Vaporooter – There are some setup costs

G’day! Its Dave Conroy. I’m here today to talk about Vaporooter.

There are some set-up costs if you are considering putting Vaporooter down your sewer pipes if you’ve got repeat blockages caused by tree roots.

The setup costs are a one off thing and, what they include is putting a drain camera through your pipes to survey exactly what is going on inside your pipes to determine if your pipes are actually suitable for a Vaporooter application. 9/10 times they are!

Now, the most common question people ask me is “Does the product work?” Yes, It does!

We’re actually applying Vaporooter at this property in Vaucluse in Sydney’s eastern suburbs this morning. This is a client who has had it applied for five years in a row.

So, to sumarise:

Yes, there some setup costs.
Yes, It does work.
Yes, you need to have it applied annually.

If you’ve got any questions, through Vaporooter Australia, please contact me on 1800 637 600
Or go to our website: VaporooterAustralia.com.au

Vaporooter or pipe re-lining – A cost comparison

Hello, its Dave Conroy here and I’m here to talk about my favourite subject, stopping tree roots in sewer pipes.
And in particular with Vaporooter!

Now, one of the most common questions that is asked of me is “Should I re-line my pipes or Should I use Vaporooter?”

Simply put, relining is a great process in the right place. To re-line a single metre, one metre of pipeline here in Sydney will cost you about one thousand dollars. For that amount of money, you could treat a 30 metre section of pipeline! So, economically, Vaporooter is a great option.

To reline 30 metres it’s about 30 grand.

To treat 30 metres with Vaporooter will cost you about $1000.00. It will keep tree roots away and give you an opportunity to work out what to do with your pipes in the long term.

If you have any questions about whether you should re-line or apply Vaporooter to your home,
Call me on 1800 637 600 or go to www.VaporooterAustralia.com.au

Plumbing Terms

You’re going to want to be prepared for what your plumber has to say about the tree roots blocking your pipes. Maybe you’ve already talked to your plumber but you didn’t completely understand everything he said.

In any case, here’s a list of terms that may be basic to your plumber, but not so basic to you:

Backfill: Soil used to refill a trench that was dug up to excavate pipes.

Bedding: Material laid under a pipe that supports it and keeps the pipe from shifting in the soil.

Boundary Trap: A point of disconnection between your property/properties sewer and the local authority’s  main. All your sanitary  plumbing runs to this trap. It has a water seal to stop the smell from the sewer coming back up the line.

Cement Mortar Joint: A socket joint or pipe bend made out of cement.

Choke: A blocked drain.

Clearout: See I.O.

Conduit: A fancier word for pipe.

Defect: Decaying material, abnormality or obstruction in pipes that affects your plumbing.

Sanitary Drain: The plumbing (within your property line) that carries waste water away from your home or business. This type of drain includes any fitting or pipe that’s outside of the building.

House Drain: Plumbing within your sanitary drain system that carries waste water from sinks, toilets, equipment and tubs. This type of drain includes any plumbing that’s inside of the building.

Drainage Diagram: A map or plan of the approved sewer lines throughout your property; available from your local water authority, usually attached to a property ”contract of sale”.

Drainoscopy: A drainoscopy is the process of surveying your drainage pipelines with a high tech purpose-built camera. It really is the only way to see what is going on underground. A drainoscopy will show pipes, pipe joints, tree root penetrations, damage or even collapsed sections of pipe. A drainoscopy can be  recorded and forwarded to you via email.

Helio: Plumbers over the age of 30 refer to this. See Drainage Diagram.

Infiltration: Unintended ground or storm water that makes it’s way into the sanitary/sewer drainage system, usually through cracks in pipes or joints, or tree root penetrations.

Installation: The creation of your network of pipes and fixtures or just your network of pipes and fixtures.

I.O. Inspection opening; a point of access into your house drains and branches.

Main: Usually owned and maintained by the local “Water authority”.

Pulling: Manually removing pipe obstruction by pulling a disk through the plumbing.

Rodding: Manually removing pipe obstruction using a system of jointed rods, like an electric eel.

Root Foam: A chemical foam mixture applied to pipes after mechanic root removal to prohibit future plant intrusion and reinforce pipes.

Root Penetration: Tree roots growing into plumbing, pipes, drains and sewers.

Rubber Ring Joint: A type of pipe joint seal that’s made out of chemically treated rubber circa; 1970-85

Sewer Main: The publicly owned pipes that carry waste water away from your property.

Sludge: Sort of the opposite of scum, this is pipe obstruction that sinks to the bottom of plumbing.

Spigot or Socket Joint: The male end of a pipe.

Sullage: Household waste water; specifically from sinks, kitchens and laundries.

Surcharge: Pipe or drain overflow cause by a combination of plumbing blockages and an abundance of rain. It could be from the main.

Surcharge Gully: An outside drain which may have a tap over. It is lower than your lowest floor drain, so that surcharge occurs here, not inside your home. It also has a water seal.

