How to deal with existing trees when building ?
A thread to give some guidelines on how to deal with existing trees when you're gonna build something, may it be a house, a bungalow, or a large project. Here in the LOS, most sellers will carefully clear the land of anything interesting before selling it to you, but if you're lucky enough to have some trees on it, there are a few things to do, and a few things NOT to do, to optimize their value.
Gonna have to have several parts for this thread, as I plan to cover the subject with a minimum of depth :
1 - Why are trees valuable to your property ?
2 - Assessing your trees values
3 - Basic tree mechanism
4 - What NOT to do
5 - A bit of planning
6 - Whats and whats NOT during construction
There's gonna be plenty a pictures, all taken by myself except stated otherwise. You guys are more than welcome to post picts and stories of your own, so we can talk about how to keep these beauties healthy and looking good.
Part 1 - Why are trees valuable to your property ?
I could go ppt style with this, and just pop up a bullet list, and it's prolly what I'll do when I gather all this on a PDF (is it possible to make a downloadable one on TD ?)
Untill then, let's go TD style, and just spray the thing as it comes, with some pics.
reason # 1 :
Where do people park ?
That's right, we live in quite a hot place, and trees provide a good deal of shadow. That'll help keep you more comfortable, and your beer cool. Who has ever been drinking their cocktails in full sun ?
On top of providing shadow, trees also evaporate water, and that helps them stay fresh when its too hot, just like your body does when you sweat. So better let the trees do the sweating.
Picasa Web Albums - Treelove - Tree support
If you're smart enough to build where your tree is gonna grow, that will definetely help keep your place at a reasonable temperature, and save you money on the electricity bill at the end of the month. Do I need to say that you'll be more comfy and sleep better ? How about the morning view through the bedroom window, when you wake up ?
Reason #2
$$$
Any property developer who has his brain in the right place knows that property value increases with the beauty/size of your trees. Any hotel manager knows he can charge more for the same room when there's nice trees around.
This has been extensively proven by studies in the States and Europe, and works just the same here : mature trees increase the value of a property by 5-10% as opposed to the same property 'naked'.
So now, your choice to stay poor and let the rich get all the goodies.
You don't need a Palace like the one pictured here (Lopburi) to get decent trees. If your land isn't that big, one will do the trick, and it doesn't have to be huge either. Ask any bar girl, they'll also tell you that they come in all sizes and colors.