LESLIE: Jean, you’ve got The Money Pit. What can we do for you today?
JEAN: I have a driveway where a birch tree – the roots of this birch tree are pushing up a hole in my driveway.
TOM: OK.
JEAN: And I really don’t want to lose the tree. I would say it’s about three feet from where the hole is; you know, where the tree is growing. And I’m just wondering what I could do to stop the root from coming up and, at the same time, save my driveway.
TOM: Well, trees and driveways don’t always go together quite well and – let’s see. To try to save that tree, well, we could try a little bit of trimming but I can’t guarantee you that it’s not going to do severe damage. If you’ve got a cracked driveway already, you may want to pull out those broken pieces, dig down and try to remove some of the root mass that’s in that area and then repatch the driveway. You would use an epoxy driveway patching compound – an epoxy cement – which is going to have more adhesive qualities than plain cement and it will seal it quite nicely. The thing is, if you get a lot of movement under there, though, and those tree roots want to lift up, it’ll crack again.
JEAN: Yeah, I thought maybe if you cut the roof off right near the tree, but …
TOM: Well, I mean you could try that but the thing is it may have some damage on the tree or it might not.
JEAN: That’s what I’m afraid of.
TOM: Yeah.
JEAN: OK, well I’ll try it by doing it in the driveway itself.
TOM: Alright, if the tree comes down, remember, 10, 12 feet away next time. OK?
JEAN: Right.
TOM: Alright. (Leslie chuckles)
Jean, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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