Trees bring beauty and shade to your property, but their roots can cause serious problems underground. One common issue is how trees damage drains, often leading to blockages, leaks, or even collapsed pipes. Understanding the three main ways tree roots impact drainage systems can help you take proactive steps to protect your pipes and avoid costly repairs. Let’s explore the key issues and how to address them effectively.
Towns and cities aren’t generally thought of as places in which nature thrives. However, the tree-mapping project Treezilla suggests there could be as many as 1.5 billion urban trees around the UK. This means it’s highly likely that the drainage system serving your property is close to some of these natural wonders. In this article, we’ll draw on our extensive experience as Bristol and Bath drains specialists to help you decide whether or not your pipework is at risk of tree-related damage.
Trees are an important part of urban landscapes, providing what’s known as green cover in areas that might otherwise look drab and grey. As the Woodland Trust emphasises, urban trees ‘have a huge impact on local wildlife, mental and physical health, and pollution levels, while making the places we live in more beautiful’. But they don’t always have harmonious relationships with underground pipes. In fact, the Mega-Rod team is often called out by property owners in Bath, Bristol and beyond after drains have been compromised by leaves and roots.
There are three main ways trees damage drains. We’ll examine each of them in turn and also explain how we diagnose and resolve drainage issues linked to trees. We’re ready to help if you suspect a tree may be to blame for poor drainage or other drain problems, so please feel free to contact us.
Autumn leaves can easily slip through exposed drain gratings and get stuck in drains – a common cause of how trees damage drains. Once immersed in wastewater, they become soggy clumps and can clog up the pipework, leaving you with slow drainage and nasty odours. They can even block drains completely, especially if they stick to other rogue matter such as fibrous, absorbent wet wipes. Blockages prevent wastewater from flowing, resulting in frequent backups. They also exert pressure on pipe walls, leading to cracks, leaks and collapsed drains.
Thankfully, you can rely on our Bristol and Bath drain unblocking service to get your wastewater flowing again. We locate and identify obstructions with the aid of CCTV drain inspections and then use effective techniques such as drain jetting to eliminate them.
To prevent leaves from entering your drainage system in the first place, cover exposed gratings with drain guards.
Mature trees often need more than 50,000 litres of water annually. If thirsty roots dry out the soil around your drain, it may well shrink and sink – a destructive process known as subsidence. Drains can drop along with the soil, resulting in cracks, loose connections and leaks. The latter problem only encourages root growth, while soil can become even more unstable when it suddenly goes from dry to soggy.
As ground engineering firm Geobear points out, some species of tree are more likely to dry out soil than others, as they absorb particularly large amounts of water. They include conifers, poplars, planes, sycamores and willows. Moreover, silver maples and weeping willows have shallow root systems, so their roots are especially likely to grow in areas of the soil where drains have been laid.
If you’re concerned that tree root subsidence may be damaging your drains, we can conduct a CCTV drain inspection to check for issues then carry out any necessary repair work (relining or replacing pipework, for example). In addition, you may wish to consult a tree surgeon about the possibility of moving trees further away from your drainage system.
Tree roots are opportunistic – if they happen to detect wastewater coming from leaky drains, they’ll grow towards it. Then they’ll exploit and worsen the structural weaknesses causing the leak in order to penetrate the drainage system.
Invasive roots form dense obstructions inside drains, stopping wastewater from flowing. When a drain inspection reveals roots have taken hold, we shred the offending material with specialist root cutting equipment and wash it away. We also repair the drain damage to ensure the drainage system is fully sealed. ‘If the drains are watertight, then tree roots will not generally trouble them,’ emphasises the Royal Horticultural Society.
According to the Architects’ Journal, there should be ‘at least a distance equivalent to the tree’s height’ between a tree and a building. If any trees are closer to your property than that, your drains may be at risk and you should therefore contact a reliable drainage company such as Mega-Rod. You’ll also want expert help if your drainage system isn’t working properly and the root cause of the problem (if you’ll pardon the pun!) may be a tree.
Stop trees troubling your drains – call the Mega-Rod Bath team today on 01225 422980.
