Roots clogged my sewer pipe

[TheSlamma]

awww man, your inspector should have offered to sewer scope that place for you, I don't know of any house build before 1983 in Colorado (When PVC replaced clay) that doesn't get scoped.

Well anyway hind site... Most of those chemicals won't do much as all they can do is cover the bottom of your sewer line with chemicals.. roots come in from the top. Rootx can fill the entire line cause it foams up but you have to have a cleanout to put them in in order to get the foam in the sewer line, they have a toilet flush method but imho that doesn't work and will just make a mess of your place if the flush doesn't go right or it finds it's way to a floor drain. being you have an older house I'm sure your cleanout isn't located in a very good spot either.

My last house had root issues but as long as I had the rooter guys come every 3 years and just put a blade on the snake it never had a problem, honestly it wasn't even that expensive (iirc $85 every 3 years), heck it was way less than the scope was or buying chemicals every few months. When we sold it, the scope the buyer had done came out clean as a whistle and the pipes looked great especially for being 60 years old.

As far as digging down and cutting it out.. sure, if there is not a sidewalk, driveway or other utility in the way it's only about a 6-12ft deep hole you gotta dig lol. Like the guys said, keep a copy of the sewer scope video, it has the distance the camera has gone in there.

 

[boomerang]

I'm going to weigh in with a contrary opinion based on my experience. Back in my youth I was renting a home with a friend in a well established older neighborhood with large mature trees. One day we noticed that there was a small amount of water pooling around a basement floor drain. We called out the roto-rooter guy and he put a cutter head down the clean out. He was almost out to the road when it bogged down and starting cutting roots. Problem solved. Three years later when we moved out the problem had never reoccurred. What I don't know is how much time had transpired between when we had it done and when it had been done prior.

The point is that the line is clear now and it has had a video camera run through it. If there are no collapsed sections of pipe, I would let it ride. You can look at it from a different perspective in that replacing the pipe will require time and money. That could occur now or it could occur a long time in the future. If you are savvy enough to be aware that a slow moving drain could be a sign that you should not ignore, and I think you are OP, I would let it ride.

I'm big on preventative maintenance. I replace my water heaters before they start to leak. But this is a big job and I would wait until it needed correction before taking it on. But that's just me.

 

[Anubis]

As far as digging down and cutting it out.. sure, if there is not a sidewalk, driveway or other utility in the way it's only about a 6-12ft deep hole you gotta dig lol. Like the guys said, keep a copy of the sewer scope video, it has the distance the camera has gone in there.

we had to have ours cut out, we tried to just cut through the roots but that failed because a piece of the pipe had bent into the pipe and was jamming the bit. also because of the design of how the house connects to the main they had issues snaking the damn thing in there (they fixed this as well)

so they had to dig down 6 or so feet and cut out a pretty big section of pipe. they did this in March, when the ground was still frozen, and the pipe was under a sidewalk the ran around the house and the position of the clog meant they had to dig it out by hand because they could not get a digger in there because of how close it was to the house and a AC unit

cant remember what they put in (plastic type maybe) but what they cut out was cast iron

 

[Murdoc]

Guys, thanks for all the great responses.

After the plumber cleared the line, he said that it looked good except for one hairline crack in one spot. There were no collapsed sections. I was looking on as he sent the camera down.

When I noticed the backup, it wasn't the whole basement that flooded, just about a two foot radius from one of the floor drains. There is a clean-out a few feet away from the drain, so if I decide to try the chemicals, maybe I can put them down there. Maybe that would buy me some time before it happens again.

 

[Greenman]

It seems that none of you have heard of trench-less sewer replacement. Look into it before you start digging up your yard.

 

[Sattern]

Get somebody to clear the root from your pipe and repair the pipe if needed and then you should be all set.

I have dealt with roots for an awful long time and have to say they are pretty lethal if untreated.

 

[iGas]

Trenchless sewer replacement look like an awesome technology, but the cost is somewhat inhibited.

CostHelper readers report paying $6,000-$12,000 or about $92-$238 per foot for trenchless sewer repair.

