60 North Road, Hornsey, London, N6 4AA
The plane tree is directly opposite our house approximately 1.5 m from our boundary wall. Over the past few years the surface tree roots have not only damaged the public footpath between the tree and our wall but have severely cracked our brick boundary wall and is rotating the pier that holds up our front gate. We plan to take down the wall and pier carefully and rebuild on new foundations. So a like for like repair and replacement. We intend to bridge over the tree roots where possible with the new foundations and where necessary carefully cut the roots to enable the foundations to have a firm footing. This is most likely where the pier is located as a root visibly undermines the pier. We won't know how best to deal with the roots until a new foundation trench is dug. The approach will be however to bridge over rather than cut as a priority. We have discussed these works with an arboriculturalist who confirmed this is a common problem and a standard approach.