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How Does Spring Growth Affect Plumbing?
Spring is here, and that means it's time to get outside and get back in motion after being stuck inside during the winter. Plantlife feels the same way! After being dormant over the cold winter, springtime is the time for plants to work hard to get ready for an active growth season. In doing so, plants display their beautiful array of leaves and flowers, but they could be contributing to plumbing problems below the soil.
Spring is one of the busiest seasons for plumbers. After all the burst pipe repairs necessary over the winter from freezing temperatures, springtime has its reasons for burst pipes and low water pressure. This article is a quick explanation of how plants harm plumbing and ideas on how to fix the damage and prevent plumbing problems from spring plant growth.
Invasive Tree Roots
The biggest cause of spring plumbing problems is invasive roots from all plants, but mostly from trees. During the spring, as temperatures warm, plants rush to find new nutrients to fuel their spring flowering and summer growth. This surge causes them to send out new roots to tap into new growth resources. As roots reach out, they come into contact with underground piping.
Tree roots are very strong and stubborn. The fact that a tree root can penetrate and lift a concrete slab is a testament to their determination to get to new nutrients. If trees can exert that kind of pressure on underground structures, what keeps them from snapping underground piping? Nothing!
Problems Caused By Invasive Tree Roots
When trees come into contact with underground pipes, the results can be pretty bad for homeowners. Some of the common complications caused by spring growth of tree roots are:
- Burst Pipes: Growing tree roots adds external pressure to pipes. As roots age, they also add weight to the soil on top of pipes. Over time all of this pressure can rupture freshwater lines causing rapid flooding and a loss of water pressure to the house.
- Collapsed Sewer Lines: When roots come into contact with sewer lines, they can creep in and tap into the nutrients in the sewage. The problem is that when they sense the nutrients in the pipes, they grow more and more roots to tap into the nutrients. This can weaken the pipes from the inside and cause sewer lines to collapse.
- Slow Draining: Before sewer lines collapse, they will likely display signs of slow draining. Tree roots form a thick net inside pipes that inhibit water flow. Toilets will flush slowly and may even back up into bathtubs when things get bad.
Fixing Problems Caused By Invasive Tree Roots
Plumbing and nature can coexist, but it takes some planning and even repairs. Often plumbing problems caused by tree roots will worsen over time. Repeated calls to a plumber to run a rooter through sewer lines will eventually lead to a need for repiping the sewer line.
When the sewer line is being run, special root barriers can be used to keep invasive tree roots from damaging the new sewer line. This will help protect plumbing and encourage the tree to search for nutrients elsewhere.
About BenjaminBL Plumbing
BenjaminBL Plumbing combines the experience of five generations of plumbers with the latest plumbing technology. They offer same-day service for sewer line problems. Call today for professional solutions to sewer line problems in Austin, TX
