When tree roots block a home’s plumbing system, it’s a headache that no family wants to deal with. Now multiply that problem by 10; that’s exactly what you get when you work with a strata building. When a 10-unit building was under constant attack from tree roots, the water supply, health, and sanity of 10 different families was at stake, but there was one issue standing in the way—digging to replace the pipe was impossible. It was time for DrainWorks to step in and restore order.

Christmas 2015: A 10-unit building was in dire straits when a root-infested pipe partially collapsed, causing the sewer to overflow and compromising the water supply. They had to call out a crew to perform an emergency dig and get things back in working order immediately. The crew were able to find a working solution but couldn’t fully remedy the situation, because the part of the pipe that connected to the Sydney water supply ran underneath a garage. Even though the water was working again, the strata were still in a tough spot.

Tree Roots in the Sewer at Dee Why,
causing blockages

Here’s why…

The Problem

The tree roots had made themselves at home all throughout the pipe. Each joint was infested with roots, causing the pipe to collapse. Since the emergency plumbers could only partially solve the issue and the tree roots were so determined to grow back every few months, the plumbers were kind enough to leave an allowance (basically, a point to gain access to the pipe) so that the strata could have the pipes cleared any time they became blocked.

That was all well and good, except the pipes overflowed every 6 months and created havoc on the property. The threat of health issues from water overflow and the annoyance of dealing with it led the strata to decide to fix the problem once and for all. Except that a dig would cause a whole slew of problems:

• Service interruption for days
• Access interruption for vehicles and people
• Expensive digging
• Tons of noise

The sewer ran under the garages, the only solution was to reline the pipe