Root Barrier

The act of cutting off the roots of trees that are growing near a building and installing a barrier to prevent their reestablishment in the area where they are not desired is called installing a root barrier, a root wall, or root capping. The need for root barriers is related to the fact that expansive clay soil shrinks as it dries out. Any structure that expansive clay soil is supporting will move downward as the soil dries and shrinks. If the soil dries on one side of the structure and not the other, the soil shrinks where it has dried and remains expanded where it has not dried, causing the structure to experience differential settlement. Differential settlement can cause serious damage to a structure.

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