Well, folks, I don't see any good solution to this problem, so I'm just throwing it out there for all you experts. A huge 20 year old Chinese tallow tree close to a residential boundary line has broken the neighbor's driveway. The neighbors are practically at war about this. The owner of the tree wants to keep it because of the shade. The neighbor wants to trench along the property line to cut the roots before repairing his driveway, but I've warned him that there could be liability issues if the tree falls on his neighbor's house.

If the neighbor with the broken driveway removes the concrete, puts down BioBarrier and pours concrete or lays pavers over the top, could this prevent future damage to his driveway? I assume that he would want to shave down or remove the major roots pushing up the driveway, but that increases his potential liability if the tree dies later.

Has anyone out there tried this? Or do you have any other ideas that might prevent a future Texas Chainsaw Massacre(of the tree and/or neighbors)?

cjb

chinese_tallow_1.jpg (148 KB, 1260 downloads) chinese tallow

CJ,
My experience has been that most of the time, the roots will eventually push the driveway back up after a few years. The picture seems to suggest that the root flare is causing as much damage to the driveway as the roots are. I would suggest to them to give the root flare of the tree more room when they repair the concrete. They can also shave the roots down that are causing the uprooting as long as there is not more than two or three and are around two inches in diameter or less. The other suggestion is to hire a surveyor and find out exactly who the tree belongs to and go from there.

Hi, I have the same problem with my neighbor. Her roots are breaking my driveway and now it is a hazard. The tree is a large old pine and she refuses to take it down it is now up to my house foundation and pushed up my driveway.
who is liable to remove the tree and repair the driveway?

well if the tree owner really cant live without the tree,and the man with the driveway needs needs his driveway desperatly fixed they need to be both shown all possible options first from root prunning to drivway suspention ! get the tree valued and way up the cost !! then move on to the method of repair!!