QuestionWe planted a new (10 inch) river birch in our front yard about 22 years ago. At the time it looked like it was well away from the front of the house (10 feet) ... now it's a beautiful (40 foot) tree and we love it. We also have cracks in our sub-basement floor which have been getting worse in the last few years. The basement floor is about 10 feet below grade, cracks begin about 12 feet from base of tree and extend about 10 feet farther away. I saw a similar question on line but would like to ensure I can rule out our river birch as the "root cause" of my basement floor cracks. Please help ...
AnswerIf I am reading his correct the cracks are 10 feet below the surface of the ground the tree is planted in?? If so the roots are not causing the cracks. Tree roots that might cause problems are within the first two or three feet of soil and spread about 1 1/2 time the width of the branches. There are roots that extend down under the tree but these cause no problems with foundations.
This being a river birch, there should not be a problem with the roots. You should not have a problem with root damage from a river birch--their root system is fibrous and I could find no one who has sited root problems with this species. As the tree grows the limbs may rub against your house causing problems but this can be solved by pruning back the limbs. This all depends on how close the tree is to the house.
