Maple Tree - Roots

[BAIRDS]

I will soon be adding an addition to my house what will bring the corner of my house from 7.5 feet away to 3.5 feet away. The tree is a (red ?) maple 24"+ in diameter. I was thinking if I went in and "surgically" cut the roots flush with a, sawzall, and keep the tree watered for the next few years.... It will live.

Is there any hope?

 

[treeseer]

Search the archives for this, many threads there.

I'm typically ready to prune roots and take chances, but if you are digging a continuous trench, the tree will die. If you build on posts instead it may not.

How bout adding on somewhere else? O and first get an arborist on site to tell you how the tree is now; that makes all the difference in how it handles root loss. You can post pix here if you want semiqualified advice. Also see

http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/avoiding_construction.asp