I had to demolish my entire conservatory because of my neighbour's bamboo... we couldn't believe our eyes when we first discovered it

Daily Mail​

24-05-2025

Peter Barnes and his wife had been happily living in their detached property in Brighton for a year when they started to notice green leaves growing inside their conservatory.
They assumed it was grass from their garden but as the plant started to emerge from the walls and floor the couple realised they had a bigger problem on their hands.
Their neighbours had planted bamboo and the trendy weed had blasted its roots underground, growing between the two properties.
After lifting sections of the conservatory floor and removing plaster from the walls they discovered the bamboo had been lurking under its concrete base, inside the cavity walls and extending into the brickwork of the house.
'There was a large stand of bamboo growing next door when we bought the property, but we didn't think anything of it and nothing came up on the survey,' Mr Barnes explained.
'When we first saw the green leaves emerging inside our conservatory we thought it was some kind of grass, but then pretty quickly we realised it was bamboo.'
Bamboo grows rapidly and can be stronger than steel, giving it the ability to punch through walls and turn over entire patios, making it the fastest-growing plant on earth.
Mr Barnes added: 'We hoped that if we dug up the rhizome underneath the path between our properties that would solve the problem, but it quickly became apparent that it was much more serious.
'When the conservatory floor was taken up and we saw the mass of bamboo underneath, we couldn't believe it.'
Bamboo spreads through underground stems called rhizomes, and Mr Barnes discovered an intricate network of them.
The rhizomes are 'aggressive' and can form a colony, creating new shoots, sometimes meters away from the original plant.
Bamboo is removed by excavating the root ball from the ground and getting rid of every plant stem, including those that have been severed to prevent new shoots from emerging.
The only way to deal with their invasion was to demolish the entire conservatory – a cost which is being borne by the neighbour's building insurer under a liability damage claim.
But on average the price of removal is hefty - costing between three and six thousand pounds per residential property.
The demand for bamboo removal has skyrocked in the past through years, explained Emily Grant, director of Environet.
'We're receiving significantly more calls about bamboo infestations than Japanese knotweed these days, and in most cases the damage caused to property is far greater,' she explained.
Despite this increasing demand homeowners and gardeners continue to underestimate the risk posed by bamboo.
In fact, 54 per cent of people are unaware that it can cause problems such as property damage or a legal dispute, a YouGov survey found.
There was a craze for bamboo in the late nineties and early 2000s, and only now are we seeing the repercussions, explained Ms Grant.
'There was a particular craze for bamboo around 15 - 20 years ago and where it's been planted into the ground rather than in a pot, those plants are now fully mature and causing havoc.'
Bamboo is still a popular plant because of it is considered a great screen in gardens.
Unfortunately, it is sold in garden centres and plant nurseries with minimal warnings or advice.
Ms Grant said: 'If you do decide to plant bamboo in your garden, it's your responsibility to make sure it doesn't spread into adjoining properties. Choose a clumping variety and plant it in a pot lined with a bamboo-proof root barrier.
'If bamboo is present on a property you want to buy, or on the boundary, it's a good idea to get a bamboo survey so you understand any risk you're taking on and ensure there's no chance of a legal claim against you as soon as you move in.'