Invasive roots from neighboring tree

[knieft]

Aloha all,

I am hoping for a reality check from folks with any experience with…

…a situation at a property in Ainaloa where the lot next door has a huge banyan tree that overhung our house. The “peas” and leaves would drop for months on our roof, which was not only a noise annoyance (like intermittent hail) but would cause constant trouble in the gutters, even after installing gutter guards.

We paid Backyard Monkeys to trim the branches to the property line several months ago. $3600 worth.

Now there are invasive roots messing with the toilet line and septic which have been cleared for the time being. (When the clogged toilet was removed there were tentacle roots exposed on the bathroom floor. Kinda Steven King like. ) Had to have the septic pumped out, which is between our house and the neighboring property, and the guy who did it said that the leach field was likely so rooted that it would only get worse. We’re fertilizing those roots!

I got some drain stuff to supposedly keep the lines clear, but that is just a temporary measure and _serious_ damage to our concrete foundation is likely in the future. Hopefully not tomorrow.

Both the county and Ainaloa Association have given repeated notice to the lot owner to remove the tree, but neither seem to have any actual enforcement power. Removing the tree would would likely cost tens of thousands of dollars, probably more than the lot is worth.

So, how to kill the roots on our property?

Dig a deep enough trench (easier said than done on rock soil) along the property line to cut off the invasive roots and overfill with lime or salt?

Spread a generous amount of rock salt along the 25-30 feet of ground from the house to the property line and hope that would eventually kill the roots? (And hopefully after a time the grass would come back?)

Any other ideas? Or comments about those ideas?

Some have told me the only option is to take the owner to small claims court to force him to get the tree removed. I suspect even if such a claim was ruled, the tree might not get removed because of the cost.

There is a dilapidated structure on the property that has no water or electricity, yet a couple people appear to live there intermittently with the owner’s blessing. No problems from them. Just the big butt banyan tree.

Cheers,
Kirt

Edit: can’t figure out how to turn off emojis, sorry.

[1voyager1]

Another problem you might have is that the tree's been there longer than you have, not sure of the legalities concerned by this.

I have a  Geometry Tree in a raised area, about 15' in diameter, surrounded with a rock wall in our front yard.
It sends roots out under the rock wall that snake around the surface of the surrounding lawn.
The biggest problems are riding the mower and walking over them, a bumpy ride and tripping.
Where they go under the wall, I dig the dirt from under them, cut them off with an ax, hook onto them with the car and pull them up - taking care to not do damage with the car.
Have never had any regrowth after pulling the roots out, but do have more roots getting big enough to be pulled.

[Durian Fiend]

I would try to kill the tree by lethal injection of herbicide. If necessary there could be the plausible deniability (lie) that efforts on only your side of property (application of poison to root area) were inadverently responsible for the death of entire tree.

Regardless of their feelings about this, it seems unlikely that the neighbors would be inclined to mount a fight over it.

[knieft]

Thanks for the responses, V1V and Durian,

Poisoning the tree would be simple enough, but when it eventually comes down, humongous branch at a time, and then the main trunk, three structures as well as the road would likely be affected. Including, possibly, lives. Can’t be the cause of that…

Cheers,
Kirt

[Durian Fiend]

Thanks for the responses, V1V and Durian,

Poisoning the tree would be simple enough, but when it eventually comes down, humongous branch at a time, and then the main trunk, three structures as well as the road would likely be affected. Including, possibly, lives. Can’t be the cause of that…

Cheers,
Kirt

But in that case, the dead tree basically forces the hand of the affected structures to deal with it.  Isn't that the ultimate goal?  

After all, it's their responsibility.  There's no way it will stop sending roots your way while still alive.

[knieft]

I hear what you’re saying, Durian, but I will try to keep roots at bey on my side.

This morning I dropped 20 pounds of salt along the property line along with a 10 pound bag of this stuff I saw in HD when I bought the salt. If it is successful in killing the sections of root coming our way, I don’t know if the root extensions on our property will die or just keep growing on their own. I don’t know what banyan roots do in such a situation.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/IMAGE-10-lb-.../100120827

Whether it will work, I don’t know. I will be repeating the process every few months.

And I will have trouble evaluating if it is working, except for another clog or popped foundation…sigh.

Cheers,
Kirt

[Obie]

Try Roebic Foaming Root Killer, I used to put it down the drain once a year.

Most places like Home Depot stock it.