u will get a better answer if you post a picture

Agreed....a picture or two is essential for good advice.

But if the main trunk is the problem and not a branch......yikes!

to prevent future damage to the house, IMO, it would be gone.

Impossible to tell with info provided, but the basics are that apart from it likely only being a matter of time until the trunk expands in diameter and starts touching the roof, there is the issue of tropical storm winds forcing the trunk to touch the roof.

need a pic ...

without it ... either remove the tree .. remove the house ... or move and let the next owner deal with it ...

actually.. pic or not ... those are your basic options...

you can not shave the trunk or some such

ken

The roof can probably be altered to allow further expand of the trunk. I would do that if it's a large and old oak.

The above two posts contain precisely the same information as was posted by me earlier. Great minds think alike? Or some folks don't bother reading?

Heh, I've been guilty of that!

+oM

I read the first two or three lines, but I have to admit I didn't read the whole post. I wasn't really expecting someone else to be willing to do such a thing to their house, but I guess great minds are drawn to a forum like this ;)

The pic requested

Not much room for growth or movement, plus anytime a tree has a big fork like that it might split apart at some point (this varies on a case by case basis). Your options are to go ahead and have it removed or have a certified arborist or three do hazard tree risk assessments, hang onto it if it seems like it is not an obvious danger after getting their opinions.

Keeping in mind that something might still happen even if you get competent professional opinions saying it's not expected.

It's amazing that it does not crush the adjacent parts of the house during hurricanes.

Yes, seeing this, even I, a leading tree hugger on this board recommend tree removal. Is there a space in the yard more conducive to a long-term tree?

+oM

Monty, I can't help but wonder what kind of solutions you hoped for?

The tree needs to go. It never should never have been allowed to grow in that location in the first place.

It forks...is there anyway to remove the side of the fork that heads over to the house? Calling on arborists and tree surgeons to answer that one.

I know some oaks can grow back from a stump.

Cutting off half of a tree that far along in development is not "do-able".

It looks like a live oak, super strong, if it is you might get away with it. Live Oaks were the only trees to survive Hurricane Camile and Katrina on the waterfront -you should be able to cut the one half off - how much would it cost to notch another area of the roof?

There is no remedy ... to avoid any future possible damage to [your] roof without sacrificing the tree. Firewood!

Cutting off half the tree leaves a large wound, not one the tree can easily close up before decay organisms get to work. So now you would be left with a tree right next to your house which now has a decay column forming in it. Just not a good bet.

Oaks are good compartmentalizers, Alex Shigo's ten-dollar word for the process whereby wounds are walled off in trees, but no tree can be expected to withstand a wound of that size.

+oM

If I am seeing the scale that tree has some expected girth growth left.

Remove that tree and plant two new ones I am sorry.

It's not just the wound, it's half the food making foliage and energy storing stems being suddenly gone also. You can often get away with radical pruning of small whips but once a tree has some time and size behind it the situation changes. Undertaking the bother and expense of engaging a qualified service to remove half a tree of some size right next to a house, without doing any damage to the structure - and then leaving the other half of the tree still in place makes no sense.

And, again, this is an oak with a major fork starting down low - it may not be the same situation as a thousand other oaks with different structural development that have withstood recent hurricanes. We cannot see the crotch so there is no way to tell if it might be a weak one or not. When forking trees break apart it is because the top finally got heavy enough to fail under snow or during wind. Occasionally there might be some telltale advance cracking visible but often the tree suddenly bursts apart, with all of one or both halves above the fork falling on whatever is beneath it.

It has to go. Sucks, but what else can you do? Not much.