’s roots comes as an extra cost. Roots can penetrate underground several feet, and can even come to wrap around piping and other underground obstructions. Extracting these roots can take a significant amount of digging which will need to be conducted with something like a backhoe. This type of machinery is expensive to operate and transport.
Before accepting bids on tree root removal work, you want to establish some clearly defined goals. Unless you have a good reason for wanting to remove the complete network of roots buried underground, the cost doesn’t really justify the service. Unless the roots have tapped a sewer line or similar, they can’t really do any harm by just remaining underground. The only roots that may come to bug you are those still penetrating out from the ground. Most tree removal contractors will get rid of these with a stump grinder if you opted for a stump removal service.
If you are confident in your abilities with powered gardening tools, you can significantly reduce the tree root removal cost by taking on the project yourself. If you have people to help you, some shovels may be enough to dig a shallow trench where the tree once was to gain access to the superficial roots. After a few swings of the ax, the roots should come right off. If you want to make the process easier for yourself and can allocate some time in the future to work on removing the roots, you should just let them be so they can start to rot. Moisture will help bring about decomposition as will nitrogen fertilizer. Leave the roots to start rotting for a few weeks and test the superficial ones for signs of rot. Once they have softened up to your liking, you can go ahead and complete the job. Evaluate your budget and the time you have available to you to accurately determine whether the cost of tree root removal makes financial sense.
