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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. 075

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.


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