Growing Problems

One of the misunderstood issues with dealing with invasive species is that it can take a while for problems to appear.

If, for example, you have a contractor dig and remove your Knotweed growth in late season – simply because of seasonality – nothing will even begin to re-grow until Spring. So, your average crappy contractor stands back and says to you – look what a great job we’ve done, there’s no re-growth.

I’ve even had clients tell me of contractors showing them Knotweed dying back and losing its leaves …and they have taken credit for this fact …. when actually it’s just the Autumn season and the plant is preparing for winter.

If fragments of root and rhizome are left in the soil during a removal exercise – these fragments may not show within your development for several months. Again, this gives the unscrupulous contractor ‘time’ to move on and distance themselves from any blame.

Now that Japanese knotweed removal has become a larger market, we are finding more and more problem sites beginning to appear. These are sites that have been done cheaply with rates that have undercut the more experienced companies.

It’s a fairly simple equation –

If contractor ‘one’ prices to dig 2 metres + of root and rhizome from site at ‘x’ cost.

Then dodgy contractor ‘two’ wants to undercut this price – all he has to do is dig only 500mm of root and rhizome from site at a cost of ‘y’….leaving the rest of the plant in the ground.

The problems may not begin to appear for two or three seasons after the works have been done …but believe me this is going to come back and bite you in the ass. Your clients know what Knotweed is…and they know what it can do to their house price …so they aren’t going to let you get away with any half ass excuse.

PLEASE believe me when I say this is happening folks all over the country – we regularly get calls from clients who chose cheaper contractors than ourselves and now have major issues on their hands.

PLEASE.

Do it once.

Do it properly.

 

Mike C