Trees

[Fredro Starr]

Quick question for you experts about tree removal.

Having to remove several trees for my build. I am getting conflicting opinions. One contractor wishes to cut the trees and use a bulldozer to take the roots from the ground because he says eventually they will deteriorate and cause the concrete pad to crack/settle. The majority wish to cut the trees and grind them down 18 inches below the surface and they say that will be adequate for the concrete pad. Obviously option A is the more expensive option.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

 

[kgordon]

Well if your pouring a concrete pad you should be excavating and putting in at least 6" of compacted stone. Though i would probably go deeper depending on your soil. For me it would depend on how large the trees are. Also i hope they are planning on putting rebar int the slab.
It would take many years for the roots to totally decompose and leave voids, probably wont affect it in your lifetime especially if the stone is compacted well.

 

[mmelton005]

I would say just grind them. Bringing in a dozer would mean more ground repair from the tracks/weight of the dozer. As long as they are ground down that far below grade, i don't think that they should cause any problems. But then again i am no expert on this topic.

 

[gregtwojeeps]

Quick question for you experts about tree removal.

Having to remove several trees for my build. I am getting conflicting opinions. One contractor wishes to cut the trees and use a bulldozer to take the roots from the ground because he says eventually they will deteriorate and cause the concrete pad to crack/settle. The majority wish to cut the trees and grind them down 18 inches below the surface and they say that will be adequate for the concrete pad. Obviously option A is the more expensive option.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

The blue text is right, as the stump ground down will just keep rotting and the back fill over it will sink for years. As long as you have rebar, the proper support in your pour to span these sink holes... o. k. Me ? I would doze them out and have the dozer to use his machine tracks to "walk" down the holes fill dirt ...tight. JMO

 

[Jess]

Best practices for this situation is to remove the stumps, and whatever roots come with them, fill with compacted granular material and then build up to level. Any disturbed soil should be removed unless it can be properly compacted. If you leave any woody material under the floor, it will eventually rot away and cause the floor to crack and settle. An engineered slab could span any covered stumps but the cost would exceed digging them out. You could run this by a consulting engineer and he might have different options and opinions.

 

[Ponchoguy]

Quick question for you experts about tree removal.

Having to remove several trees for my build. I am getting conflicting opinions. One contractor wishes to cut the trees and use a bulldozer to take the roots from the ground because he says eventually they will deteriorate and cause the concrete pad to crack/settle. The majority wish to cut the trees and grind them down 18 inches below the surface and they say that will be adequate for the concrete pad. Obviously option A is the more expensive option.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Just did exactly this at my grandfather's property. There's at least 6" of 3/4" bluestone under the driveway (which is 8" thick and reinforced with Fibermesh and wire underneath).

They pulled, grinded and filled about 4 dump trucks!

 

[Chaznsc]

Remove the trees, stumps, roots, organics are your enemy.

 

[Stuart in MN]

It will depend somewhat on what kind of trees they are, and how big. The root system for some trees spreads out over a large area, others mainly have a big tap root that goes straight down. Having said that, removal of the stump and roots is best - as mentioned, if left in place they eventually rot and leave voids in the earth that will cause settling. Removal will also depend on the kind of tree. It may be easier to pull the tree over with the bulldozer, tipping the stump out of the ground, rather than waiting until it's cut down and then trying to take out the stump.

 

[Kensgarage]

Skip the dozer.
Hire a backhoe or mini-excavator.A backhoe is better(IMO).
I remove lots of stumps.If it's huge hire a backhoe and a stump grinder to slice the roots.
I've had roots a foot in diameter travelling 40 feet. A stump grinder is a big help with those.

Here's where you need a stump grinder too.

 

[BAGN1T]

If you can figure a way to knock the trees down, you can most likely pull the stump up with it...should get most of the roots up.

Edit- ack...someone slipped in and beat me to it!

 

[KEH]

Know of 2 instances where a dug well was filled in and debris from a torn down house was put in the hole. After about 50 years wood had decayed and the hole dropped down a few feet from the surface. In one instance I was driving a tractor, fortunately slowly, and dropped a front wheel into the hole. Also fortunately it was a loader tractor and i was able to use downpressure on the bucket to get out. Get all the wood out


KEH

 

[Falcon67]

Unless they are Mesquite trees, should cut them off at 10' then use appropriate heavy equipment to pull them over and remove the roots as much as possible. With a Mesquite, you water the stumps with diesel to make sure they don't sprout up through the floor later. A Mesquite tap can go 100' down and 100' in any direction, so lots of people burn them out as much as possible. Or backhoe the thing out

 

[My Old Tools]

Mesquite or Bois de arc (horse apple) can be cut off below the ground and left. Anything else needs to come out. Bois de arc was used to pave streets, as house foundations, and as water lines in this area. The last (that we know of) bois de arc water line was dug up in Royse City and replaced in the 1980's.

 

[Jarwop]

Dig them out

 

[T_R]

I would dig them out if they were under the slab. Anywhere else I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[coljar]

They need to come out. I had to remove 3 very large stumps to build my garage. My buddy sent one of his men down with their hoe and he spent 2 days digging them out. He back filled with a mixture of limestone and dirt that they keep around for uses like these.

 

[Fredro Starr]

Thanks for all of the speedy responses.

Appears the consensus is to get the roots out as much as possible. The correct solution is generally always the costlier one...

 

[LS6 Tommy]

X2 on the Bulldozer. I have never seen a ground stump not create a soft spot of it's not at least dug out, filled and compacted.
I had a blue spruce removed two years ago. It was supposed to have been ground and then dug out, filled, compacted and topsoiled. I wasn't home to check on the job. It was fine for the first year. It started sinking last spring. Needless to say, the contractor came back, excavated, backfilled, compacted and put down new topsoil. Now it's right...

Tommy

 

[wssix99]

Thanks for all of the speedy responses.

Appears the consensus is to get the roots out as much as possible. The correct solution is generally always the costlier one...

You haven't given enough information to actually find a "correct" solution here. How far is your stump from your concrete pad? Can you post a picture?

he says eventually they will deteriorate and cause the concrete pad to crack/settle.

This is only true if the roots are huge and would create large voids. (ie: the tree is close to where your driveway will be) The distance the roots are from the surface is also important: Your driveway makes a "bridge" over whatever unseen poor soil condition might exist. (decayed tree root, stashed gold coins, Indian burial ground, etc.) The further down the point in the ground, the lower the pressures because the loads seen at the top of the driveway spread out with depth. (BTW - Your tires spread out the weight of your cars/trucks a lot more than you'd think, as it is.)

If you have tiny 1/2" roots under your driveway, there's no need to dig them up - you'd do more bad than good by disturbing all the dirt around them.

If you have large 5" roots under your driveway, those are probably the ones you'd want to remove, along with any disturbed earth. (You'd then need to replace that earth with a new compacted base - making this an even more expensive proposition.)



Alternate Idea: Cut down the tree, sever the problem roots, and come up with a way to "intravenously" feed them a specially concocted mixture of water and fertilizer to keep them as strong, living, "zombie" roots under your driveway. <- That would be epic.