Your sewer line is something you cannot see and you probably never think about until it stops working.  A backed up sewer can send a family into crisis mode  immediately.

Your kitchen and master bathroom are an integral part of everyday life.  Without them you can feel lost and out of place, fact is, people rely on plumbing everyday to do the most basic things such as showering, bathing, washing dishes, washing clothes,  and of course using the toilet.

Roots in your sewer line are caused by either a failed connection at the city tap or a bad joint somewhere in your yard line. Improperly cleaned PVC pipe connectors or even the absence of glue is a common problem plumbers find repairing sewer lines.

Both Cast iron pipe and clay pipe eventually deteriorate and must be replaced.

Sewer clean-outs should be placed outside the home within five feet and every forty feet along the sewer line for maintenance and cleaning. Two way clean-outs are the best practice.

If your line becomes root infested then you will need to have it dug up and repaired for a permanent fix to the problem.  Sometimes sewer lines are installed with too much fall or “pitch”.  This causes the solids in the line to separate from the liquids.

Improper installation is usually the culprit when PVC fails. Understanding the proper pitch and how to properly back fill and compact the soil plays a major role in this.

Technically a sewer line should be laid on rock crusher run that has been sighted with a transit.

What happens over time on an improperly laid line is, eventually the solids that are left in the line catch toilet paper and grease and other debris where “bellies” or bad joints are. This debris can back up in the line causing pressure on weak plumbing joints and may break a weak joint or even disconnect that pipe underground. Then the roots have a way in.

The pressure build up from your house being higher than the line may actually clean the blockage out for a period of time and you may never even notice it until roots start growing through a broken joint or even worse a complete separation of the two pipes.

If this happens you may need the entire line replaced so it can be pitched properly to avoid this. Short term fixes to keep roots out include herbicides that are mixed and poured into the line. This will buy you some time,but not much. If you have a really large root ball in your line and a lot of toilet paper and solids behind it your plumber may not be able to clean the line with a sewer machine and it will have to be dug up to remove the root ball.

Just because you do not have trees in your yard does not mean roots will not enter the sewer line. Roots travel and seek out water sources from very long distances and will find your broken pipe eventually. Remember tree roots reciprocate the upper part of the tree in the ground.  A plumbing service will typically clear a blockage and then run a camera into the line to pinpoint the problem. After the problem is pinpointed and marked it can be dug up and repaired with precision accuracy.

The bottom line is roots will never go away unless you completely seal your sewer pipe.