Blocked Drain Solutions

STOP TREE ROOTS IN PIPES

1. Substantial damage can be caused to your sewer system by the invasion of tree roots into the drain pipes which have been cracked as a result of natural settling, age or wear.  Trees are good at finding water and their roots can travel a hundred feet to get to the nourishment they need.
2. Tree roots in your sewer line can be a constant problem that you can do without.  Blocked drains can be one of the most frustrating and inconvenient, not to mention one of the most costly problems you can have at your home.  So it is important to remove tree roots from sewer lines to ensure the free flow of liquids through your sewer system.
3. You have to understand the tree’s root system, how it grows, before you start cutting tree roots.  That way you can significantly reduce the harm to the tree, and possibly to you and your property.
4. Be aware that by cutting the roots the tree will react by producing a large number of smaller roots. This means the tree roots grow back and may cause future issues.
5. Drains when clogged, tend to be the most difficult problem of all the household emergencies.  There is often no warning before a blocked drain occurs and you are faced with a stinky home, flooded floors and power knocked out as a result.
6. No matter how stressed you are or how chaotic things have become, a blocked pipe isn’t a disaster; it’s simply just another problem that needs fixing!  The first thing is try to locate the problem and then you can decide whether it’s fixable or whether you’ll need to call in a professional.
7. Underground sewer pipes are prone to attack by tree roots.  The small roots work their way through the pipe connections and, if given sufficient time, they will effectively clog the system.  Cleaning a sewer pipe is an unpleasant task at best, and if you continue to experience a clogged sewer pipe you need to take the necessary steps to have the problem dealt with.
8. Proper drain cleaning for sewer pipes that have tree root problems is not, luckily, a very difficult job using today’s plumbing technology to remove roots in pipe.  You can call in a professional to handle the situation for you.
9. The main cause of sewer backups is the invasive nature of tree roots.  Seen as ‘An Unseen Predator’ these tree roots will penetrate not only soil, but sewer pipes as well. You therefore have to look into methods of safe tree root removal that will stop roots re-entering your pipes and will save yourself the expense of having to keep clearing and maintaining them.
10. There are some products that you can use which claim to kill tree roots in sewage lines, but they quite often don’t take care of the problem adequately and you wind up with worse problems that before.  Therefore you will need to seek professional guidance for finding an environmentally safe process for removal that will do the job for you.

Tree roots don’t like wet feet

Even though tree roots get into pipes seeking water, they don’t like to be in the water all the time.

Excavated soil allows the fine tree roots to move along the top of and into the pipe joints and then down into the water flow.

In permanently water charged ground, tree roots rarely appear in the sewer because they don’t like to be continually immersed in water.

Tree roots enter pipes through the joints

Clay sewer pipes provide a great opportunity for tree roots to get into your pipeline.

These pipes are usually 2-3 foot or 600-900mm long and there could be up to 50 individual pipes, bends and junctions in a 30 metre (100ft.) pipeline.

That means there are at least 50 pipe joints for a tree to get its roots into your sewer pipes and helps explain why you can have multiple blockages in your pipes.

To excavate and repair or reline where the tree roots are getting in today doesn’t mean the tree roots won’t get in a little further downstream.

Vaporooter treats every joint in the pipeline.

Tree roots get in through the joints

Why trees choose sewer over stormwater pipes

Trees are more likely to grow into sewer pipes than stormwater pipes.

Every day we use our plumbing sending that water and fertiliser combination along the pipeline for the trees and their root systems to drink their fill. BUT, stormwater pipes only carry water when it rains, which in this country is fairly unreliable.

If I was a tree and had a choice of putting my roots into a sewer pipe or a stormwater pipe, I would choose the sewer pipes because every day, as regular as clockwork, I will be fed and watered. If I chose the stormwater pipes, I may die of thirst!

Tree roots grow through pipe joints.

Tree roots usually enter your pipe line through the pipe joints.

Did you know each clay sewer pipe is usually 2-3 foot long? That’s 600-900mm each.

So, in a pipe line 100 feet in length (30 metres), there could be up to 50 individual pipes with bends and junctions.

That means there are at least 50 different places for tree roots to get into your sewer pipes.

That’s a lot of opportunity for tree roots searching for moisture in our hot Australian climate where rainfall is unpredictable.

If you’re considering pipe relining, root cutting or a pipe renewal as options for keeping the roots at bay, remember, the tree roots can just move down to the next pipe joint that hasn’t been protected.

Tree roots in drains start out small

Do you know how small tree roots are when they enter your sewer drains?

Believe it or not, the tree roots that enter your drains through the small cracks in the pipe joints are finer than the hairs on your head or the purest Australian wool.

Once they find their way into the cracks and pipe joints they multiply.

How tree roots get into pipes #3

Tree roots grow into cracks in the joints of sewer pipes that may have been there even before the pipes were used.

Hard to believe but envisage this.

Your friendly plumber has dug a trench, laid the new earthenware pipes, cemented all the joints, then proceeded to back fill the trench.

The very process of backfilling the trench is enough to put pressure and fine cracks in the cement joints.

That is just enough to let the tree roots know that warm condensation is nearby.