Knockdown & rebuild - does the entire lot need to be cleared

SychoAngel · Mar 09, 2014 10:03 am

Looking to knock down & rebuild in sydney and we have some old fig, lemon, lime, orange & frangipani plants that aren't near the area we are building. When the house gets knocked down, do they need to clear the entire site? Or will we be able to keep the old plants?
Anyone had

EandM · Mar 09, 2014 10:08 am

Should be fine. I managed to negotiate with my builder about what I wanted to keep. They gave me an approval to leave some parts of the block out of bounds after they confirmed the build would not be impacted.

I then worked closely with the demolition company and explained the areas that were not to be touched. To make doubly sure, I purchased builder's tape and stakes and roped off the area. The guys were great. Not one of my fruit trees was hurt. They even did the demolition by hand around the trees to ensure nothing was damaged. I hope that helps.

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cameronandmiranda · Mar 09, 2014 10:24 am

We also had a knock down and rebuild. We're in Perth.

We kept a large tree at the front of the block. I don't think the builder liked it, probably because it drops lots of leaves and has dropped branches, and means they can't use that bit of the site. But they certainly never suggested we couldn't keep it.

The harder thing is getting the demolition people to understand what's staying. We had some wisteria that we also wanted to keep. We confirmed it in writing and every time we spoke to them. We marked it out with tape. They still cleared it all. In fact, very luckily my husband went to check in during the demolition and stopped them just as they were starting to pull down the fence that we were also keeping.

Bluesuede · Mar 09, 2014 8:52 pm

Yep as long as they aren't within the construction envelope there is no reason to remove them. Check with your builder. I did a knock down rebuild and retained several trees on my land without any issue.

Building the Dream · Mar 09, 2014 9:03 pm

No , the Engineers report should detail which trees must go, the others can stay if you want them to.

Also, if you have clay soil, ripping out all your trees can play havoc with the moisture levels and seasonal movement of the soil, eg shrinkage and expansion.

SychoAngel · Mar 09, 2014 9:23 pm

Thanks everyone. Will add this to the list of items to discuss with the 2 builders that we are looking at. I am happy that from the sounds if things, I may be able to keep than