How to deal with tree roots when installing or expanding your driveway.
Sometimes we just need a little more space, and this goes for the exterior as well as the interior of your home. You might have acquired a shiny new car or perhaps your teens are all grown up and want to invest in a vehicle of their own (either that or they will come ask the bank of Mum and Dad for a little loan to get them on the road)! If so, space may be at a premium and you will be looking to widen or extend your driveway to suit. If you are fortunate enough to have a large front garden you could use up some existing space to widen or extend your current drive. A driveway installation or expansion can provide space to park your cars (parking on the road can be fraught with issues relating to damage to cars and finding a convenient space). Making your driveway bigger and better will also provide you with more room to manoeuvre your vehicles.
Planning is important, give some thought as to how you want the driveway to be increased, are you thinking of making it bigger on both sides? Widening it on just one side? Or lengthening the driveway? Look at any potential issue you may face and work out the cost.
Trees can add character to the frontage of any home but tree roots can be a very real problem. If you already have an asphalt driveway and a tree nearby you may already have concerns about roots growing and disrupting the surface.
You will need to look into controlling the growth rate of the roots, the only alternative would be to fell the tree – which is a pity, trees offer personality to the frontage of your home and removing them is a not an easy task.
If you are looking to install or extend an asphalt driveway you can plan ahead to prevent issues with tree roots in the future. There are many different types of trees and to avoid potential problems you need to find those that do not tend to have roots that sit at the surface. If you are landscaping to compliment your new asphalt driveway and thinking about adding trees, be sure to consider where you are going to plant them. Investigate the width that the crown of the tree is likely to reach (roots can grow at the same width, so this will give you a guide as to where best to place the new tree). This may seem like a lot to work out even before you begin the new driveway, but it could save you work in the long run.
Even if you only decide on a small extension it’s worth getting your existing driveway looked over. This is the perfect time to carry out any repairs to the asphalt driveway (such as the filling of any small cracks). Always seek a professional company to install and expand an asphalt driveway, this is job for those who know their stuff and letting amateurs loose on your frontage can cause untold problems.
"Excellent job! Everything went well, from Chris’s quick return phone call, the quotation visit, through to the end result...a quality driveway. Than..."
