Chemicals for roots in sewer?

[Bendroctanus]

I had a client recently tell me that some city worker said she was having plumbing problems due to roots in her sewer line and to get a chemical (don’t know what) and to flush it down the toilet to kill them. She ran it by me and I thought it sounded like a bad idea. I’m very cautious about roots and to pretty much any question about roots I tell people to leave them be. Any one have any experience on this?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

I’ve never read of any harm coming to the rest of the tree when using those copper salts to kill the roots

I would have the sewer line cleaned with an auger then repeat in six months to audit root growth

 

[Bendroctanus]

Thanks Tom. I appreciate the quick response.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

This came up in another forum I follow

there was a suggestion made to run a bare copper wire down the sewer line. It would oxidize and create the toxic salts that killed roots. The claim was it gave passive protection from root invasion. There didn’t seem to be a downside so why not? Simple enough to install and remove if you needed to

 

[ATH]

Old clay tile sewer line? If so, roots happen.

If it is PVC, I'd be looking at replacement. The tree didn't cause a crack in PVC... something else did and probably needs to be figured out before raw sewage seeps into their yard.

 

[flushcut]

I would suggest Roto rooter and getting the line relined so it doesn't happen again.

 

[Bendroctanus]

Thanks for all the input. I passed all the knowledge along and she’s going to look into it. I find this more helpful in my boat because now I have something to tell people.