Do you have solar panels?

[Smurf1976]

Pretty much unless I can prove it's causing major damage to my house it stays till it dies.

Easy solution there.....

 

[sptrawler]

There's been talk of changing council approval processes to combat this.

So far I don't think it's even gone to a committee to discuss so I doubt anything will change.

I live in the inner west where back yards are really courtyards and the size of the trees in 4 of the properties that bound my property should be out in the bush, not in these little plots of land.

I've read articles about spite trees and generally there's little you can do and state Govts have found the issue too daunting to take any action

Yes. I can't remember exactly what the lawyer said, but it was something like.
Everyone has right to sunlight, his right is just as important as yours. Therefore as long as his house complies with building regs for the suburb, you are stuffed.
However he did say there is a push to include solar into building regs. But don't hold your breath.

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Easy solution there.....

That is the way I would deal with it.lol

 

[Boggo]

I'm in exactly the same situation. A neighbour to my south east planted a gum tree 20 years ago and it's now huge and completely unsuitable for a small neighbourhood backyard. It sheds thousands of leaves throughout my garden, into the pool and fills the gutters 12 months of the year, not to mention being a danger in storms.
It is not, however, actually overlapping any of our surrounding properties so we are unable to lop any limbs off.

Julia, the real problem with gum trees that goes unnoticed for years is the extent of the root system.
Apparently they can have a root system that expands laterally up to four times the height of the tree.

One way of reducing the risk to your property is to get a trenching machine to cut a deep trench and hopefully the roots alongside your boundary fence and then just refill it. The other way is to locate some of the roots, drill a few holes to the centre of the root and fill with undiluted roundup (last resort).

If you are within the shadow of a gum tree you will eventually have structural or drainage problems (or likely both) especially if you have the old terracotta sewer etc pipes.

Been through this issue years ago, the roots actually lifted the the floor of the garage and also started to lift the kitchen floor to the point where if you placed a golf ball on the centre of the floor it would roll to the edge !

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That is the way I would deal with it.lol

Had to resort to that, was effective

 

[Julia]

Julia, the real problem with gum trees that goes unnoticed for years is the extent of the root system.
Apparently they can have a root system that expands laterally up to four times the height of the tree.

One way of reducing the risk to your property is to get a trenching machine to cut a deep trench and hopefully the roots alongside your boundary fence and then just refill it. The other way is to locate some of the roots, drill a few holes to the centre of the root and fill with undiluted roundup (last resort).

If you are within the shadow of a gum tree you will eventually have structural or drainage problems (or likely both) especially if you have the old terracotta sewer etc pipes.

Been through this issue years ago, the roots actually lifted the the floor of the garage and also started to lift the kitchen floor to the point where if you placed a golf ball on the centre of the floor it would roll to the edge !

Thanks, Boggo. Lateral extension of the root system to the point you describe would have the roots under my pool! There is other vegetation along the boundary so it would be pretty impossible to identify what roots were what. The other complication is that the boundary between my place and the tree owner's is only about three metres. My property narrows into the corner. Boundaries with three other neighbours all have much greater joint boundaries. If I had the courage, I'd climb over the fence at night and apply some poison.
I hate that tree with total passion.

 

[pixel]

Thanks, Boggo. Lateral extension of the root system to the point you describe would have the roots under my pool! There is other vegetation along the boundary so it would be pretty impossible to identify what roots were what. The other complication is that the boundary between my place and the tree owner's is only about three metres. My property narrows into the corner. Boundaries with three other neighbours all have much greater joint boundaries. If I had the courage, I'd climb over the fence at night and apply some poison.
I hate that tree with total passion.

Some long copper nails are supposed to work. Just make sure you're not seen or heard nailing.

 

[Boggo]

Thanks, Boggo. Lateral extension of the root system to the point you describe would have the roots under my pool! There is other vegetation along the boundary so it would be pretty impossible to identify what roots were what. The other complication is that the boundary between my place and the tree owner's is only about three metres. My property narrows into the corner. Boundaries with three other neighbours all have much greater joint boundaries. If I had the courage, I'd climb over the fence at night and apply some poison.
I hate that tree with total passion.

