The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 19/07/13 19:38, Phil L wrote:
ss wrote:
I am recently re laying some 2 x 3 slabs and replacing some badly
laid concrete with matching slabs, under the concrete there is a
network of roots, mostly fine stuff but a few at a 1cm thickness. What
is the best way to deal with this, ideally one of the
weedkillers that will kill it off and prevent regrowth for as long
as possible. The roots belong to trees/shrubs/ivy which is on the
other side of my wall and the roots have over the years forced
their way through onto my land so I cant attack by spraying the
leaves as the shrubs are not my property.
I've come across this many times...firstly, weedkiller doesn't work
on roots, it has to go in via the leaves, and it doesn't do anything
to tree roots anyway, at least not for many years after the tree is
dead. Best bet is to dig a trench along the wall where the offending
plants / trees are and chop everything off to a depth of a foot or
two, then infill with MOT, also throw a bag of cement in there and
mix it up with a spade as you're spreading it, this will effectively
make the wall foundations a bit more beefed up and hopefully keep
the roots away for a decade or two. Rake over the area you are working on
and slice through anything
that won't pull out, then re-lay the slabs as normal


+ 0.5

MOT wont stop roots coming back. Use concrete instead.

MOT + cement is a fairly strong concrete when it goes off...it would
probably be better concreted, but I mentioned MOT trhinking that he probably
had some on site for his paving