Do Trees Affect Your Home’s Foundation

Do Trees Affect Your Home’s Foundation

Trees can be a problem for the foundation of your home in a number of ways. You might not know this, but trees can actually have quite a big impact on the foundation of your home, which is why you’ve got to think about this carefully. If you want to know more about how trees affect the foundation of your home, keep reading down below where you will find all the information you could possibly need.

Affecting The Moisture Content Of Soil

A large shade tree can transpire around 200 gallons per day and the amount of moisture in the soil under the foundation needs to be kept at a certain level if you don’t want the foundation to move. Don’t think that you can sort this problem by avoiding watering the foundation though, because this could actually cause more problems. Water moves through the soil, going from the high moisture areas to the low moisture areas, and trees can add to this issue by releasing too much moisture.

But, that doesn’t mean that you should get rid of the tree. In fact, it might be counterproductive to do this, especially if the tree has been there for many years. It will highly depend on the type of tree and the type of foundation as to what the best course of action is here, but it’s largely recommended you just keep an eye on it and water your foundation regularly.

Touching

If there is a physical connection between the soil and the tree, it will depend on the type of tree, as well as the type of soil as to what the damage is like. The species of tree is important because if it is an older, larger, shade tree then this is more likely to be a problem than a smaller, shorter lived one. It is largely to do with the type of tree because of the root system that each one has. If your tree has limbs that are near your house, you are more likely to have roots under or along your foundation.

Should this be the case, you’ve got to ensure that you are watering the foundation frequently enough. If you don’t, the roots are then going to gather in one place, which could end up impacting the foundation as a whole.

Also, different types of foundation are more capable of dealing with the roots of a tree than others. So, you’ve got to take a look at both the tree and the foundation if you’re worried about this being an issue.

Causing Air Gaps And Shifting Soil

Finally, as the root system begins to rot and decay, air spaces and gaps occur in the soil to replace the roots that were once there. This results in soil that will move in an attempt to fill the void that has been left behind, so don’t remove the tree even if you’ve got air gaps.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now have a better idea about trees and how they can affect your home’s foundation. Good luck, and now that you’ve got the information that you were looking for, you should know how to keep your foundation safe.