Tree roots growing into sewer pipes is one of the biggest problems faced by homeowners and municipalities when it comes to aging sewer lines. The nutrient rich waste water dripping from the sewer pipes attract the trees roots, which slowly starts inserting hair like roots into the pipe, the roots can grow from the size of hair to the size a mans arm. At some point, the root growth blocks the pipe completely, closing up almost like a clogged artery. From the drain cleaning perspective, small roots are not a problem, they can be easily ripped from the pipe. However, roots masses bound together like a rope cannot be removed from the pipe without some heavy duty equipment.
Municipal systems are far easier to unstop than a residential systems. Most municipal systems have straight shots between manholes and pipes 6" and larger. Heavy duty solid rods or jet powered root cutters can be inserted to work at cutting the roots, eventually being able to be cleaned to a rough finish. In residential systems, we frequently encounter no cleanouts to insert snakes from and we have to pull up a toilet. Residential line are generally 4" pipe size and can take many offsets before connecting to the municipal system. Small pipe diameter and offset remove the possiblility of using large root cutting equipment,...we are forced to used small cable machines to navigate the turns of the pipe. Smaller cables do not have the torque of larger machines.
The far most common situation we encounter with sewer is root infiltration at the transition from the county 6" pipe to the residential 4" pipe. The roots push through the once county permitted "rolling donut" seal between the two pipes and create a situation that is impossisble to clean. This situation leads us to excavating the pipe in order to pull the roots out. Mike Whitman, Atlantis Plumbing, 770-505-8570