100' of DWV PVC or ABS with couplings and cements are going to cost less than $1100 and small excavator is less than $500 per day (normally $300-400 per day).

IMHO, traditional method still is cheaper and one can always drive an iron pipe with a rental bullet head underneath a driveway/walkway if needed be for an additional $100.

 

[njmodi]

It seems that none of you have heard of trench-less sewer replacement. Look into it before you start digging up your yard.

That's what I was referring to when I wrote the following in my earlier post...

I have seen some plumbing shops offer to hydro-jet the clay pipe - claiming that totally cleans all roots out, and then apply a liner on the inside. They were offering a 10yr warranty on that type of remedy, and it was about 50% of the cost of replacing the line entirely.

 

[Greenman]

Trenchless sewer replacement look like an awesome technology, but the cost is somewhat inhibited.

CostHelper readers report paying $6,000-$12,000 or about $92-$238 per foot for trenchless sewer repair.

100' of DWV PVC or ABS with couplings and cements are going to cost less than $1100 and small excavator is less than $500 per day (normally $300-400 per day).

IMHO, traditional method still is cheaper and one can always drive an iron pipe with a rental bullet head underneath a driveway/walkway if needed be for an additional $100.

That seems pretty excessive. The last one I saw done was about three weeks back, line was about fifty feet long, cost was in the $3000 range. They dig a hole at each end and pull a steel bullet through it with the new pipe attached. It splits the existing line so the size isn't reduced. The whole job was done in less than a day, including two inspections.
Trenching would have been a lot more intrusive, a paved walk way and a stone retaining wall would have been damaged, as well as the lawn ruined. I certainly wouldn't have done a trenched sewer for that price, and I already had an excavator on site.

 

[1sikbITCH]

I had a CIPP system installed in my terracotta drain that had shifted and cracked. At least once a year we were needing the roots cut out. They snaked and flushed one day for a couple hours to scrape the drain clean, next day they brought some sort of a portable water heater/pressurizer on a truck bed, got the hot water going, and then fed what looked like a blue firehose into the pipe. The blue was the powdered plastic. Eventually they pumped the hot water thru and the tube expanded and cured into place.

They packed their shit up and went home. I think I couldn't use my water a total of 8 hours between the two days while they were in the drain.

Cost 3500 bucks for 80 feet which at first seems like a ripoff because it takes them about 6 hours and there's no evidence above ground. However the price was cheaper than the 6500 Roto Rooter had quoted to dig up the yard and leave me to do/pay for landscaping afterwards. If I had not been home during installation, I would have had no way to know if they had ripped me off because nothing was disturbed above ground. Very cool.

I've had 3 neighbors since that time all have big machines come dig up their yards to replace sewer lines. Two had their entire yards dug up and had no sewer for weeks at a time due to whatever problems. Even the very competent contractor who was like a surgeon and finished in one day still had no choice but to make a big mess and even bust up the patio leaving the neighbor to hire a concrete crew next. If you can do CIPP do it.

 

[Zodiark1593]

That's exactly what happened at our friend's place in North Carolina in this thread.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=94471

It was D-shaped, and the slip couplings just let the roots on in. No glue, just a slip fit.

While I don't envy having to dig up a sewer pipe, the thought of driving an excavator sounds very fun indeed (for the first hour anyway).

Of course, you'd have to factor in the cost of demolished landscaping. :'(

 

[alkemyst]

I may lose my house anyway due to this mortgage company issue.

However; the previous homeowner poured concrete and loved his drano with a house full of girls from 1969 to 2007.

My main sewer pipe was already said as borderline for the drains coming into it. Now it's rotting out at the bottom because the homeowner put iron pipe with the seams top to bottom instead of side to side.

They'd have to dig about 20' into and under the structure due to the big addition he put in yet did not move the pipes outside.

My cheapest solution is to cut through the Family Room and then re-pour concrete and re-do the tile.

 

[Anubis]

It seems that none of you have heard of trench-less sewer replacement. Look into it before you start digging up your yard.

we looked into it, would not have worked in our situation