A family was shocked to find a tree growing under their living room floor, and it has cost them £20,000 to fix the problem. Aisha Handren and her family discovered the tree roots after buying their seven-bedroom house for £550,000.
Mrs Handren, a mum of four, noticed a small hill in the front room.
She said: “We moved into the house and noticed that the front room had what looked like a subtle hill.”
A builder told her it was due to tree roots from a tree outside their house. When they dug into the ground, they found thick roots under the house.
The property survey had mentioned a tree outside the house that could cause problems. This led Mrs Handren to seek advice from a tree surveying company.
Despite this, she decided to buy the house. But when they moved in, they realised how much the roots were affecting the floor, reports Wales Online.
The builders have now removed the roots, but at a high price. Mrs Handren told The Cardiffian: “We had to rip up all our floors, cut the branches, and pump cement with steel fibers in to strengthen the house.”
So far, it has cost them £20,000.
“We’re just normal people, we don’t have a lot of money on the back burner we can just waste on this,” Mrs Handren explained. But the trouble doesn’t stop there.
The roots are still under their front garden and they’re wrecking the paving stones.
“It’s lifted all the patio up, the paving is all gone, and the barrier wall has a massive crack,” Mrs Handren shared. The family is scared to take out more roots because they’ve been told it might make the tree unstable.
Plus, it would cost a lot to remove them.
“We’re OK with trees outside the house but what we are not OK with is trees so big that the roots are underneath people’s homes,” Mrs Handren said, who now wants the big tree outside her house on Pen-Y-Lan Road gone to stop more damage to her home.
Cardiff Council was asked to give their thoughts.
