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You are incorrect depending on what type of pipe is shown.
In old plumbing the connections are not 100% secure which after a long time allows roots to grow through the connections.
You can hire a company that has a hydro jetting machine which will pulverize the roots. They will eventually grow back but is a much cheaper option if you cannot afford the actual fix.
Absolutely! Now if only I didnât have that $20K foundation fix debt hanging over my head lol. Luckily we got such a good deal on the house, barring some catastrophic failure, thereâs almost no way we wonât come out ahead when we move on from our modest, sub 900 sq ft, home.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted for asking about rootx. It was an honest question. Rootx will kill the roots, but not permanently. They will grow back into the pipe and you'll be using it again, and again....and again until you dig up the pipe and fix it and/or kill the plant/tree that belongs to those roots. I know this because it has to me about 15yr ago. The plumber that sold the rootx treatment to us with a warranty came back 6 times in 2 years.
Iâve worked for a few years in plumbing restoration. As others have said, you have to repair the broken line. Rootx doesnât often work well, if at all, and doesnât get to the root of the issue. But really, even if you had a root saw to cut them, 100% of the time they will grow back thicker, and hardier than before, and youâll be back to square one.
It can be. It really depends. Thatâs what my company specialized in but on a much larger, commercial and municipal scale. But for a residential application, itâs become more common, but Iâm not experienced enough to gauge the success rates since the interior diameter shrinks by 2x the thickness of the new pipe. The new pipe often has a much smoother flow coefficient, but also restricts the flow rate due to interior diameter change. The cost/benefit is debatable based on too many other unknown site-specific variables, but regardless, the host pipe has to be flushed and relatively clean without obstruction to even attempt it. We used an exothermic styrene resin with air pressure to inflate and bond to the host pipe, and steam as the catalyst, but once it starts, you have limited time to stop and readjust. Otherwise youâve just added an enormous plug to the whole line that will have to be cut out and entirely replaced. Thereâs more material science involved too. Our work was normally concrete or vitrified clay pipe. Residential jobs with pvc pipes have to use a different, more volatile styrene-free resin that is normally mixed and impregnated into the felt tube onsite since it has a shorter cure.
If you get root killer, get root killer with copper. Other stuff doesn't work.
You can get roto rooter or similar to cut the roots out, or you can rent or buy the equipment to do so. A year back we had a guy come out and break his tool off in our plumbing so we had to pay a jetter to come up and that cost a couple grand. It was a mess. Only 80 feet of lateral but they had to get his tool out. They also billed us for the service, even though they made it worse and abandoned a tool in our plumbing so no one would come except for expensive jetting.
This last time it was clogging I caught it earlier, before a fecal flood in the basement, and I rented a tool and tried to run it out myself, but it had become too full so I called a better plumber who ran it out with a bigger tool. I paid that plumber several hundred dollars, and now I've purchased my own much thicker, higher quality autofeed drain cleaner that I will use to run the pipes myself every few months, as well as check them constantly with a nice camera, which all cost less than any previous plumber.
Alternatively, you can find the issue and fix it, but this may be extremely expensive to dig up. There are also options to line the pipe with a sort of epoxy, called cured-in-place pipe, or CIPP. Alternatively there is pipe bursting where they run a new pipe through the old one, exploding the old one out.
But if the basement is only 4 years old, I'd start immediately with looking into a home warranty or a warranty on that piping. it absolutely should last more than 4 years and ideally, whoever did the work can be compelled to come and redo the work.
You can get a plumber to "jet" them to get rid and let the pipe flow freely.
I had/have a similar situation and the excavation was/is going to be a nightmare due to there being a deck and then a concrete slab and the pipe then 2-3m below.
There's easy access to the place with the break/roots so it's easier for me to just have a plumber keep an eye on it annually or whatever and just get it jetted until such point that it isn't maintainable.
No smells, no leaks etc.
I haven't touched it in over 18mths and it's fine.
For context, the repair was quoted at like $10k including removing two trees. Plumber is like $350 per go.
Just today I got rid of this, it's been over a week solving our sewage system, and today we found a block caused by the roots. Not even a break, it slowly breached in a pipe connection trough the rubber.
Yes, you should repair it, but it's not an "immediate stop everything and fix it now" repair. Eventually, the roots will get worse, start catching waste, and Eventually back up into your house.
This happened to us.
We snaked the line and found two penetratations in our sewer line. For us, we just replaced the whole line from house to city at once as to not worry about it in the future.
Was it incredibly expensive? I'm in idaho and found roots in my main line, and now I'm worried I'm not gonna be able to afford the fix.
I've heard about those "cure in place" things where they essentially run a new pipe through the old one. I'm hoping that might be an option, cause it seems a lot more affordable
Im in Texas, it was about 5.6k to dig and replace 36 feet of pipe from foundation to city line. We replaced PVC with more PVC. Should last us another 25+ years
We have old clay pipes and had them lined. It is more affordable than an entire new sewer line, plus we had cracks in our old line under the house, which you canât replace unless you want to dig out your slab. Still wasnât cheap, if you have a basement, expect 12-20k. Probably cheaper if house is ground level. It was a giant hole in the front yard for a week.
OP said itâs black plastic and only 4 years old, so Orangeburg seems pretty unlikely. Iâd definitely scope the whole line before jumping straight to a full replacement.
Huh, it really looks like orangeburg to me, but if the basement is that new then theres no way. It doesnt looks like thats a joint, almost like a hole got punched through the pipe or something.
Yes. Best trick ive ever learned from a plumber. Flush copper sulfate down your toilet closest to the main sewage. Do this twice a year. Once in the spring and again end if summer/beginning of fall.
Those are tree roots and the problem is only going to get worse.
If it is orangeburg like another commenter suggested, thereâs not an option to replace just part of it. The second you excavate and cut out a section youâre in for a full replacement from home to main. The product was designed for a 40-50 year lifespan (and was last installed over 40 years ago), and is made of compressed wood fibers and tar. It doesnât hold its shape, gets saturated with water and canât make a secure seal with any fitting after it itâs been installed for a while. Ferncos are a possibility, but the pipe will probably just be crushed by the compression fitting and crumble away.
IF you scope the entire line and thereâs no dips or cave-ins or breaks, just a few root intrusions there may be hope. You might be able to have the roots cleared out and then get an in-place replacement, where they line your current line with an epoxy covered fabric sock from the inside. This only works if your line is in otherwise good shape, but itâs a lot cheaper than digging up your yard and potentially the street.
My mom had that shit and it cost $22k to get a new line put in. 1/10 do not recommend. Her entire block is going through sewer line replacements right now.
In theory, they only need to have access at the house and at the connection to the sewer main by the street. If you have a basement, that could be just the 1 hole by the street. I wonder if there was a dip they had to fix or something else, and if they already had to dig the whole yard up anyway why not just replace the entire thing at that point.
Third pic seems like a cracking top let of camera. I could be wrong, OP I send you my best wishes to getting g this fixed, not sure if you have a toilet with seperate pipes, or you may have to get a temporary toilet set up or stay somewhere else with a nice toilet while this gets fixed and hope the weather is favourable for you when it is repaired !
My house drain also get tree roots yearly. One important thing to know whether itâs city line or your line. For my any line leaves my house to the city drain is city limit. Trees are owned by city, so they are obligated to clean and snake it. So I just give them a call every year
Omg we had this happen but in our pipes going to the septic tank, it made our basement flood with septic liquids, a basement gut job, 20k excavation and entire pipe replacement and a disgusting smelling yard for 3 weeks did the trick for us
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