killing roots in a sewer line

glennster

Well-known Member
so mother in law has a house in town. sanitary sewer is in the middle of the street. she has a re-curring problem with roots plugging up the sewer causing back up in the basement. did it again yesterday, and had a guy come out and rod the roots out again. this happens about 4 times a year, i have put root killer down monthly, but it doesnt help. lately i have a 55 gallon placed in the basement that trickles root kill (copper sulphate) down. takes about 2 days to empty the drum. the roots are getting in from the parkway and under the street. (lots of old trees in the parkway) city will not do anything unless the line is broken. had it camera'd an line is good, just getting root infiltration at the pipe joints. . she would have to pay to dig up the street and replace the line. its 6 inch plastic from the house to the parkway. had thought about mixing calcuim chloride and trickling that down the drain. any ideas???? to replace the line is about 10k, way out of her budget.
 
Can you take down the trees? Under drought conditions tree roots will continue to grow towards any moisture they can find.

Make sure the root killers you are using won't cause problems at the town's sewage treatment plant.
 
I used Root Kill until I had the tree removed. Home Depot carry's it. It did the job for 16 years. My neighbor had to have the sewer pipe replaced. Hal
 
no, the city owns the trees in the parkway. there are half a dozen maple trees on both sides of the street that could be causing the problem. i have been using various types of root kill from the hardware stores.
 
Wonder if it would do any good to make more noise with the city. Present records of what she has spent having the problem fixed that is on city property, take it to the city council meeting, get the media involved. Bet they would have to take some action with enough pressure.

If that is just not going to happen, could a 4" PVC line be slid inside the 6" past the joint where the roots get in?
 
Slide a bare copper wire inside the pipe until it passes the problem spot. I got a big coil of old copper clad steel that they were wrecking out from my local co-op, fashend a loop on the end so it would not hang up, you can push that over 100' I did this with clay tile and have had no problems since.
 
If this is a sanitary sewer I would think that there should not be any where that roots could get in. If there is then that line has a leak, which should not be. It should be sealed all the way to the waste water plant.
 
There is a tool that goes inside the pipe and cuts the roots, (looks like a hole saw). Then the pipe can be relined.
 
Get the Root-x that foams. Used to have to get it from a drain professional or plumber but I see you can buy it yourself online now.
 
That's what my neighbor found in her sewer pipe. It was packed with Maple roots. They had to remove all of the sewage piping and install PVC
piping. That was about 20 years ago. The town had the tree removed. Hal
 
steves got it ...if your side is plastic and city side..the tap is cast iron...then its the citys problem...
 
If you had an idea where the sewer line is and which tree was causing the problem you have two choices. Dig down above sewer line, post hole digger, and put copper sulfate in hole.

Or late at night, get copper nails, and put many in the tree. Then give tree a large dose of copper sulfate all around the trunk.

If there is 6 inch plastic sewer line. It was glued properly. The tree roots are getting in where the sewer line taps in to the main.

All my sewer lines have a Tee, clean out in the yard. When it back up that could give you an idea where the roots are. Cleaning out roots is like patching tires when you get a nail in them. Instead, you need to remove all the nails from your drive to fix the problem.

Trees and sewer lines don't mix. Anyone who plants a tree above a sewer line is asking for trouble. On the other hand, grass is always greener over the septic tank.
 
Reminds me of many years ago when I lived in town, and the city purchased a piece of land adjoining me (zoned residential btw), and proceeded to build a tractor pull track right next to me. They installed a large speaker within approx. 100 feet of my house. I voiced my opinion, and got ignored, and told me I should be out enjoying the activities not sitting home complaining about what goes on next to me. Now, I like tractors, motor sports, etc, but most anyone would not want that going on right against their home several times a year. When they refused to do anything I wished them luck in keeping those speakers functional. They asked me what that comment was supposed to mean. They finally replaced all the wiring to the speakers just before I moved to the country, and I guess they have probably worked just fine since. Betting they never examined the speaker wires for presence of pins which could short out the wiring :). My guess is that the city will not want to do anything to fix your sewer issue unless it impacted several homes. In my case I was told I am one person, and the tractor pull was enjoyed by many, thus my opinion did not matter. I fought them for a few years, but ultimately I left and let them have it. I now live where my nearest neighbor it nearly a mile away. Worked out for all involved I guess.
 