You can get contractors that have these (pic below), some are only about 1.6 metres wide and will trench down about 1 metre alongside your boundary fence.

Some long copper nails are supposed to work. Just make sure you're not seen or heard nailing.

Apparently they work, haven't tried them though. Interesting thing with gum trees is that when you poison a root then only a part of the tree seems to die off, ie. a few branches go brown. Gets the owner scratching his head though

Sorry, I have taken this thread off topic, probably relevant though.

 

[drsmith]

The other way is to locate some of the roots, drill a few holes to the centre of the root and fill with undiluted roundup (last resort).

I think the following is agricultural strength. I either use that or 360 and make my own mix for weeds.

 

[Julia]

Thanks for the suggestions, fellas. Problem is, however, that I have no access to the tree.
The tree owner is a crazy old woman who never leaves the property and has motion sensor lights everywhere, even if I was up to clambering over the fence in the dark. I do not fancy being caught with industrial strength Roundup in the middle of the night on her property.

As I've said before, the dreaded tree is in the middle of her backyard, nowhere near the boundary. It's the enormous height of it and the prevailing wind that makes it such a problem.

 

[drsmith]

I do not fancy being caught with industrial strength Roundup in the middle of the night on her property.

With that stuff, you'd only have to spray it from the fence line when the wind is favourable.

I'm only joking by the way. Apart from the fact that trying something like that would be very naughty, the resultant plume of dying vegetation might give away the origin.

I had a neighbour's tree next to the fence growing roots under the fence and under my shed. I cut through the roots on my side between the fence and the shed and the tree soon died. Fortunately, it wasn't too big.

 

[Julia]

With that stuff, you'd only have to spray it from the fence line when the wind is favourable.

I've clearly failed to convey the size of the tree. The notion of my reaching over the fence with some pissy little sprayer, trying to deliver spray on a tree about 25 or 30 metres away, the diameter of which would be way greater than that, and the height three times that of a two storey house, is risible.

I'm only joking by the way. Apart from the fact that trying something like that would be very naughty, the resultant plume of dying vegetation might give away the origin.

All that would be dying would be a bit of grass where the waft of spray drifted to the ground in my feeble attempt to even get it over the fence.

 

[sptrawler]

I've clearly failed to convey the size of the tree. The notion of my reaching over the fence with some pissy little sprayer, trying to deliver spray on a tree about 25 or 30 metres away, the diameter of which would be way greater than that, and the height three times that of a two storey house, is risible.


All that would be dying would be a bit of grass where the waft of spray drifted to the ground in my feeble attempt to even get it over the fence.

I wonder if they ever go on holidays?
You could then look after their pet for them, like good neighbors do.
Then you could talk about the tree.

 

[breaker]

Grasslan it comes in pellets and u throw it round the base of the tree

 

[stewiejp]

Thanks for the suggestions, fellas. Problem is, however, that I have no access to the tree.
The tree owner is a crazy old woman who never leaves the property and has motion sensor lights everywhere, even if I was up to clambering over the fence in the dark. I do not fancy being caught with industrial strength Roundup in the middle of the night on her property.

As I've said before, the dreaded tree is in the middle of her backyard, nowhere near the boundary. It's the enormous height of it and the prevailing wind that makes it such a problem.

Bow and Arrow anyone? How's your archer skills Julia... just putting it out there..

can see this turning into some commando type operation in the middle of the night. Camouflage, walkie talkies, hand signals..

best of luck in any case. I'm lucky we have awesome neighbors.

 

[Julia]

I wonder if they ever go on holidays?

There is no 'they'. It is one old woman. She never goes anywhere.

You could then look after their pet for them, like good neighbors do.

There is no pet. I'm not actually a neighbour in the side by side sense but over the back fence.
My 'real' neighbours couldn't be better.

Then you could talk about the tree.

Funny. You think I haven't tried such civilised measures? She won't even speak to me. I have had the Justice Dept ask her to participate in mediation. She didn't even answer their two letters. Even during the QCAT process she simply refused to participate.

Grasslan it comes in pellets and u throw it round the base of the tree

Thank you, breaker. I can't find any reference to it with a Google search. Do you have a link?

