At least one impossible thing before breakfast
The plumber stared in disbelief. “Roots, all right. But this is a plastic line.”
Which, as we used to say, can mean only one of one thing: the suckers had grown into the junction between the metal pipe inside the house and the plastic stuff that leads to the city sewer. It’s a good ten feet from any actual trees, but trees don’t much care about distance.
For now, the suckers have been cleared away. For later, I’m thinking in terms of something that works like copper sulfate but less likely to kill everything within a twelve-yard radius.
fillyjonk »
11 February 2010 · 1:12 pm
Ohhh, crap, Charles, I don’t want to hear this. *My* plumbers told me replacing the old terra cotta lines with a plastic one would eliminate the Rootular Menace.
Seriously, if my house ever blows up or something, I probably better call you, just to warn you before yours goes.
CGHill »
11 February 2010 · 1:50 pm
Well, the new techniques they have for attaching these things are better than the ones that existed a decade ago when this line was put in. (I sat through the whole lecture.) I don’t think you have to worry.
Worst case: the trees are paying us back for all this crap about the Evils of Carbon Dioxide, and are turning on us.
fillyjonk »
11 February 2010 · 2:59 pm
My brother and others have suggested I just hire a rooter service every six months (that’s what he does). Or that I use Root-X. And that I not spend the money on the new line.
I don’t know. I tend to be the kind of person who wants things fixed to the best possible extent of being fixed. And I’m bad about remembering little maintenance tasks – if I didn’t have the little sticker in my car I’d forget to take it in for oil changes.
I’m doing the accumulated laundry right now and jumping up in alarm to check the tub drain every time a spin cycle starts. So far, no problems.
CGHill »
11 February 2010 · 4:00 pm
The new line has other advantages besides root resistance: it’s not likely to crumble to bits underground. That’s worth something right there, I think.
fillyjonk »
11 February 2010 · 4:07 pm
True that. And in this town, you never know when someone will get a wild hair and drive their 2-ton pickup through people’s yards. I suspect that weight would be bad for a clay sewer line.
Daphne »
12 February 2010 · 9:21 pm
I hate plumbing issues, they rarely turns out well.