Fig roots are often long and I've never seen any get very large. Never heard of the roots damaging a structure. In the south they were often planted near a wall or out-building but in those days the buildings were generally built with conventional foundations and no masonry was involved.

Hi Julio01,
just a guess here but if you have other trees on your property they also could be doing this from a good distance away.
Martin

Hi,
Just a follow up comment on the roots. The reason I'm certain its the fig is that there were no roots under the house 10 years ago, I planted the fig 10 years ago, no other trees are near the house, and now there are roots. They also come from the direction of the fig, with a 1.5 inch root coming out from the ground about 10 feet from the fig (there are 3 or 4 roots this diameter coming out of the ground w some 60 ft from the fig which I find hard to believe). All the big roots come from the direction of the fig with smaller roots between. I'm not worried about the brick as its already cracked and I doubt there will be much more brick damage soon. What I'm worried about is termites coming in thru roots or other side effects from having roots under the house. I guess they pull out any excess water at least.

There are several types of ficus that have destructive, invasive roots.

What kind of fig is this? Is this a fruiting fig, or some other member of the ficus genus?

I second wabikeguy's questions
[I was just about to post - but he beat me].

The F.carica roots are said not to be invasive.

Some other fig genus are known to have roots strong
enough to "split rocks" or "strangle other trees".

For some pics of F.carica growing in some very odd
places (with no apparent root damage) see:
http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=4616581

Here is a link that might be useful: And we worry about mediums

Its supposedly a brown turkey fig bought from a nursery. Bought with several others. Only two are producing a lot of figs, the one near the house and another down the hill about 100 ft from the house. The one down the hill produces larger fruit. The rest are starting to produce better each year but not many figs yet. There is another fig tree next to the house but it is much smaller. The one near the house thats the problem grows a lot more follage than the rest, was cut back and is again taller than the highest point on the roof.

From what I have seen from my own eyes Ficus carica can screw up your house foundation. I know some say this is not true but my recent trip in Turkey got me convinced at 100% that a ficus carica can be a bad thing for the foundation of your house.

If your concrete is well sealed then no issues but the moment there is some kind of crack you are in for trouble on the long run. I have some pictures of historic monuments getting screwed by ficus carica but it never came to my mind to take pictures of houses.

I will search the pictures in my computer and post them here for you to see.

I did not find the ones I was looking for but these ones should give you a good idea on how a ficus carcia could work you structure.

Also, have a close look at picture n3.

Some houses were in bad shape because of a fig tree had grown into the structure of the building.

Hello

Thanks for the information and pictures. For some reason I can't find a picture of the fig tree. The leaves are not out yet but they do resemble the other fig leaves and has had more figs on the tree than the rest combined.

I saw a fig fig root outside adjacent to the brick and I think they made the footing only 12 inches or so deep so the roots just tunneled under the concrete and came out on the other side. Seems pretty wet under there so I guess I'll have to remove the insulation covering the pipes and see if I can find a leak. Maybe the damp soil made it grow more than it would have otherwise.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Maybe the fig roots are doing you a favor by sucking up the water from the leak, if there really is one. My neighbor had a drain pipe from his shower that unbeknownst to him became detached from the shower pan, so all the water from every time he took a shower was draining under the house into the crawlspace. It caused the soil to get so soggy that one end of his house sunk three inches, making his house unlevel, which cost him big bucks to fix.
BTW, I have a Chinese Elm about 20 feet away from a rental house in the backyard that's roots grew under the house about 30 feet wide and came out another 15 feet in the front yard, for a total length of about 65 feet.
My neighbor had a Eucalyptus that had roots 50 feet long that grew under the fence and were sucking water out of my garden.

A lot of the roots were above ground between the soil and the vapor barrier so I pulled out the plastic which some of was wet on both sides. I couldn't see anything dripping. One thing I'm sure is rusted out is the galvanized washing machine drain which is separate from the sewer drain. The cold water supply pipe was rusted out (also galvanized) and we replaced it in 1997 with PVC. For now we aren't using the washing machine until we find the probable leak. The soil seems muddier on the end of the house where the washing machine drain was which is about 60 ft from the fig tree. Didn't see any problems where the bath drains but I'm still going to remove the insulation under the supply pipes and make sure everything is ok.

In Turkey we consider to grow fig trer next to house a bad omen since we know that it'll easily go through foundation, cements. Even there is a saying about bad things happened: You put fig tree to my home knowingly...

How regularly you water can also make a difference. My dad had a Mission but no one watered it and it had huge roots all over the place.I have a brown Turkey about 12' tall but water regularly and see no roots.BUT I am worried about it being close to foundation of house..There is a patio paved with stones surrounding it and I water the patio to keep the roots heading the opposite direction. I water deep..like for several hours.

I have always been told to never plant a fig tree closer than 50 feet from your house. All figs have invasive roots, and they all seek water, so if the crawl space is damp, they'll go there. If I were you, I'd cut the tree back drastically when it goes dormant and move it.

Here in Florida, people plant Ficus Benjamina as hedges/privacy screens, and foundations are constantly being damaged by the plants being too close to the house. Banyans are the worst. I've seen houses that were literally lifted out of the ground by those roots.

Move the tree.