Roots in the sewer line are a real pain. We have lived in our house for 26
years and have had roots clogging up the sewer lines for 26 years. We have
had cameras run through our line twice. They have never found any large
discernable breaks or gaps either time. There are so many things that can
be causing the problems. In our case, we discovered that normally the pipe
from the house carrying the water and sewage is 4" in diameter. Then
shortly after it exits the house, the 4" pipe drains into a 6" pipe and
stays 6" in diameter until it hits the sewer main. In our case the problem
is that the builder never installed a 6" pipe. Our drainage pipe stays 4"
in diameter all the way to the sewer main. Our house is about 32 years old
and the 4" pipe has quite a few joints. All it takes is 'hair roots' from
the trees sneaking in the pipe at the joints to clog a 4" pipe. The sewer
main is on the other side of our street - 140 feet from our pipe stack. So,
we have a very long run and many joints.

Putting in a new sewer line is not an option with us. We would have to tear
up the street as our line runs under it to the main on the opposite side of
the street. The estimate to do that is between $15,000 and $20,000. The
street would have to be torn up and repaired as part of fixing our line.
Also, the sewer main runs under the front yard of neighbors across the
street. And, yes you need permission from them before anything can be done.

We have tried a lot of different kinds of root killers. Some we put in
ourselves and one called Root-X had to be put in the pipes by a plumbing
contractor. Nothing has worked. Every 6-8 months the sewer needs to be
cleaned out by a snake. That is the only thing we can do.

In your case, you definitely need a camera to go through your pipes to see
what is going on. I can't imagine a reputable contractor just tearing up
you lawn and pipes without really knowing exactly what the problem is. They
need to determine how long you pipe runs and how deep in the ground it is.
If you do decide to have it replaced, get a very firm cost estimate from
them. It can be a very very expensive undertaking. Some contractors won't
give a firm estimate until they actually tear the yard up and see what work
is involved.


"jeff" wrote in message
.net...
My main sewer line has a problem with tree roots. It got clogged from a
tree root 5 years after I moved into my house. It happened again 2 years
after that, and last week it happened 1 year after the previous time.

The sewer people who cleared my main line told me the locations of the
blockages. The first time they used a snake to remove a rather large root
from my line and said the location was around 12 feet from the house. The
2nd time it got clogged, they used a cutter at the end of the snake to
break
up blockages (did not remove anything) and said there were two blockages,
one of which was 16 feet from the house and the 2nd was 24 feet from the
house. The 3rd time it got clogged (last week) they used a cutter again,
and said there was one blockage around 11 feet from the house (which
pretty
much jibes with the location of the original blockage).

My sewer plumber (who doesn't do replacement work) thought it was time to
have something done about fixing the problem. It seems there are some
sewer
contractors who believe that a video inspection is necessary before
determining whether or not to replace the line, while others feel that
replacement is the way to go based on what I already know, and say that
I'm
not gonna learn anything more than I already know from a video inspection.

Could a video inspection tell me anything I don't already know, or is it
likely just a waste of money?

Is it possible that repairing the line could be a reasonable long-term
solution, or is replacement of the line the only reasonable long-term
solution to this problem?

BTW, one sewer contractor said that an option is to restore the existing
pipe with a PVC liner (a tube that they put in, then inflate and then
cure).
Is a PVC liner an effective long-term solution as an alternative to
replacement, or should I stay away from that?

Thanks.

Jeff