Roots in sewer line- Sewer Replacement

I recently purchased a home and have found that the sewer is not functioning properly, my plumber told me that there are gigantic roots in my sewer line and it will fail at some point over the next few months. Has anyone experienced this issue? is replacing the sewer line the only option here? my plumber has been clearing the sewer every 3 weeks before getting backed up again. Any suggestions?

bweiss2589

in Plumbers and Plumbing 11 years and 8 months ago

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kingsoho | 10 years and 4 months ago

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Hi Mr. Weiss, My wife and I are facing the same DOB water main and sewer upgrade issues in remodeling a townhouse and having new sprinkler system. Would you be able to let us know how much you had spent with Harris for the upgrade water main and sewer line upgrade? Thanks so much, David

schmu | 10 years and 8 months ago

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Can you tell me how much you paid for a new sewer line? Thanks,

ddjjee | 11 years ago

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Hi This is for bweiss2589, We are converting a single family home to a two family, we might have to install a sprinkler system. We are trying to factor in the price. Would you be able to tell us how much it costed to put your sprinkler system in?

brandonser | 11 years and 8 months ago

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I thought the same thing and decided to partake in the insurance plan for one of my rental properties. I ended up having a repair done to my line and it was completely free of charge however, they do not replace entire sewer line. They would only replace a small section of my pipe, leaving 85% of an old clay sewer line. I had the same exact issue 3 months later and decided to hire a company on my own to replace the entire sewer line rather than going through all of this construction work at my house over and over. The insurance company originally sent Harris Water Main and Sewer to do the repair work, after reading about them on this website I felt pretty comfortable with the company. I ended up using them to replace the entire line on my own, they were priced very well (I had to get a few bids) and I knew they were reputable if DEP was using them for the insurance work. The DEP program may work very well for some who are ok with putting a bad-aid on the pipe until the inevitable – not worth the headache for me……

dnk | 11 years and 8 months ago

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Here is the link to the DEP Protection Plan: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/service_line_protection/index.shtml

Townie | 11 years and 8 months ago

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Register with DEP sewer line insurance plan….Then if problem exists in 6 months file a claim. You can get the line replaced. Save yourself $10 grand.

Arkady | 11 years and 8 months ago

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I’ve been told that roots only grow if there’s a breach of the pipe so obviously you have a defective one. HD sells a chemical treatment you can try that supposedly helps keep the roots at bay.

anotherposter | 11 years and 8 months ago

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We have roots in our sewer but clearing them every 5-6 months has been good so far. I had a plumber send a camera down so we could see how bad it it. We’ll eventually replace it, but the problem became apparent months after redoing our sidewalk and we weren’t eager to have that busted up and redone again. When clearing the roots, they start with a small blade and gradually work up to a larger one to really clear it. The first plumber who did it did not do a very good job, which we didn’t realize until have someone more thorough do it.