Roots in sewer line... HELP!

[denisenh]

DH noticed that a shower had collected water and was draining slowly. He opened our sewer clean out line and augered. Eventually he pulled out a clump of roots. He is still working on it.
What is the best thing to do now that we know that we have roots in our sewer drain? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Our house was built in mid 1950's and sewer pipes is what looks like iron.

 

[lynxstch]

try some Rid X..but if the roots have already taken a strong hold, you may have to have your lines cleaned out professionally. We just had to have it done..it had been about 9 years since we had them do it, and used Rid X in the meantime..good luck

 

[tvguy]

DH noticed that a shower had collected water and was draining slowly. He opened our sewer clean out line and augered. Eventually he pulled out a clump of roots. He is still working on it.
What is the best thing to do now that we know that we have roots in our sewer drain? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Our house was built in mid 1950's and sewer pipes is what looks like iron.

Around here the county will come out for free and see if the roots are in the county portion of the pipe, or yours. If it's theirs, they Rotoroot them for free. If it's your's you need to call and pay.Rotorooter, cause that's what they do for a living.

 

[aprilgail2]

We had roots in ours and the tree whos roots were growing into it was on town property so the town came, replaced the sewer pipes and took down the tree! It started out as just slow draining but once the roots grew in more and collapsed the pipe it all backed up in our finished basement (which the town also paid to have redone!)

 

[Katieinwonderland]

That just recently happened to us! We knew roots had been growing in the pipes for a while, and kept having Rotorooter come out and clean out the pipes. We were told there was a small crack in the pipe, and that was how the roots were getting in.

We finally decided to have the pipe with the crack in it replaced - they had to basically dig up our front yard, but they put it back very nicely! The pipe didn't just have a small crack in it - there was a huge hole the size of a loaf of bread!

 

[Lehuaann]

DH noticed that a shower had collected water and was draining slowly. He opened our sewer clean out line and augered. Eventually he pulled out a clump of roots. He is still working on it.
What is the best thing to do now that we know that we have roots in our sewer drain? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Our house was built in mid 1950's and sewer pipes is what looks like iron.

I'm guessing it's Orangeburg pipe which used to be installed as a cheaper alternative to cast iron. Two of our prior homes had it, and we always had root problems. Orangeburg is composed of wood fibers and over time crumbles like cardboard. Snaking for roots will only make matters worse.

I know you probably don't want to hear this, but the only option is to replace with PVC piping.

 

[Colleen27]

Have the main drain professionally cleaned by a company that will also scope it to determine the extent of the problem. Without knowing what the pipe is made out of and what kind of condition it is in you can't make informed decisions about how to best remedy the issue.

Our cleaning & scope cost $125 and gave us what we needed to work out a long-term plan; in our case the pipe is cast iron and the cracks small, so twice a year treatment with a root killer is getting the job done for now, and we'll eventually go with the more permanent fix of having the pipe lined. But if your pipe is clay or other material prone to outright breakage or the damage is more extensive it is possible that only full replacement will solve your problem.

 

[denisenh]

Thanks for the replies and advice. It ended up being more or less an all day thing, not exactly what i had planned for today.

But thank heavens it was noticed before we had the great raw sewerage flood of 2012, because it was really stopped up. So all showers, toilet flushing, laundry, dish washing and anything else that drains down into the sewer was halted. (one of my kids has diarrhea and vomiting today...)

We rented an auger from the hardware store, 100 ft electric power and it worked to clear the pipe. We also picked up the copper sulfate to kill roots. We had never been troubled with roots before but I guess this is the start of something new. We have a huge maple in our front yard so i am guessing that is the source. Now we will start saving for a big pipe job. Its always something but it could be worse i suppose.