It is a little closer than I would probably have planted it. Should you remove it? I dunno. I assume having a live oak means you're in the south east. How close to the coast or a hurricane prone area are ya? What I'm thinking is in a decade or two the tree will require some monitoring for sure and maybe costly pruning and/or removal.

That said, I really miss this one white ash tree the previous owners of my home planted a couple of about the same distance away from my house. Now that they're 50 years old and mature trees I've had to remove one which overhung the garage. It lost two branches thanks to a storm and boy did I get lucky when it just hit the pavement.

{{gwi:488612}}

That was a close call on that tree, I had one myself one our first house in Florida, I think the tree was a china berry tree (at least that's what I was told) anyway, My wife and I went on our honeymoon and after about a week we get a call from the Mom in Law telling up what happened, the tree just missed the house but took a a big section of fence and messed up our lanai; see what happens when you live together before getting married =)

So should I take from your reply that I should just enjoy the tree for awhile and when it comes time just get rid of it and plant something else in a better place considering the the expensive pruning and care, I should say that I am in the South West Houston area about 45 - 60 minutes from Galveston Island but one of the things that saved us I think is that there are other big trees around us that might have aided in breaking the wind spead a bit.

The other thing that bugs (and worries) me is that this tree has tons of shoots that are coming up that need constant cutting, how can I stop them from coming up and I am also thinking they could be an issue since they could come up through the house pad.

hey

usually.. a tree that puts up shoots from the base.. is a dying tree ... though i have to admit i have no experience with live oak ...

you live in a hurricane area ... GET RID OF IT .... the cost of removal is only going to increase exponentially as the tree gets bigger ...

you got lucky last time... do you like the odds of relying on your luck for next time????? do you like going to Vegas.. lol ...

a picture would really help the discussion ...

good luck

ken

rats. hit the submit button too quick.

Q.virginiana evolved in areas frequented by hurricanes & tropical storms. I'd be more concerned about the structure of my home being demolished by the winds of such than by a tree falling on it.

lucky is right about the suckers on live oaks. Trimming them isn't really burdensome, just routine maintenance. Live oaks are maritime forest trees and tend to grow wider than tall. Watch for branches that may create a hazard to your house and trim them instead of cutting down the entire tree - it's a good shade tree.

There are live oaks on the coast of MS and LA that are several hundred of years old. Because they do withstand hurricanes, I planted half a dozen live oaks last year and grew another 25-30 from acorns.

If the tree provides needed shade, then be prepared for the lose of that shade if you cut down the tree. No new tree you plant will replace the shade as quickly as might be desired.

Installing vine covered arbors, might help shade the windows or patio if they need such shade replaced. Then again you might want to consider having window shade screens installed. Such choices would allow for the time it will take for any replacment tree to grow and spread large enough to replace the shade.

These options might at first seem too expensive; but be assured that they do not cost as much as it will cost you to cut down the live oak tree if you wait another 5 to 10 years before doing that.

hey .. smart enough to know i made a stupid comment ... lol .. what does that all mean ... lol ...

IF YOU LEAVE IT THERE .... talk with your insurance agent about acts of God .. and who will pay for the damage to house... car.. OR YOU .....

as to the comment above regarding how live oaks evolved in such areas ... note the name LUCKY ... lol .. you feeling lucky??? [clint eastwood???] .... lol ... i PRESUME they are correct on its evolutionary background .. but they did NOT evolve... 10 feet from your life investment ....

listen.. i really dont care what you decide.. its not like its a maple... [which BTW .. i hate .. lol] .. i am playing devils advocate .... last thing you need is a bunch of complete strangers saying leave it there [without even seeing a picture] ... they will be nowhere to be found.. when you need help removing the thing from whats left of your house ....

i will be here.. when you write back and say.. you ought to see what happened to the neighbor who left the oak there... thank god i was proactive .... it is readily apparent.. that it is already a big enough concern for you to have made the original post ....

the KEY is to define ALL THE VARIABLES ... and take action that you are comfortable with ...

BTW .. what is your soil.. and what is its reaction to saturation.. and is that an issue with the tree ...i suppose there is no chance that 50 inches of rain in the next hurricane will liquefy the soil.. then a big gust just push the whole root mass over... or is this another evolutionary aspect of the live oak??? just another variable ...

good luck
ken

Living on the gulf coast I can tell you if there's any tree you want next to your house it's a Live Oak. There are houses in Mobile,AL that are several hundred years old and they have huge old Live Oaks growing right next to them.

I just wanted to add that Live Oaks very seldom uproot, if anything you'll have a branch to break off one day, and one broken branch is not going to demolish your house. It's not worth cutting down the tree in my opinion because one day you MAY have to replace a piece of siding or a piece of gutter.

well it seems its up to you ... no matter what VARIABLE i bring up.. the live oak peeps say pshaw ...

but as to the post above.. i am not worried about a piece of siding.... or a gutter.. i am worried about be crushed to death in my sleep by half a tree falling down ...

though i doubt i would be sleeping while the hurricane approaches ... lol ..

my work is done here .... good luck .. whatever you decide ...

ken

15 feet from house is no big deal. It is a very common practice for small lots in Texas... I got a bur oak 20 feet away. I got Mexican white oak 20 feet away. I got some shantung maples within 15 feet... mainly because that's about as far as I can plant away from the house!

Live oak is a very strong tree and is considered one of best hurricane resistant tree so nothing to worry about so keep the tree. The biggest negative about live oak is that they tend to spread out too much rather than up so you'd have to do a bit of pruning to keep branches from touching the house. And too much shade during the winter if planted in the wrong spot that prevent sun from shining on the house to warm it up a bit... Trust me, a loblolly pine tree is much worse to have 15 feet from the house. I've seen a huge one fall on the house right in the middle and crushed the roof. That's when Hurricane Ike came through Houston... What a mess...

