A property of beautiful mature trees and plants you may have or be thinking of creating, but did you know; these trees and plants can cause damage to your plumbing drains. Trees, plants and anything with a root system will look for water to grow. Roots looking for water will travel through the earth for long distances. Luckily for a plant seeking nourishment, your property's plumbing drains are full of sewerage and moisture, giving a hungry tree a source for food. A tree root can move along a pipe until it can find a way to infiltrate. A small crack, a loose joint, are some of the ways a root can grow into a drain.No old clay or earthenware sewer line is safe: roots will penetrate. When your drains have become a victim to tree root infiltration, there will be several signs that give you an early warning before fatal drain damage occurs.

Rapid green grass growth above drains:

When tree roots break into a sewer line, cracks occur, the pipe begins to leak and saturate the ground with water and sewage. The area becomes fertilized; plants and grass flourish. When the grass is unusually green in the area of sewer pipes, the ground is soft and moist you have a broken sewer line below. Tree roots travel long distances in search of food, so even if there is no tree in the area, a tree root can still be the problem. 

Slow Running Drains:

Does the toilet bowl fill up and nearly overflow, slowly drain and take several attempts to remove the waste? Does the laundry drain gurgle and take forever to empty the tub? Slow draining plumbing fixtures are a sign of a sewer problem: blocked sewer lines or a collapsed section of the sewer line. A plumber with experience at drain cleaning will diagnose drainage problems, remove tree roots and repair damaged parts of drains.

Foul-smelling Ground and Surrounding Area:

When a sewer line leaks from the result of damage caused by tree roots, water filters into the soil and the ground above. Even, at first, you don't notice the change in the ground around you, a smell like rotten eggs or sulphur will be hard to miss. If tree roots have damaged a sewer line, you smell the foul odour of the drains backed-up waste as it escapes through the soil from the pipe below.

Fixing Leaking Drains:

When you have diagnosed a blocked drain; look for a plumber who is a drain cleaning specialist. Blocked drains and dealing with sewage, should always be handled by a plumber with drain cleaning experience, a specialist with the right tools for all types of situations that occur. Since drains are underground and not visible, using video inspection camera's should be used to diagnose drain problems correctly. Once a sewer line has been infiltrated by roots, collapsed from overhead force or deteriorating due to age, recurring problems will persist. In most cases, a plumber will be able to clear and extend the life of a drain by using a hydro jetting machine or a cable auger. Unfortunately, this does not repair the cracks in the pipe caused by tree roots; the roots will eventually grow back if the tree remains. The permanent solution is to excavate and repair the sewer line. 

About the Author :

Leading blocked drain plumber in Hobart Tasmania, specializing in unblocking drains. More info... kingplumbing.com.au