Frank wrote in message
. ..
"The Ranger" wrote in message
...
I am unlucky enough to have city-planted liquid
amber planted on my little strip of meridian. The
damned tree is older than my house and over 70'
tall with a trunk that measures 20". The root
system for this behemoth is extensive and a
source of constant pain for me.

The latest issue I have is the off-shoot root that is
now lifting my driveway entrance slab. It's lifted
the entire _piece_ of cement three inches making
entrance and exit of my driveway exciting. The
cement isn't broken; I'm not looking to destroy
it either.

I'd like to lift the slab and thus remove the root
causing the problem without breaking the slab
into multiple chunks. Is there a way of do this?

There was a TV show a while back on what a liquid
amber tree could do to a swimming pool, concrete slab,
foundation and the house itself. The tree was something
like 60' away and yet the it was able to destroy the
foundation, got inside the house and moved it out of
level, breaking tiles, etc. Cutting the roots didn't help
as it come right back, maybe killing the tree won't help
either. Everywhere they dig around, the owners
found root systems getting under the foundation,
concrete slab, etc. Some of the roots look like
10" in diameter running under the house. Incredibly
aggressive and tenacious. The structure engineer
hired by the owner estimated it would take somewhere
on the order of $800K for repairs, which was the
cost of the house. Dream house not covered by
insurance for this kind of damage became worthless
due to one liquid amber tree.

When we remodeled a little less than a decade ago, I found the
root system under my house. They were all around 2" in diameter
so removing them wasn't too painful. When I moved out into the
front yard, I encountered those mamouth 10" - 14" diameter
hogs. I tried EVERYTHING from chemical dowsing to copper
stakes. The tree just won't die!

Right now I would be more concern about the foundation
and what's under the house more than the driveway. You
maybe lucky if the city admits liability and willing to fix
the
problem.

Since my remodel, knock on wood/formica/steel, I don't have
that issue anymore. I've been trying to contain the roots to
specific areas and tackling them as they lift things.

Further, I have not seen anyone lifting a large concrete
slab to extract roots. Trying so with heavy machine will
most likely break it. I've done in on a small scale by
saw cutting into smaller slabs but be aware in time the cut
slabs will become uneven due to soil movements -
you need to pin it with rebar dowels by which time
would be just easier to replace the whole slab.

I was afraid of this. sigh More trouble than it's worth and a
job half-done is twice done...

What I've seen is grounding the high spots to
eliminate tripping hazard but 3" seems to be too
much as you wound not have much of a slab left.

It wouldn't last one drive-over, were I to grind the high-spot
down.

A friend of mine had a problem with trees planted
by the city. City selects type of trees, not property
owner. Once its planted it became the owner's property and
responsibility but she was not allow
to cut it down even when she had root problems
lifting her driveway! She finally was allowed to remove it
due to tree rot at her expense and after
paying a permit fee.

That's my little burg's policies in a nutshell...

Anyway hope your city is more reasonable and wish
you luck having it fixed by them.

They aren't... And thanks. It looks like breaking up the slab
and repouring another is where I have to go. sigh Another
$2600* wasted on that fine specimen of city beautification.

* Cheapest bid for a simple pour. I get to put in the forms,
tie the wire mesh, and work the cement myself.

The Ranger