Tree roots in Sewer

mikehende

There is a big tree on the sidewalk in front of our house and it's roots broke into the sewer line a few years ago, every year we have to get a guy to snake, cut and get rid of the roots, someone told me that there are various chemicals available at home depot which we can place into the sewer and it will kill the roots, when I inquired at Home depot, I was told that there is no such thing. Can anyone here confirm this, if there are chemicals I can use to kill the roots, what are they please?

Marlin

You have three options.
1. Replace the sewer line with plastic
2. Get rid of the tree
3. Keep having it rotor-routed

john442

some people used to use copper sulfate crystals, i don't know what the environmental impact is though, I'm sure there's some off-the-shelf stuff, you need to just google it... read this

http://www.metrowastewater.com/docum...ews_020504.pdf

you can rent a snake and cut the roots yearly yourself for $50 or so. That is, if you don't want to get rid of the tree. I'm sure there's some long-term problems that may surface though.

amakarevic

what is the sewer line made of ?

Marlin

My money is on cast iron, possibly clay, or asbestos.

mikehende

Yeah, I would say cast iron.

troubleseeker

[quote=mikehende;110320]There is a big tree on the sidewalk in front of our house and it's roots broke into the sewer line a few years ago, /quote]

Just a technicality, but tree roots cannot "penetrate" any pipe. They get into pipes by finding and taking advantage of a broken joint or crack in the pipe wall itself. That is why old clay and cast iron pipes are so vulnurable.

mikehende

Thanks for the link, will look into those 2products.