I can absolutely attest to the fact that live oak is the most hurricane proof tree you can have. Their relatively short but wide spreading habit keeps them from getting uprooted the way lollipop-shaped, top heavy trees do, and the limbs are very tough with not many breaking off during high winds.
There are lives oaks in Long Beach, Ms that range in age from 500-900 years, quite a long time in an area that gets so many category 5 hurricanes!
Here's just a few limbs of the massive Hunt Oak on the Pass Christian/Long Beach line -
{{gwi:328695}}
Sherry

ken,
I was feeling a bit 'punchy' that day - but I knew you could take it.
I usually find myself in full agreement with you on most topics - bareroot transplanting, abhorring maples, etc., but on this one, I'm with my fellows from the Gulf Coast.

Here's a link to a news story about the restoration of the wooden whaling ship Charles S. Morgan.

bunches of Katrina uprooted Live Oaks used.

pic of an uprooted one someplace else they say

Tree toughness list, Live Oak is up there.

I'd still have any tree overhanging my child's bedroom inspected on a regular basis.

Think of it this way. If the tree lives on average 300 years in a suburban setting (really?) then 1 in every 300 years its going to die and fall. A 1 in 300 chance of dying driving to work means you'll meet your maker once a year, unacceptable.

Now figure you'll sleep under that tree for two decades....300/20=15 so 1 in 15 chance it'll fall while you're under it? If you're only under a quarter of the canopy then you're back to a 1 in 60 chance of that thing coming through your kid's roof.

Did I do the math right?

No.
Your basic starting premise of a one-time event in a 300 year period means that there is a 1 in 109,500 chance of the tree dying and falling during any given day during that 300 year period.
Then, you've got to figure in the likelihood of it actually falling toward the house, and not away from it - I don't know what that likelihood is, but even if it were the 1 in 4 you proposed, then the likelihood that it wouldn't fall on the house would be 328,500 to 1.
Then, even if it fell on the house, what is the likelihood that someone might be injured or killed? No one knows.
Early on, the likelihood of failure is much lower than later in the tree's lifespan; there's probably some sort of 'sliding scale' of probability that some actuarial table might be able to provide, but so many external factors come into play that it's all just mere conjecture.

Whew; all those numbers make my head hurt. I'm gonna go take a nap.

If a tree will fall randomly an average of once in 300 years, then the chances of it falling during a 20 year period are 1 in 15, not 1 in 109,500. If you want to divide by 4 to approximate the likelihood of it falling towards the house, then it's 1 in 60. So, if you keep the variables limited as stated above, your chances of having the tree fall onto the house in 20 years is 1 in 60.

( ( 1 / 300yrs ) x 20yrs ) / 4 = 1 / 60

brandon, with your math equation, you're telling us that it would take an entire YEAR for the tree to fall over onto the house - I believe that if my tree were falling over THAT slowly, I could pull out my trusty chainsaw, cut it up and have the firewood split and stacked long before it actually made contact with my home.

1 time daily event in 300 yrs X 365 days/yr = 1 in 109,500 likelihood of the tree falling on any given day.
Would you care to figure the likelihood of it falling in a given hour of a given day? Multiply by 24.

Lucky,

I haven't a clue how you are coming up with that. Statistics just don't work that way. The time it takes the tree to fall does not enter, not does it have any reason to enter, into the equation. The amount of time for a single event to occur (300 years) and the portion of that time period being considered (20 years) are absolutely the ONLY times that should be considered in the equation.

With your reasoning it would take an entire 24 hour period for the tree to fall. That doesn't make any more sense than choosing any other random time period and trying to somehow jam it into the equation.

Lucky,

I do understand what you are calculating, but what you are calculating is different than what we were talking about. Your equation would produce the likelihood of the tree falling in any randomly chosen 24 hour period. The discussion was about the likelihood of the tree damaging the house while the owner lived in the house (20 years). I doubt anyone cares what the likelihood of it falling on a given day is. It's just as bad if it falls next week as if it fell today!!

The real question is whether your house can withstand very strong hurricane or F5 tornado? Surely, the house would get blown up apart by F5 tornado... The live oak is the least of your problems! Flooding too! I've been through all that in Houston... It is rare that you'd get category 4 or 5 hurricane hitting Houston directly. Not only that, the winds die down quickly as the hurricane moves inland.

I think it was a total of 6 trees that fell on my house and detached garage during Katrina, but there was only damage to the northeast corner of the house, and that was minimal, not a costly repair. I have a metal roof, which I'd highly recommend for anybody that lives in a hurricane area - all the houses that had trees through the roof had regular shingles. As long as your roof doesn't get 'stabbed' you won't have any water in your house, which is the worst part of it.
You can see a cherry tree leaning on the garage in front of the door to my husband's radio room -
{{gwi:485473}}
None of the local live oaks fell during Katrina - the trees in this picture are mostly loblolly pine and cherry, neither very good hurricane trees, especially loblolly pines - I pull up every loblolly seedling I find, which are jillions in number! And if a live oak limb starts growing towards a window, you can trim it long before it does any damage. :)
Sherry

Sorry it took so long for me to reply, from my last post I went from just feeling under the weather and went straight into the garbage bin.

I was not expecting the heated debate over a Live Oak, I am going to get pictures posted that way you can see what it looks like and the layout of the back yard, It my take a couple of days to get the pictures since I have my Dad visiting me from Upstate New York but the pictures will coming.

again thanks for the input, I think I am going to re-read everything again.