How can you remove tree roots from your blocked drains?

Having greenery and trees around a property is becoming more of a luxury these days as Sydney grows with more units and apartment blocks getting built. Trees look great, offer shade on your property, can improve privacy as well as offer shelter for wildlife. Although there are some downsides and unfortunately, tree roots enjoy finding their way into sewer and stormwater drains which often leads to blocked and damaged pipes. Sometimes you can be lucky the you can see the tree roots in an open storm water drain where you can remove the protective grille & pull the roots out. Same applies to a storm water pit that might get full of debris, you can put your hand in to pull everything out.

Although not everyone is as lucky as that and in most situations tree roots will start to grow through small cracks in pipework and begin to grow inside the piping as they thrive on the moisture available. Eventually they fill the opening available which leads to blockages because the water can’t flow as freely as intended. This might take months or even years to build up to a point where flooding occurs.

Nu Trend is a licensed plumber in Sydney that can help repair blocked drains for simple situations like a kitchen sink, blocked toilet or even outdoor drain. We are often called to visit retail shops and other public locations like this Church on York Street in Sydney. They had called us to have a blocked drain plumber investigate the cause of the constant flooding they were experiencing inside the Church. For most rainy days it wasn’t too much of an issue and not really noticeable, although during heavy rainfall periods or storms there would be a lot of flooding. This created a safety hazzard for people visiting the church & threatened to damage the flooring too.

By using our our CCTV Camera Inspection equipment we were able to look inside all the pipes under the property and we discovered the entire storm water line from the street all the way to the building was completely blocked with thick tree roots. They had been growing in the pipes for many years and had made their way through small cracks along the whole system.

In some blocked drain situations we may be able to do a High Pressure Water Jet Blast to break down the blockage but in this case it wouldn’t have been possible as they were completely filled. The high pressure water might be able to break off some of the roots but it wouldn’t be a long term solution, they’d grow back in a few months and the same issue would occur in the pipe. We always help each property owner understand the underlying problems that is causing their plumbing issue so they have choices available for how they’d like to get it fixed.

For a lot of situations repairing plumbing is more costly to get it completely changed vs doing short term remedial work. Although you save money in the long term because you are not paying for regular repairs or fixes. Too many people get caught out by choosing the cheap option or engaging a local plumber that only offers a quick fix, they know full well the issue will re-occur and they hope this creates more business for them later.

Fortunately for this blocked drain problem in Sydney the owners decided to get them repaired properly. So we spent a few days to plan the steps needed that included;

• Obtaining Council permits to be able to cut into the footpath.
• Remove all the debris
• Dig up the existing piping system
• Complete the rectification work. 

Our goal was to make sure that all the roof and surface water flowed out to the street and the new plumbing would handle heavy rainfall. We did this by replacing some of the earthern piping with more modern pvc pieces that will last a long, long time but more importantly prevent the roots from penetrating the sewage system.

If this type of situation is left unchecked you will eventually find the kitchen and toilet waste systems will back up that can lead to flooding in other parts of the property even if they aren’t near the trees, not to mention the  potential health risks.