Roots in my drain line Half way to the road

Fish4Eyes · January 27, 2012

I'm no tree expert, but looking at my pine in the backyard, it appears as if the roots are near the surface. When we had that wind storm last year it was all pine's that were knocked over in my area (from the base), which to me implies that a pine's roots don't go deep enough to support the tree sufficiently during high winds. If the pine is approx 20 feet from the foundation, can this pose a potential problem? I know my neighbour has had issues with his maple growing roots which are pushing into the foundation walls.

Edited January 27, 2012 by Fish4Eyes

Skipper D · January 27, 2012

With pine trees ,if they are in sand the roots will go down in search of water , if they are in heavy ground like clay we'll say or the likes , they will always spread out just below the surface making them subspetable to the wind , Hard wood trees will do both , down and out inno matter which soil , its amazing the damage roots will do .

aplumma · January 27, 2012

I will chime in even though others have covered the issue. The tree even after it is cut will continue to be an issue for 3-5 years even though it has no greenery above ground. The roots are as thin as a human hair when they got thru and they continue to grow in size and fracture the pipe. The elimination of the roots after they rot out is still a pipe that is full of holes and debris will wash in. Their are no chemicals that will solve this problem the copper tox and other will slow down the root growth but will not clear them out of the pipe. The best way is to have the old line replaced from the house to the service tap were they connected to the stub out the county provided when the land was subdivided. The use of ABS or PVC pipe is a big advantage due to the fact the joints are solvent welded and unless damaged roots will not be able to get into the system again. Discuss this with your insurance company some polices will pay for the digging of the line and the reinstallation of the ground but not the actual replacement. They also might have it worded they will not replace the line but will fix the line instead. Getting the insurance company involved does have the danger of them denying any future claims for water damage once it is brought to light you have roots in the system.

Art

davey buoy · January 27, 2012

I will chime in even though others have covered the issue. The tree even after it is cut will continue to be an issue for 3-5 years even though it has no greenery above ground. The roots are as thin as a human hair when they got thru and they continue to grow in size and fracture the pipe. The elimination of the roots after they rot out is still a pipe that is full of holes and debris will wash in. Their are no chemicals that will solve this problem the copper tox and other will slow down the root growth but will not clear them out of the pipe. The best way is to have the old line replaced from the house to the service tap were they connected to the stub out the county provided when the land was subdivided. The use of ABS or PVC pipe is a big advantage due to the fact the joints are solvent welded and unless damaged roots will not be able to get into the system again. Discuss this with your insurance company some polices will pay for the digging of the line and the reinstallation of the ground but not the actual replacement. They also might have it worded they will not replace the line but will fix the line instead. Getting the insurance company involved does have the danger of them denying any future claims for water damage once it is brought to light you have roots in the system.

Art

With insurance your damned if you do and damned if you don't.Thanks Art for your input.Either way I go, I think I'll wait till spring anyways.

aplumma · January 27, 2012

I agree with the spring time it will make it cheaper for sure. If you have a clean out cap outside of the house you can stick a tape measure down it to the bottom and get an idea of how deep the line is. Then measure out from the house and for every 4 feet the pipe will drop one inch. That means 8ft down at the house and 40ft from the house the line is 40 divided by 4 = 10 inches. The pipe is 8ft 10 inches deep at that point. Their are reasons that this could be incorrect it depends were they jumped down for the lateral but usually they try to do that within the last 10ft before the street. If their is no clean out were the pipe goes below the basement floor add 20inches from the slab to the dirt line outside of were it leaves the house and apply the 1/4 inch per foot rule.

Art