On Feb 6, 11:43*pm, Erik wrote:
just dump rock salt solution down washtub occasionally. the salt kills
the roots but leaves the plants they are attached to growing fine.
best time to do this is early spring just before trees leaf out.
maximum root growth occurs then. long term use of salt may damage your
cast iron, but once or twice a year might not matter/ dump salt water
in AM with no one around to use water.

i have been doing this here for 15 years it works great and is nearly
free

use copper sulfate root killer, which might kill a tree

dig up just the junction clean it off and seal joint with concrete.
how deep is the line?

there you are some low cost alternatives you may have never thought
about

A neighbor had the root issue maybe 10 years ago... he had the roots
chopped out, then started using some sort of (unknown to me) root killer
every month or so... he was just talking about it the other day and
claims to still be trouble free.

Will call and find out what root killer he uses if anyone's interested.

While a concentrated salt solution might work, I would be a little leery
of it. That salt really eats up stuff.

Also, I really know little about this, but remember hearing/reading that
some tree roots are much more salt tolerant than others... as always,
YMMV.

Remember, Google is your friend, good luck!

Erik- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Spending $2K to fix one joint area with only a 5 year
guarantee doesn't sound like a good idea to me. And
for $4K, I would think you could get the entire line
replaced with PVC, so lining the whole thing doesn't
sound too good either. The exception being if digging
the ditch is going to require extensive work because of
driveways, sidewalks, landscaping, etc.

I think the other avenue of investigation is what kind
of connection they used that caused the problem.
Fernco? And what the experience has been with
tree roots and that type of connection. If you knew
that type of connection is always susceptible to tree
root problems, then maybe you can find an alternate
solution that is not. Ferncos are cheap and easy and work well, but
maybe there is a better solution for say $200
that isn't susceptible to tree roots. It could also be
that the connection
is not the problem, but that it wasn't installed properly.
Like they could have forgotten to tighten the clamps.
Might be worth digging down to find out what is really
going on. I'd hate to spend $4k because some guy
with his butt crack showing didn't tighten the clamps.

Another solution might be to dig down, investigate, and
place something around that joint as a root barrier.
Exactly what that might be, I don't know. I'd be
tempted to pour concrete around it, but obviously
that ain't gonna meet the plumbing code.