What to Do When Tree Roots Wreak Havoc in your Plumbing?
- Trees and shrubs are a great addition to anyone’s landscape. They provide shade, fresh air, and beauty. They can also add value to your property if you have the right species and the right spot for it. But when they’re not, that’s when problems start.
- Tree roots are naturally attracted to areas that can provide them with sources of nutrition, and your sewer line is abundant of that. While there are trees that don’t grow roots to enormous width and height, others are just notorious in your sewer lines. When tree roots find their way into the sewer through tiny cracks, they become too aggressive to block or destroy sewer pipes, lifting paving and damaging foundations.
- If this problem is something you hate dealing with, read on to have an idea of the trees that are best avoided and the signs to tell your sewer is compromised.
What to Do When Tree Roots Wreak Havoc in your Plumbing?
- Trees and shrubs are a great addition to anyone’s landscape. They provide shade, fresh air and beauty. They can also add value to your property if you have the right species and the right spot for it. But when they’re not, that’s when problems start.
- Tree roots are naturally attracted to areas that can provide them with sources of nutrition, and your sewer line is abundant of that. While there are trees that don’t grow roots to enormous width and height, others are just notorious in your sewer lines. When tree roots find their way into the sewer through tiny cracks, they become too aggressive to block or destroy sewer pipes, lifting paving and damaging foundations.
- If this problem is something you hate dealing with, read on to have an idea of the trees that are best avoided and the signs to tell your sewer is compromised.
Trees you should never grow in your yard
- • Camphor Laurel
- • White Poplar
- • Evergreen Figs
- • Evergreen Alder
- • Pride of Olivia
- • Palms
- • Eucalyptus
- • Silver Maple
- So if you have these types of trees sprawling in front of your yard, or your neighbors, (Yes, hardly surprising, your neighbor’s tree roots can traverse deep down and into your sewer line and ruin it), call the trained arborist or our team to find out your options for these trees to thrive with minimal potential damage in your home.
Signs Tree Roots are Ruining Your Sewer Lines
Poor drainage – When all the drains in your house seem like taking forever to let the water pass through, on top of your toilet not draining, means there’s an obstruction in your sewer line. Poor drainage is usually a sign that the presence of tree roots is blocking up your sewer rather than just another type of block. This happens when the water cannot find its way out to the city’s main sewer line because tree roots are holding it up.
Complete blockage – Under the good condition, sewer lines should be highly impenetrable, but if they are old or made of less durable materials, they can be easily vulnerable to determined tree roots. Once the tree roots break into the sewer line, the roots will continue to grow massively inside causing a partial or complete blockage. This will then affect the ability of your drains inside your home to empty the water efficiently and may even lead to sewage backing up into your home. A complete blockage can also turn into a complete pipe failure that requires urgent pipe replacement or repair.
Sewer pests – We wish rodents and other sewer pests like to keep a low profile forever and won’t invade homes in search of food, but it will just stay wishful thinking. When sewers are clogged up, the buildup of food waste and bacteria will attract these troubling pests to live and multiply. They specifically like the sources of food they can get inside the sewer but they can also swim up to your toilet if they’d like to, to invade your home for a more sumptuous meal.
Other dangerous problems – When your sewer line is compromised by tree roots the damaged portion of the pipe allows wastewater or sewage to leak out into your yard, causing different types of problems from spongy grass, to unpleasant smells and pooling water. If your sewer pipe is running in a yard with no good soil, there’s a high chance that the problem will advance into a sinkhole level which can be dangerous to you and your family.
What to Do When Tree Roots Wreak Havoc in Your Plumbing?
- Sometimes it’s easy to blame tree roots for causing damage in the property, but really, we shouldn’t miss the fact that poor planning also contributes. Regardless of the reason for their existence in your yard, don’t feel bad for growing them. There are just certain types of trees, even your neighbor’s trees that are more likely to put out roots that can wreak havoc in your plumbing. Because you can’t totally take them out of the picture, or you don’t have all authority to do so, the only thing you can do is to find a way for them to minimize their chances to penetrate or damage your sewer line.
#1 Install a root barrier
- Unless you don’t want to completely get rid of the culprit of why your sewer line is failing, call a local arborist in your area for root barrier installation. They are a very good investment if you want to manage or control the direction of the tree roots away from your sewer lines and foundations. Trained arborists can find out how deep or how long the roots are growing towards your sewer line and how to prevent costly root damage while preserving the physical state and beauty of mature trees. But, where tree roots have already severely damaged your sewer pipes, ring us first to resolve the problem, before placing root barriers.
#2 Reline the damaged portion of the pipe
- When your sewer pipe hasn’t reached its point of complete failure, our team can install a protective liner within your pipes without ripping off your yard, or taking up the pipe to replace it. This is a good option to consider if there are only certain spots in the pipe that need fixing and the others are still in good condition.
#3 Consider pipe replacement Sydney services
- In cases of severe damage to the drain pipe or sewer pipe, and pipe relining is impossible to carry out, we recommend a complete pipe replacement. Our team in Revolution Pipe Relining will run some inspections first to determine the condition of the soil where the pipe runs, the depth of the pipe, and other factors important to get the job done right. Pipe replacement comes with a lot of advantages including a sturdier pipe material option that is able to stand against tree roots.
As you’re now well aware, certain trees are just notoriously an archenemy of sewer lines. While they provide a lot of benefits in homes, especially during summer, they are best avoided or managed before root damages can prompt a full-blown renovation job in your home.
Our team in Revolution Pipe Relining are not only experts in trenchless pipe repair, but also in different pipe replacement solutions in Sydney. Where replacing pipes in the house is the most sensible way to go, we are the ones to call. We can handle sewer pipe replacement, drain pipe replacement, PVC pipe replacement and underground pipe replacement for you!