Yesterday, Mr. Neville went down to our basement to do some laundry before he goes on a trip. When he got down there, he yelled “Anne! I need help down here, and put your shoes on!” (we don’t normally wear shoes in the house). When you hear that in our house, you just know the problem is something icky or dangerous on the floor.
It turned out to be water coming up through the drain in the floor. One call to the plumbers and nearly $300 later, the immediate crisis was solved. We didn’t enjoy the experience, and we’d like to avoid repeating it if possible. Does anybody have experience with either using chemicals to clear roots out of sewer lines, or trenchless installation of a new sewer line?
Our house was built in 1927, and we know we have an old sewer line (I’m pretty sure the previous owners, who bought the house in 1994, didn’t do anything to it, but before that I don’t know its history). There is a big tree in our neighbors’ yard with branches extending over into our yard, and the plumbers said that tree probably has roots in our sewer line. We used to have a big tree in our yard, but it was hollow, so we had it cut down last summer. I was hoping it was the only one with roots blocking our sewer, and that cutting it down would solve that problem, but no such luck.
The previous owners left us some copper sulfate root killer. I’ve read online, though, that that stuff doesn’t work very well. It certainly has scary warning labels on the bottle. Does anyone have experience with it?
I’ve also been reading online about a different chemical root killer that foams up in the sewer line, called Vaporooter. Anybody have any experience with that?
There is a company around here that advertises trenchless sewer line replacement. Anybody have any experiences with that? Roughly what does it cost- more than $10,000, a few thousand dollars, a few hundred dollars?
Mr. Neville was trying to clean up the water pooling around the drain in the basement, using our wet-dry shop vac. He sucked up the water, then emptied the shop vac into the laundry tub. The water promptly came back up through the drain. He has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from one of the top universities in the US for astronomy. Just goes to show that brilliant people don’t always make the best decisions under stress, either…
While we’re waiting for somebody who actually knows what they are talking about re roots in the sewer line, has anybody else got some interesting or amusing sewer backup stories?
$5000-10,000 would be a good guess. It depends on things like how long your sewer is, and bends, etc.
The trenchless line replacement is interesting - they use hydraulics and winches to shatter the existing clay line and pull in PVC. They do still need to dig a hole or two at the ends, but in general, your lawn, driveway, patio or whatever else your sewer runs underneath is spared. In terms of what’s not damaged, it might come out cheaper than old-style trenching.
Before doing anything exotic like replacing the sewer, have a video inspection done. No point in replacing the whole line if there’s just one spot where roots have poked in, or even if planning on a $300 snaking every year is enough to manage the problem. Of course, it is entirely possible that the line is smashed and collapsed and truly does need to be replaced.
They must be teaching doctoral-level klutz across the country.
My brother has a Master’s in mechanical engineering and is working on his DEng doctorate and has done almost the exact same thing as Mr. N. There must be some joke about how engineers can define open space as being bound by pipes. In his case it was to define the sink trap as intact. In reality, the trap rotted out and flooded the kitchen. Suck up the water and oh, where to drain the vac? The kitchen sink seemed like a good choice…
A friend has a Ph.D in something that NASA finds valuable (not sure what as he doesn’t talk about it) and he is a DIY terror. A while back, his shiny black car got scratched. He fixed it with a can of spray paint that he had in the garage. Flat black. Fortunately, a neighbor was able to buff it off as it was only sitting on top of the wax. Score one for poor surface prep!
Roots in the sewer line - been dealing with 'em for years. The parental units used copper sulfate. The plumbing guys now say just to use rock salt. I think you dump a cup a week down or something. Did you ask the plumbers? I’ve never heard of the other stuff.
We’ve been thinking of buying a whatchamacallem that they use to clear the roots. They’re about $400, which is what we’ve spent every few years for the plumber to do it.
Trenchless replacement: check around with local plumbers. I had to call several to find someone that did this; none of the other plumbers appeared to have any idea it existed. :rolleyes:
I was very excited about this, in that our sewer line runs across someone else’s back yard and under their deck. However, our town will not allow trenchless replacement unless you can provide video showing that there are no dips in the line where water pools. If someone can find a 75+ year old sewer line that’s still level, I’d love to see it. Ours looks like a roller-coaster ride. You could just about get seasick watching the video.
We just spent around $4K to replace a few feet of line where it had collapsed next to the house, but there were serious complications in our case that upped the price.
