On 18/04/2019 22:26, George Miles wrote:
There's a huge Copper Beech tree ,
twice the height of the house,
but the old clay sewer pipe has roots in it.

So how to dig or bore a trench or tunnel for a new plastic pipe which will last another thousand years without chopping the roots and killing the tree?

There won't be many structural roots at 6ft below ground. National Joint
Utility Group guidelines suggest how to excavate within the rooting zone
of a tree, it was perceived wisdom not to trench within a radius of four
times the girth of a tree. Even within that it should be possible to air
spade short sections and pass the pipe under.

I don't know much about excavations and it must depend on soil type but
I have heard of dragging a pipe along the route of an existing pipe by
using a wedge to burst and expand the hole of the existing pipe.

Beech have a life of 150 to 200 years so if it's that sort of age may as
well bite the bullet and fell it at the water company's expense.

AJH