Sewerage Dramas

A little less than a year ago, we were having some major problems with our sewer pipes. You might be familiar with the telltale signs - the IO in the front yard is overflowing, your toilet won't flush and when you can put an electric eel down there, the pipes seem to only clear for two weeks. The plumbers we had who came out to clear the pipes again said the tree root problem was so bad, and the pipes so far damaged that they couldn't put an electric eel down ever again. Our pipes were going to need to be replaced, and it was going to cost us big time. The 'root' of the problem? A stupid council tree!

X marks the spot where the problem lies.

Can you see how close the 'X' is to the tree? Quite ridiculous!

Telltale signs of tree damage.

The rest of the roots that came out of that massive hole in the nature strip.

A big ball of roots. This was what had completely clogged and damaged the drain.

To cut a long story short, we didn't dig up the pipes. We simply couldn't afford to. We had the pipes lined instead (still expensive, but not as costly as digging up the pipes), the Council removed the tree and has refused to accept any responsibility whatsoever for their stupidity in planting the tree a metre away from sewer pipes but the most important thing *knock on wood* we haven't had any more problems with our sewer system.