Roots Blocking Drains

[muggles]

Aaaaaaanyway, at the risk of dragging this post back around to the original topic...

OP, do you have any idea where these roots have come from? IE are there any trees/shrubs/bushes nearby? This will be a recurring problem now it's happened almost regardless of the method of root removal, and in any case there is now a hole in the sidewall of your drainage system somewhere, so you really need to get digging and repair that.

As for the roots, look at the source plant and decide how much you really love it. If it's not as much as you love your drains, I suggest a strong solution of Roundup, available from all good garden centres or DIY sheds It'll take about six weeks to work, and if there's a risk of the tree falling on something valuable when it's died I would suggest felling it about three weeks after treatment, but ultimately this may be your best option

 

[dynomot]

Yes, sorry, back to OP's original query.

If you have a lot of trees/bushes and the drainage is pretty shallow it can be very difficult to tell which tree or bush may be responsible, indeed it could be more than one. Gettting rid of the trees or bushes will stop the roots growing but they are still there.

Roots usually enter drainage through joints in the pipe. A hair fine root will grow to a mass of hair fine roots all tangled together and often down the pipe in the direction of flow from where they originally came in. In a clayware pipe often more than one joint is affected.

It may be that your buildings insurance will cover you for tree root damage to drains. A CCTV survey of your drains would need to be done first to reveal the extent of your problem. I'd contact your insurers as proper CCTV survey will cost between £125-£200 depending on where you live, the size of your property and which firm you use. Don't have one done as evidence for your insurance company, if they cover tree root damage they'll have one of their own done.

 

[BIX]

we are in the process of selling our house. The buyer has had a drains report done and it has shown that there are roots one of the drain pipes. Having lived in the property for 13 years, and having had no drainage problems, I am now a little concerned that the buyer will pull out. The dyno rod person said that in a year or two the drain could be blocked.

Basically , how difficult is it to rectify and how much disruption would it cause. What would be the likely cost?

 

[Nige F]

I recently inspected the******** rain water drain,******** and found that I had roots growing from the inspection chamber up into the pipe, partially blocking the drain.


Any assistance is gratefully received.

Rain Water drain surely not as big or expensive a problem as a sewer/foul drain . Particularly as a RAIN WATER drain of a certain age may not be as carefully jointed as a foul drain alowing easy ingress of roots.