Since we can’t do the trenchless, my plan is to wait until the line collapses before we deal with it.
I woke up to water in our basement today too – third time in about seven years, also because of tree roots clogging the line. Our guy charged $100 to clear it. He’s going to give us an estimate to retile the line, but unless it happens more often, I’m thinking we’ll just plan on having him come over every few years.
Rock salt, huh? I’ll ask him about that. Is it because salt will slow the growth of the roots? I don’t want to kill any trees.
Ah, the joys of home ownership - I hope it works out easily and inexpensively!
Our house was built in 1963, with a terra cotta sewer line. Roots can easily find their way into those, apparently.
There was no killing the roots and making it work. It collapsed in 2006 (resulting in water from the shower upstairs backing up through the toilet downstairs - fun!). It cost about $6000 to replace 25-30 feet with PVC, and the trench was required. We have seen numerous similar trenches in our neighborhood since then, so it seems to be about the time.
There was the nifty hole in the front yard to allow water to drain from our house in the couple of days between diagnosis and replacement. For some reason, smelled just like a sewer …
We had a blockage due to roots. We called out the Roto Rooter guys a couple times during a 2-3 year time span, but it wasn’t until one of them sent a little camera down the drain did we know what we were dealing with. The root was pretty much totally blocking the 50’s era pipe (not PVC, but some thin, cheap stuff) under the city street. Incidentally, the tree is also the city’s, not ours; it is planted on the boulevard between the city sidewalk and the street.
Unfortunately, the city did not share in the $4000 repair bill. Neither did our homeowner’s insurance (only covered items damaged in the basement by water back up). :mad:
In our city, it depends upon who is doing the work. If you pay someone to do the work, that person has to have a master plumber’s license. If you do it yourself, you don’t. The city does have to put the tap in … i.e., they won’t let you tap into their line yourself. You have to stop short of that.
For example, we had a water line leak last year. Hubby and a friend fixed the line, didn’t need a permit or license.
Boscibo, I believe I would have filed a claim against the City’s insurance on that deal. This is one reason why trees are not allowed in the rights-of-way of new subdivisions here.
Anne, before spending a fortune on repairs (or even inspections), I recommend trying one of these:
You can turn it by hand or power it with an electric drill. It will not solve a tree root problem, but on the off chance that the problem is something less severe it will save you a lot of money.
One word if you suspect roots: Don’t
If this breaks off in the pipe due to a root, you are screwed. tree roots are not for the DIYer. Hire a pro.
Ask me how I know this.
I’m reluctant to do much DIY stuff around the house, anyway. Dumping the shop vac down the laundry tub is pretty representative of our general level of handiness and knowledge when it comes to DIY stuff. I would only try to do something around the house ourselves if it wouldn’t be too bad if it failed (something like “don’t use this cabinet until we can get it fixed by someone who knows what they are doing”). Plumbing doesn’t qualify under that criterion.
I probably would have, too. But the house is actually my SO’s and he shrugged it off. I guess the city carries insurance on this now - per one of our neighbors that works for the city. I wonder if it is too late - it happened in 2007.
Note on rock salt: Should keep the roots out, or help fend them off. Won’t kill or harm a large tree, but could retard the root growth in the pipes. Lots of rock salt over a winter will kill off the edges of a lawn where it meets the walkway/driveway, but the effect is very local.
If salt use get out of hand, that can have bad long-term effects on green things. Local water salinity matters a lot and is an issue in some areas… it can affect the environment.
When my ten foot snake didn’t find the blockage, and my forty foot snake also failed, I called in the cavalry. (We had sold the house two weeks before, and were waiting for the buyers to take possession, and I was tearing out my hair thinking I would drop $10K because the line has collapsed.)
He came in with a two hundred foot power snake. He sent down the Turd Cam[sup]TM[/sup] and saw roots at the 191 foot point. Our sewer line took a sharp turn at some point - the augur guy said it was probably illegal when it was installed, forty years before. But he stuck on a little whirling, three-bladed thing and went to town on the roots.
One of the most satisfying moments of my home-owning life was the sound of zzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZCHOONKwhoooooooooooooooooshhhhh when all that raw sewage went bubbling down the newly cleared line.
I told the new owners about it, and checked back a few months later, and they said they had had no further troubles. So that must have fixed it.