Bow and Arrow anyone? How's your archer skills Julia... just putting it out there..

1. They are untried, stewie, but - given my skills in similar fields - I'd say minimal.
2. Anything that was lodged in the tree, coming from my direction, even optimistically assuming I'd hit the tree, would be pretty obvious.

Anyway, all this is rather distracting from the topic. I apologise for raising it.

 

[breaker]

There is no 'they'. It is one old woman. She never goes anywhere.


There is no pet. I'm not actually a neighbour in the side by side sense but over the back fence.
My 'real' neighbours couldn't be better.


Funny. You think I haven't tried such civilised measures? She won't even speak to me. I have had the Justice Dept ask her to participate in mediation. She didn't even answer their two letters. Even during the QCAT process she simply refused to participate.


Thank you, breaker. I can't find any reference to it with a Google search. Do you have a link?


1. They are untried, stewie, but - given my skills in similar fields - I'd say minimal.
2. Anything that was lodged in the tree, coming from my direction, even optimistically assuming I'd hit the tree, would be pretty obvious.

Anyway, all this is rather distracting from the topic. I apologise for raising it.

Hi Julia

http://www.dowagro.com/au/prod/graslan.htm

 

[Julia]

Thank you, breaker.

 

[sydboy007]

Tis a shame that the various levels of Government always seem to be able to design policies that conflict with each other.

I can understand preserving trees, but then there's needs to be some common sense that says in suburbia, and especially the little courtyard style back yards of most capital city inner suburbs, trees of 15M+ heights are really not appropriate in that landscape.

I will say the aborealist that came to inspect the roots of the tree causing me grief was suprised at the height of it. He'd never seen that species any where near that big, so I suppose possibly the neighbour planted it expecting it to be only a few meters in height. When I bought the house it was a nice size and provided the kind of shade that's beneficial.

I got the aborealist in, because if the frigging tree died I wanted legal deniability for liability. I so longingly looked at the freshly cut roots before the installed the root guard. Had visions of drilling holes and concentrated round up and natural light downstairs in winter.

Personally I'd like to see someone come up with a time share for a large scale solar plant and be able to buy X kWh of the capacity of the plant. While I like the efficiency of producing the energy close to the point of use as home solar PV does, I also know that large scale plants are far cheaper to install and maintain, so you get a much bigger bang for your buck.

 

[drsmith]

Tis a shame that the various levels of Government always seem to be able to design policies that conflict with each other.

In relation to your tree problem, if it's so close as to be rubbing against your house either present or past, what's stopping you having it cut to the property boundary ?

Is accessibility a problem with this option.

 

[sydboy007]

In relation to your tree problem, if it's so close as to be rubbing against your house either present or past, what's stopping you having it cut to the property boundary ?

Is accessibility a problem with this option.

Neighbours get it cut back once it starts rubbing against my roof.

It is a very difficult expensive process as there's no access to the tree from the road so a craze is used to hold the workers and tree in place while the work is done. Getting the large chunks of wood out is also a difficult job.

The other problem is that even without touching my roof, the amount of leave and bark litter is amazingly high. Even with leave guards on the gutter there can be so much crap falling down that if something gets stuff and blocks other stuff falling off then it will start building up quite a bit.

It's a very difficult job to be able to brush the offending material off the leaf guards.

Maybe I should start up a new thread - the trees from hell.

 

[Julia]

Neighbours get it cut back once it starts rubbing against my roof.

So at least you have a measure of co-operation from the neighbours. I suppose you've asked them if they would consider removing it, maybe even if you contribute to the cost?

The other problem is that even without touching my roof, the amount of leave and bark litter is amazingly high. Even with leave guards on the gutter there can be so much crap falling down that if something gets stuff and blocks other stuff falling off then it will start building up quite a bit.

It's a very difficult job to be able to brush the offending material off the leaf guards.

And the leaf guard material degrades in quite a short time. I've found better to just keep clearing the gutters out. Irritates me to have to pay someone to do this so often.

Maybe I should start up a new thread - the trees from hell.

That wouldn't be an exaggeration. Just one inappropriately planted tree can truly make life hell.