Strong Roots Make Quiet Trees

The parts of a house that matter most are the parts buyers never look at. Foundations, drainage and the damp-proof course sit below the line of sight, and when they are done well, nobody ever talks about them.

Say two houses on the same street were built in the same year. One builder dug deeper footings because the soil there is clay that swells in the rains and shrinks in the dry months, and laid proper drainage so stormwater runs away from the walls instead of towards them. The other builder poured the minimum and spent the savings on a showy kitchen. For a few years the second house photographs better and sells faster.

Then the seasons do their work. Clay soil moves, and a house on shallow footings moves with it. Cracks open above the doors and windows and the doors begin to stick, and the owner hears about them from every buyer who walks in. The first house simply carries on, with nothing to explain and nothing to fix.

A property inspector looking at these two houses spends very little time on the kitchen. They look for cracks, at how water drains away from the walls, and at the base of the walls where rising damp shows itself. They are reading the roots, and the house that gives them nothing to write about is usually the one that holds its value longest.