When roots invade your sewer line, drain problems soon follow. Even the tiniest crack or leak in your pipe will attract roots, because the nutrient-rich water flowing through your pipes is just too much for roots to resist. At first they will be tiny, but soon they will grow, putting pressure on your pipe and causing cracks to expand and weak joints to further deteriorate. The roots will continue to invade the pipe until eventually they block it completely! Depending on when you discover the problem and how much damage the roots have done, you may have several repair options to choose from, including trenchless sewer repair and replacement in Los Angeles.
Cleaning Roots from Pipes
If you manage to catch the problem early, you have a good chance of being able to clean out the roots before they wreck your pipes. A plumber can use a sewer auger to ream out the pipe, cutting off any roots that have penetrated the pipe. Of course, once you do this you will end up with a pipe full of root bits. The pipe will then need to be flushed with a hydrojetter or other cleaning device. Some types of roots grow back faster from cut places, so you may need to repeat this process often in order to keep your pipes clear.
Killing Roots
In most cases, simply removing the roots that are already inside the pipe isn’t enough. Once they’ve tasted sewer water, they will be back for more. The only way to prevent this is to kill the tree or bush completely. You can do this by cutting down the tree and removing the stump or by poisoning the roots. One popular chemical used for this purpose is copper sulfate crystals, which should be placed in the soil around the outside of the pipe. Chemicals like RootX can also be poured down drains in order to create a poisonous coating on the interior of pipes. If you decide to use poison, be sure to consider how much of the tree or bush’s root system is likely to be affected. If you kill too many roots, the tree or bush will die anyway, so you might as well just go ahead and remove it.
Replacing Ruined Pipes
If you have particularly persistent roots, they may damage your sewer pipe beyond repair. If this is the case, you should look into trenchless sewer repair and replacement in Los Angeles. A company providing this service will be able to first send a camera down the line, in order to pinpoint the places that have sustained the most damage. If the damaged spots are out in the middle of your yard, it will be cheaper to dig up the pipe to repair it. But if the damage is beneath your house, your deck, or your driveway, trenchless sewer repair and replacement in Los Angeles can make the repair without disturbing what lies above the pipe, resulting in a convenient and effective solution to root-damaged pipes.
