Clogged Sewer Drain

Almost like clockwork, it happened again - the annual clogged sewer drain. It seems to happen every 13 months here since i have moved in. The last occurrence was in January of 2010.
http://homedespairs.blogspot.com/2010/01/backwash-from-washing-machine.html

As usual, I called my home warranty company to get a plumber out (another $60 charge).
The plumber came out and snaked the line to the street, which cleared the blockage as expected.
But this time he actually gave me some valuable advice going forward - he suggested that I call the city to get them to check on the connection to the city sewer system. Based on how far the snake went in before the clog was cleared, hee suspected that the blockage was in the city pipes, not mine.

So I went online to the city of Dallas web site and filled out an online form to register the problem, expecting to get a call back after several days. Instead, some city workers showed up at my house about 2 hours later. They ran a camera through the pipes and determined that the city pipe was severely clogged with roots, so they notified a work crew to come out.

Again, I figured that this would take days. Wrong! A few hours later, about 4 pm, a work crew shows up at my house with a backhoe. I was heading somewhere, so I could not stay around to watch, but I assumed it should be a quick dig, fix, then refill and it would all be done by the time I got home.

About 6:30 pm, I got a call and a text from neighbors informing me about working crews at my house. Sid told me there was a huge hole in my yard. I thought he was joking.


This is what I found when I got home at 7pm - a huge trench, 8 by 3 feet, 15 foot deep.



They had to cut out a section of the pipe.

The root has entered the city pipe at the point at which the pipe expanded from 4 to 6 inches, senaking in through the joint. At that point, the root had grown to over 1 inch in diameter and from there it has sent out a 3 foot plume of tiny feeder roots which clogged up the pipe.

The annual snaking of the line only cleared a small opening in the blockage - enough to allow drainage for another year until the tiny roots grew back.

The crew worked from 4:00 till 10:30 pm. When they left, the hole was partially filled and a new cleanout port instaled in my front yard. They will be back next week, after allowing the soil time to settle, and finish filling in the topsoil.

Video: