At my parents house I fed the toilet too much and clogged it. So after a good plunge everything was flowing nicely again. But the backup revealed that the wax ring that seals under the toilet needed replacing because there was a little bit of water leaking out around the base of the toilet. My dad went about taking the toilet off to replace the wax ring and look what he discovered!!!!! A root had traveled under the slab, came up along side the sewer pipe to the surface and then went back down into the sewer pipe. This root can only be from a large Schefflera that was planted right next to the house. But the Schefflera root had to travel under the slab about 18 feet to get to this bathroom which is in the center of the house!!!! They cut these trees down a year ago because I told them that they were too close to the house, and now we see exactly what they were doing.

uummm... ew

I had the same thing happen to me once at my old condo. Pour lots of salt into that hole before you cover it up again.

Matt--

Might want to have a pro check for excessive moisture under the slab from other sources as well.

As my former Cal Poly prof, the late great Jim Degen said, roots don't seek water. If moisture isn't present in sufficient quantity, they can't travel to new sources.

18' of dry ground is a long way for a root to traverse. 18' of moist ground-- not so much.

Ill donate some rubber gloves to your pops if you want.

At my parents house I fed the toilet too much and clogged it. So after a good plunge everything was flowing nicely again. But the backup revealed that the wax ring that seals under the toilet needed replacing because there was a little bit of water leaking out around the base of the toilet. My dad went about taking the toilet off to replace the wax ring and look what he discovered!!!!! A root had traveled under the slab, came up along side the sewer pipe to the surface and then went back down into the sewer pipe. This root can only be from a large Schefflera that was planted right next to the house. But the Schefflera root had to travel under the slab about 18 feet to get to this bathroom which is in the center of the house!!!! They cut these trees down a year ago because I told them that they were too close to the house, and now we see exactly what they were doing.

Oh my - I getting a real bad visual ...

I agree.

You definitely have some moisture under there that doesn't belong there. If you don't get rid of the moisture the roots may come back from another invasive plant.

That, by the way is one reason why roots almost never go under a street, but frequently lift up sidewalks.

Roots are attracted to moisture, so first the plumbing has to be leaking for this to happen.

Matt , It would seem that the sewer lateral must be old school clay pipe with bell and spigot fittings. These were sealed with mortar, and are notorious for developing cracks at the joint, leaking moisture, and thus stimulating root growth into the pipe.

Old cast iron with lead joints, modern cast iron with no-hub couplings, or ABS with glued fittings won't allow this root intrusion.

Here in SF in the 1930's (my home vintage) it was mandatory to use cast iron with lead joints underneath the building footprint. The builder would then switch to cheaper clay pipe beyond the building. It might be the same situation for your parent's house. Much cheaper than a sewer upgrade would be to have the line 'snaked' with a root-cutting cable every two years or so, as a preventative maintenance.

The house is relatively new (15 years), so I assume that it's ABS. We're assuming that the leak was from the toilet/wax ring connection the whole time, as it looked to be in pretty bad shape, and the roots went directly to that connection point.

Looks like a new meaning for "wind around the log". Good find.

I knew someone who had black bamboo come up through the toilet bowl. He just told people it was a new type of bidet.

I just deleted a whole bunch of naughty stuff

I think you should cut down on roughage in your diet!

(Sorry could not help myself )

I just deleted a whole bunch of naughty stuff

I think you should cut down on roughage in your diet!

(Sorry could not help myself )

Matty's Breakfast - Two cups mulch in a bowl, some sliced banana and palm heart, and a little milk and sugar.

Mattios

MattyBs?

WheatieBs?

That was some log.......

That was some log.......

log jam maybe

I have a Scflerra tree planted in the 70s a few metres from my shower and a poinciana tree 1 m away. Sometimes the shower clogs up, but unlike a toliet clogging up it is tolerable. Occasionally when it gets to bad I pour a type of acid down there and fixes the problem for a few months before i need to do it again. I much prefer doing this to removing the trees - a kind of truce between us and them.