I don't know how things work in your part of the world, and maybe I'm not grasping your situation, but I'm having trouble understanding why a sewerage component that lies under what I assume to be a city easement is your responsibility to fix. Here the property owner's responsibility ends at the city's ROW.

Several years ago I had a similar problem. I had a plumber come out and run a camera down the line. He proved that the problem was between my property line and the city's tee in the center of the median. That camera saved me $2,500 bucks.
 
already checked with the city, unless the pipe is broken, its on the home owner. i had a camera run down there and it is the iron pipe that starts under the public side walk out to the center of the street where the roots are coming thru the pipe connections. the guy that rodded the roots out told me the same thing. its not fair, but it is what it is.
 
Next time it backs up, put in a mud pump and pump it on the street. Make sure the local news media is there to let everyone know what is going on.
 
Some companies offer a service where they blow a sock down the sewer line and fill the outside with a resin/plastic mixture. Normally used for broken/cracked/leaking lines, but might work in this case as it would eliminate any joints where tree roots could come in.
 
Glenn, You might want to talk to someone else from the water/sewer department. If you can prove thats where the roots are coming in and its on the city property then it there responsibility not yours. Ive laid water and sewer lines. If the roots can come in sewage can leak out. The pipe might not look broken but the roots can split the PVC at the joints. could be the joint is pulled back enough to let the roots grow in either way if its on city property its there job to fix. You need to go up the chain of command till you get it fixed. The squeekest wheel gets the greese. So if its a phone call every day they should know your name and what your problem is. A good cameraman can tell if that joint has pulled back also FYI
 
glenster I was able to get some stuff from our local true value store that worked. It killed a whole line of trees running down the line. un fortunately I cant remember he name of the stuff. The stuff is out there that works. keep trying.
 
May be time to call the local news station or news paper and let them know how the city is treating this little old lady and what it is costing her.
Angle Iron
 
If the city won't do anything about the pipe they certainly won't take down six large trees.

See if there is a MR ROOTER franchise in the area. They have the ability to slide a plastic liner down the pipe which will fix the problem permanently.
 
Where I live, the town would be responsible if the problem is at the curb. Even
after normal working hours you call the local police and they call in a crew that are on standby. I was talking to a crew that told me
they lost a camera and had to dig up a section of the street to find the camera. Hal
 
I would think the roto-rooter guys could tell you how far they go before they hit tree roots. Give you some idea where to dig and root killer.
 
The roto rooter people can cut the roots out of the pipes however there is nothing that will kill the roots. The only answer is to replace the pipe.
 
They do line the inside of pipes now , this seals the pipe joints, probably not cheap, but look at what it's costing the way it is. What they do is put like a sock in line and pump in a mixture that hardens, and then pull the sock out.
 
As a plumber, I would try to locate just where the actual plug is and if each time it plugs, is it always in the same area. The roto rooter guy should be able to tell you by aprx. how many feet of cable he has in the line when he hits the plug. Not sure about all areas, but here in our town, the local power company has a locater for under ground wiring, and they will come out and hook that locater to my cable where it come out the machine and they can tell me right where the end of my cable is and we usually dig down and just change a 10 foot section of line and always install cleanouts. Most of time problem is solved for years until another section goes bad.
Most people use T when they install a cleanout, and the proper way is to use two wye fitings and have them facing each other and on top of each wye glue in a st. 45 fitting and the wye closest to sewer main should point toward the house and the one right beside it only on house side should be directed toward the city main line. I have seen time after time over the last 36 years that pulling a big glob of
roots back and you will sometimes lose them as you pull them thru the 90 degree at the bottom of the tee. By using the wye, it is a much larger radius and no trouble loosing roots.
Another problem I have had come up more an more over the last few years, is the 1.6 gallon flush toilets is not enough water to get solids clear to the city main and if it is an single person or couple, the toilet may not get flushed enough times a day and I have seen it get within a couple few feet of main or septic tank and the paper starts to build up, one piece at a time till you have a paper ball in there that is about as tough s concrete when it dries. I would not have a 1.6 gallon flush toilet on my place. I always use Mansfield brand that if you take the Flush valve out of the center of the tank and go to the hardware store and get a old style flush valve with overflow tube and flapper and install in place of the factory one, you have e anew toilet that will use about 3 gallons and know your solids are getting to where they belong.
 

Copper sulfate crystals flushed down the john every May and October keeps my septic system going and doesn't hurt the trees feeding on the broken feed line to the leach field. :roll:
 

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