How big does an american sycamore get and how long does it live?
Normal mature size is 75-100 ft with an equal or greater spread; exceptional trees exceed 150 ft with trunk diameters over 10 ft, and the species routinely lives past 250 years. This is the top of the residential removal bracket — a mature sycamore over a house is a crane job by default, and the trunk alone can yield more wood volume than every other tree on the property combined.
Spread below ground too
Big, vigorous and shallow near the surface, exactly as you would expect from a floodplain species, and the standard guidance is to keep it well away from walks, drives and foundations. Note that the setback advice is often misunderstood: roots cannot crack a sound sewer lateral, they only exploit joints that are already failing, so the honest reason not to plant one over a line is that you do not want to remove a mature sycamore the day that line needs excavating.
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