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Street trees block drains
Are these Beautiful Trees in your street?
Liquid amber, London plane tree, Golden Robinia, Hills weeping fig, Brush box.
Every year as they grow a little bigger their expanding canopy adds thousands of dollars to the value to your home, bringing energy saving cool shade from the summer heat, the beauty of the colours of autumn, some, when they lose their leaves, provide much needed natural lighting and in some cases a windbreak in winter. 
These same trees help replenish our oxygen supply and bring birdlife in abundance, a place for the kids to play, making your street one of the most sought after in your suburb.
Imagine your street without the trees.
Now if you have lived in your tree-lined street for some time, you will know that there is a downside to having these trees.
Did you know their luxurious canopy is fed by a root system that is fed nutrition from the non-stop supply running through that main artery from your home, also known as your sewer pipes?
Tree roots are growing around the clock; they don’t just grow overnight. They start, finer than the hairs on your head, searching for that hint of moisture or condensation on the top of your sewer pipes. (Condensation is caused as the water running through the sewer is slightly warmer than the pipes and the earth they are laying in).
Their task has been made easier by the trench excavation, breaking up soils to fit the pipes in the first place. Backfill and compaction is still way easier for tree roots to penetrate than virgin soils.
Once the fine hairs get in through the slightest crack in old earthenware or terra cotta pipe joints, they feast on the nutrients available, and grow constantly. They can end up as thick as your arm with a horse tail attached.
Amazing!
We have cut tree roots from sewers that fit this description and up to 8 metres in length.
As the roots grow in length they grow in diameter and can actually crack the earthenware pipes as they grow.
They don’t just grow overnight.
Who knows how a tree thinks?
Once they get in the pipe and have a constant source of moisture and nutrients they will keep coming back for more. Having their roots cut by drain cleaners is like pruning the roots. As any gardener will tell you, pruning makes them grow thicker and stronger. Think hedges or Rose bush.
It’s the same with the root system.
How can tree roots destroy pipes?
Tree root cells, which can be microscopic in their first stages of development, look for warmth and humidity so that they can mature.
In their search, they are attracted to and discover drain lines, which they can penetrate through extremely small openings in the pipe joints and gradually grow inside them.
As the tree roots mature inside the pipes, they create blockages when waste water is flushed through them.
Now, one of the least efficient methods of unblocking the pipes is cutting the roots. This “pruning” action actually leads to a more vigorous tree root regrowth.
How Blocked Drains Happen
Sewer and drain pipes may not be very attractive to you, but tree roots love them. Tree roots are lured towards your pipes because of condensation. Moisture builds up around the pipes, more so in summer because the water in the pipes is much cooler than the surrounding environment . Thirsty tree roots lock onto the trail of dampness and creep toward your pipes.
The roots will grow along the pipes until they reach a crack, they may even pry open a loose joint. Once the pipe is breached, the root will grow into it to take advantage of the nutrient-rich material inside.
As the root continues to infiltrate the pipe it grows a bundle of thin root-masses. These masses make the blockage worse by trapping kitchen grease, food oil, and large pieces of drain debris such as toilet paper.
The tree roots will eventually exert so much pressure on the pipe that they will simply destroy the section that they have grown into. The pipe may crack or burst from the outside, or the pressure of the roots on the outside could cause the pipe to collapse in on itself.
Tree roots are not your everyday drain blockage. Most blockages can be quickly cleaned out by your local plumber. The blockages caused by roots that grow into pipes are much more complicated. Even if a plumber is able to eel out the blockage, there will still be damage to the line.
5 Ways to Prevent Blocked Drains
These simple measures will go a long way to prevent roots infiltrating and destroying your sewer pipes
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- Use pipes made of Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) for new and replacement drains. PVC pipes are strong enough to repel the tree roots. Experts agree that PVC is the best material for reducing the risk of tree root blockages.
- Don’t plant trees near pipes. This seems simple enough, but many home and business owners don’t realize what constitutes as ‘near’ when we’re talking tree roots. Many Australian trees have roots that have an incredibly wide spread.
- Pick proper foliage. Eucalyptus, for example, can have root systems that spread out as little as 6 metres. Hills Weeping Fig, on the other hand, can have a root spread up to 60 metres.
- Maintain your pipes. Wear and tear, cracks, and leaks can cause nutrient-rich water to seep into the soil around your pipes. This attracts tree roots straight to your pipes.
- Routinely check and clear your sewer drain. Though roots can be attracted to any type of water-bearing line, they are most often lured towards sewer drains. An expert plumber and drain cleaner can come by and clear roots out of your pipes before they become a big problem.
Compare Vaporooter and Stop Tree Roots in Drains.
Blocked drains fixed… Free! What your Plumber doesn’t know
Does your home get blocked drains caused by tree roots? What if I gave you a written guarantee. We’ll fix your blockage for FREE! It sounds crazy, but its true!
It’s a simple process that less than 5% of Australian maintenance plumbers know about. In fact, plumbers don’t want you to know about it ’cause it Stops Tree Roots in Drains. It’s called Vaporooter and it works.
We protect over 328 families who got blocked drains 3-4 times a year before Vaporooter was introduced. Their pipes were blocked by tree roots. Not anymore!
Check out these case studies and learn a little more.
Spring brings shoots and tree roots
Spring in Australia brings new growth to our trees and shrubs. New shoots above ground means the trees are growing underground as well, and new tree roots means blocked drains.
As Australia’s leading authority on tree roots in drains, with over 15,000 blocked drains under my belt and I’ve used all kinds of drain cleaners, its safe to say I know a lot about fixing blocked drains.
Having said that, I can tell you that there is a simple way to Stop Tree Roots in Drains. It’s called Vaporooter!
Over the next few weeks I’ll share some of my blocked drain experiences and how you can prevent them from happening at your place ever again!
Look inside a clean sewer pipe
Vaporooter is a revolutionary pipe treatment that stops tree root blockages in pipes and drains and prevents further tree root damage.
Watch this 1.58 min YouTube clip of the inside of a sewer pipe to see how tree roots cause blockages. Don’t worry it won’t spoil your lunch!
No more Blocked Drains?
Did you know……….
85% of all blocked sewer drains are caused by tree roots?
Simply put, there is a way to prevent blocked drains from happening ever again.
It’s easy, it’s safe and it Works!
It’s called Vaporooter
How can Vaporooter help save time and money?
Vaporooter eradicates tree roots in drains, while inhibiting their future re-growth.
The cost saving is significant.
The Vaporooter process provides a simple Guarantee:
“If your drains, treated with Vaporooter, have a blockage caused by tree roots, We will clear the blockage for FREE”
Vaporooter kills tree roots in drains – Period
Sanafoam Vaporooter II is a foaming mixture of herbicides which stops and prevents drain line blockages produced by tree root penetration through the pipe joints. This technology tackles the problems caused by live root infestation by attacking the roots inside the pipe.
The foam containing the combination of Metham Sodium (herbicide) and Dichlobenil (growth inhibiting agent) is introduced in the sewage pipe, so that it can have direct contact with the intrusive roots. The treatment softens and kills the live roots, leaving them to naturally disintegrate within six months.
If the pipe blockage is in a very advanced stage and requires the cutting of tree roots, a period of at least six weeks should be left between the cutting and the Vaporooter treatment, so that roots have time to regrow.