Foundations trees and roots

[Ianmg]

Have planning granted for a single storey 10m x 4m single storey extension. Architect has come back with foundation depth likely to be in excess of 2.4m due to leylandii trees. Plan is to remove trees, which should reduce depth to a more sensible level my question is will the presence of any remaining roots likely effect the depth required or be pretty negligible.

[nod]

You need a SE Removing them will make things worse 

[Gone West]

If you cut them down they will die as they are Leylandii so will not sprout from the base. The problem is that it will take at least a couple of years for the soil water saturation levels to settle.

[nod]

3 hours ago, Gone West said:

If you cut them down they will die as they are Leylandii so will not sprout from the base. The problem is that it will take at least a couple of years for the soil water saturation levels to settle.

Meanwhile the roots will draw even more water 

[Gone West]

15 hours ago, nod said:

Meanwhile the roots will draw even more water 

The roots of Leylandii will not draw water once the trees are cut down so that there is just a stump with no greenery. The reason roots draw water is feed the tree so once the surface of the stump is dry no more water will be taken up. If they were not Leylandii, but say Yew, then the tree stump would sprout new growth and the roots would continue to draw water.

[nod]

2 hours ago, Gone West said:

The roots of Leylandii will not draw water once the trees are cut down so that there is just a stump with no greenery. The reason roots draw water is feed the tree so once the surface of the stump is dry no more water will be taken up. If they were not Leylandii, but say Yew, then the tree stump would sprout new growth and the roots would continue to draw water.

I’ll tell our SE he’s wrong 😑 

[Gone West]

2 minutes ago, nod said:

I’ll tell our SE he’s wrong 😑 

Is he also an arborist 😉.