Tree Roots and Underground Piping
Most landscaping projects are exclusively concerned with improving the appearance of a yard. Sure, some other factors may have been at play when you decided to plant a tree in your yard (such as the massive amounts of sunlight that enter your home through a nearby window during the day), but aesthetics is the main concern. The problem with this is that costly oversights can occur, negatively affecting the value of the home far beyond what some fancy yard work may have done to increase it. Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes inept landscapers make is planting a tree without regard for underground obstructions, which can leave the homeowner to pay the potentially expensive tree removal cost and other related expenses.
We all learned in grade school that tree roots extend underground to help wick water and nutrients back up to the tree. Believe it or not, a mature tree may have roots that extend several times the height of the tree. This obviously raises some concern when a tree is misplaced. A common mishap involves placing the tree near sewer lines. In the tree’s ongoing quest to find water, it eventually comes upon these pipes and enters them through hair line-thin pipe joints. The intrusion may not be immediately noticeable, but the water buildup may get bad enough so that flooding occurs in your basement. If it is determined that the offending tree needs to be removed, the tree root removal cost will certainly be felt considering that it is such an intensive process.
If you live in an older home, your pipes are the most vulnerable. Materials like clay that were once used to fabricate pipes are delicate compared to something like copper. The entire line may require replacement in these situations. Most often, homeowners purchase special chemicals that can be flushed down the line that supposedly kill roots. While this may be true, if the line is not full to facilitate complete immersement of the roots, you will get little accomplished.
The more effective way to go about treating the problem is to locate the affected areas of the line. You will need plans of your home to determine the orientation of pipe. Finding areas where the root has intruded will be a hit-and-miss process. Any location nearby the tree should be treated with copper sulfate, which should cause the roots to retract. You will need to drill some holes underground and insert shorts lengths of PVC pipe where you will be able to administer the copper sulfate on a regular basis. If all else fails, you will have to call an arborist out to see if the roots can be cut back or if the entire tree needs to be removed.