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Tree roots and drains
yelsel46
Posts: 3
I have recently brought a semi detached house that has not been lived in for 8 years - the elderly lady next door is very proud of her established garden!!! There are many out of control shrubs and a 20ft eucalyptus tree which has already been 'topped' planted 10 feet from my kitchen wall, our shared drains run under the kitchen floors- when my new bathroom was fitted the plumber noted a blockage - the local water board have removed 1.5 mtr of bearded root but they have to return with bigger capacity machinery - my concern is how do I establish that the problem is from her trees/shrubs [even though my garden was overgrown there is nothing that would cause any damage] I know I need to have a conversation with her and her family but I feel I need some sort of professional evidence as a back up but dont know where to start.
1
Posts
When you search online for a drainage engineer to investigate the problem, avoid companies with an 0800 phone number. They are likely just to be agencies who will, on your behalf, connect you with a local firm but bump the price up by 50%. Go straight to the local company.
As Lizzie says, see if your insurance company will pay for any investigative work. However be prepared for a hefty excess, maybe £500, and it is almost certain that your premium will increase in future years if you make a claim. Unfortunately switching companies will be a challenge if you have made a recent claim.
You might have to simply bear the cost. Our repair was done about 3 years ago. The blockage was caused by tree roots which had penetrated the drain running below the conservatory. Unblocking this with high pressure jet blast was about £300 if I remember correctly. We then accepted the contractor’s recommendation of fitting a reinforced inner sleeve. The bill for this was around £1200 and incorporated the cost of an extra man hole cover and inspection pit.
What should have been a day’s work became a week long disaster. When the flexible liner had the solution poured down the drain to solidify it - or whatever they did, I’m not sure - the engineer did not realise the liner was kinked and, when solidified, formed a complete blockage below the conservatory floor. Our toilets were now effectively non operational. The contractor hurriedly set up an impromptu sewage collection system on the terrace (a pump and a line of interconnected dustbins) and then set to work trying to clear the blockage. This was achieved after three or four days of heavy toil and even heavier swearing. Had it not been cleared a new drain would have to have been laid around the conservatory and under our newly laid terrace. To the contractor’s credit he charged us the agreed price even though the work took about four times longer than anticipated.
The insurance company, Tesco, paid up without demur, though not for the new inspection chamber as that was deemed to be ‘betterment’. What particularly impressed me was the speed of settlement. I received the bill on Saturday and electronically forwarded it to Tesco the same day. I phoned them soon afterwards to check it had arrived. It had, and they agreed to pay me at once. Within 30 minutes the money was in my account. 15 minutes after that it was out of my account and into the bank of the drainage company. Who would want to go back to the old way of settling accounts?