Tree Roots in Your Pipes: Causes, Signs & Fixes

You know that feeling when you unblock a drain and figure you're sweet, then three weeks later you're ankle deep in the shower again? That's your life around Perth's older suburbs. Canning Vale especially. Tree roots are almost always the culprit, they're after the water and nutrients sitting in your sewer pipes, and once they push through even a hairline crack they just keep growing until the whole line's choked solid.

Good news though, root intrusion is something we can actually diagnose and sort out properly. So let's talk about why it happens, what to watch for, and what we do about it these days.

Why tree roots get into WA pipes

A lot of the established homes through Canning Vale and the south-east were originally plumbed with clay or earthenware pipes. Those materials were the standard back in the day and they work fine, but the joins between sections don't hold their seal forever and the pipes themselves crack or shift as the ground moves underneath.

Now a sewer pipe is basically an all-you-can-eat buffet for tree roots. Wet, full of nutrients, and warmer than the soil surrounding it. Roots can actually sense moisture escaping from a loose joint or a crack no wider than a hair, and they grow straight towards it. One thin root threads through, thrives inside the pipe, thickens up into this dense mat. Toilet paper, cooking grease, general debris all get caught in that mat until you've barely got a trickle passing through.

Fast-growing species that love water, they're the worst ones for it. Big trees or large shrubs near your sewer line and you're more likely to end up with this problem.

Signs you've got roots in your drains

• Slow drains throughout the house, not just the one basin, because a sewer-line blockage backs up everything downstream

• Gurgling sounds coming from toilets or floor wastes when water goes down

• Blockages that keep returning within weeks of being cleared

• Bad smells near drains or around the garden

• Wet patches or unusually green lawn above where the sewer line runs

• Toilets that clear slowly or actually back up

One blocked drain might just be a clump of wet wipes someone flushed. When it keeps happening in the same spot though, roots are a strong possibility. Our guide to the signs of a blocked drain covers more of what to look out for.

How tree root blockages are diagnosed

Guessing at it wastes your money. What you want is a CCTV drain inspection so you can actually see what's going on in there. A licensed plumber threads a small waterproof camera down the pipe and watches the feed as it happens. You get to see where exactly the roots have got in, how much damage they've caused, and whether the pipe's cracked or collapsed anywhere.

Proper inspection means you fix what's actually wrong instead of clearing the same clog over and over again. Our CCTV drain inspection and hydro jetting covers both finding the problem and clearing it in the one visit.

How tree roots are cleared

Hydro jetting

Pretty much the standard approach now for root removal. A high-pressure water jet fed through a special nozzle cuts through the root mass and scours the inside of the pipe clean, flushing all the debris out. Where a mechanical cutter just bores a hole through the roots, jetting clears the full diameter. It strips away the grease and scale that roots grab onto as well, which means the repair holds up better over time.

Mechanical cutting

Sometimes a motorised cutting head gets used first to grind through especially thick woody root masses. After that you'd typically follow up with a jet to finish the clean off properly.

Pipe repair or relining

Getting the roots out only solves half the issue when there's a crack in the pipe. Those roots will push straight back through that same weak spot. Where the damage is significant enough the section might need repair work, relining, or full replacement. A follow-up camera check makes sure the pipe's solid after clearing.

How to prevent roots coming back

Prevention costs a whole lot less than calling us out for emergencies every year. If you've got a known root problem, booking a maintenance jet every now and then keeps things flowing and saves you dealing with raw sewage backing up through the house. Nobody wants that happening.

What about chemical root killers?

Products on the shelf that claim to kill roots in drains, they do have a use as a supplementary thing. On their own though they're not enough. Can't shift an established root mass that's already blocking flow, and they don't fix the crack those roots came through either so the problem just grows back. Think of them as a maintenance tool once the pipe's been properly cleared and any damage sorted out, not a replacement for doing the job right.

When to call a plumber

You've cleared the same blockage twice, or you're noticing a few of those warning signs we mentioned, that's when you want the line looked at properly. Roots aren't going to sort themselves out and left long enough they'll crack the pipe further until you're looking at a full replacement job. Getting in early with a camera inspection is almost always the cheaper move. For general blockages of any kind, our blocked drains service is where to start.

Drains blocking again and again? Call our licensed Canning Vale plumbers for a CCTV inspection and hydro jet that gets to the root of the problem.

Frequently asked questions