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Environet welcomes a new team member to help tackle Japanese knotweed in London

Environet welcomes a new team member to help tackle Japanese knotweed in London

Japanese knotweed large growth

Stephanie Clark joins the Environet team as a Consultant for the London area.

We asked Steph to introduce herself, as she has now been with us for 2 weeks and has had a chance to settle in.

Tell us a bit about yourself

Hi, I’m Stephanie and I’m the new Consultant for the London area. My background is in Ecology, for as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by natural history and the environment, so it’s no surprise that I spent a large proportion of my youth studying it. I joined Environet as I was looking for a new challenge and wanted to use my knowledge to help tackle this invasive plant.

Have you come across Japanese knotweed before?

During my time as an ecologist, I provided consultancy on Japanese knotweed. At Environet it’s great to be amongst other knotweed experts, focus purely on knotweed, and provide much more detailed advice. In the surveys we look for:

•    The quantity of the knotweed infestation including the underground root (Rhizome) system
•    The probable source of the infestation allowing you to be informed if this is a result of encroachment from a neighbour or if you are at risk of infecting a neighbour and potentially facing a private nuisance claim
•    Any potential damage to buildings that the knotweed may have caused
•    The most appropriate knotweed removal method for your site and circumstances
•    The cost implication

From these surveys we can produce Japanese knotweed management plans, which can be presented to banks and building societies if you are trying to buy/sell a property. Japanese knotweed is a prolific plant that has spread at an alarming rate and I am looking forward to tackling it.

What are you looking forward to?

It is only my second week, but I can already tell I am going to enjoy working with the great team of dedicated people here at Environet. I enjoy being busy, which is good because London has a lot of knotweed. Ecology and the environment are real passions of mine, so I am looking forward to coming up with more eco-innovative ways to tackle this pesky plant. Our Xtract™ machine, which I had the privilege of driving last week (only into the warehouse – no damage caused!), is a really impressive bit of kit, that can help solve the knotweed problem in an environmentally friendly way. I can’t wait to get out on site and see it in action.

It is also very satisfying to use my expertise in a way to help clients, who are usually quite distressed when they discover the house of their dreams has knotweed, because their mortgage has been refused. My advice would be to ensure that you do your research carefully. It may seem like an easy option to self-treat, but when it comes to selling, an insurance backed guarantee will be required to satisfy the lenders – which you won’t get if you’ve just done a bit of DIY!

If you discover Japanese knotweed on your property in London, please do get in touch on 01932 868 700 and I will be happy to help.

Robert Spaceman

“We had a large stand of bamboo removed, thinned, contained and replaced. The customer service has been first class. Joe and Jason were fabulous and kept me well informed at all times”.

5/5