Rooter Services in Myrtle Beach, SC
What is a Rooter Service?
A rooter service differs from regular drain cleaning. While cleaning out a drain deals with grease, hair, and household debris in the smaller lines inside the house, rooter work handles the main line. The service deals with blockage caused by a living thing anchored to a crack or a joint.
In order to understand what a rooter service is, a powered cable with a cutting head on the end runs through your main sewer line to clear out tree roots. The machine feeds the cable down the pipe, and the blade cuts the roots back. Then, the pipe wall flushes the debris washes downstream.
Why Do Roots End Up in Sewer Lines?
Roots go where the water is. Your sewer line carries warm water and nutrients. Every joint and hairline crack leaks a little vapor into the soil around it. Roots find and grow towards the soil, eventually working their way through the opening. Once they are inside, they take off.
Older neighborhoods deal with roots in the sewer line constantly. Clay tile and cast iron lines are laid in short sections with a joint every few feet. Decades of ground movement have pulled a lot of those joints apart. Mature trees, such as oak, willow, ash, elm, and many other species, are often the cause.
Signs you have roots in the line
- Backups seem to return on a cycle, often every few months and occurs in the spring and fall
- Slow drainage all over the house instead of at one fixture
- A toilet that bubbles when the washing machine drains
- Sewage smell in the yard or around a cleanout
- A strip of grass over the sewer line that is greener and grows faster than the rest
- Soft or sunken ground along the path of the line
What a Rooter Visit Looks Like
- First, we find the cleanout. Getting in from an outside cleanout is the best way to locate it. If your house does not have one, we will talk through the options before we start.
- We match the cutter head to the pipe. Head size gets matched to the pipe diameter, allowing the blade to cut the roots instead of beating on the pipe wall.
- Next, we run the whole line. Cutting away and stopping at the first blockage can leave roots and other debris sitting there, potentially creating another clog. That’s why we run the cable all the way out to the city tap or the septic tank to clear out any buildup and prevent future blockages.
- We check the flow. Water goes down the line at volume to make sure it is open.
- Lastly, we will suggest a camera. Roots get in through a defect in the pipe. Looking at it is the only way to determine how bad the defect is and whether the pipe is still solid.
Will the roots grow back?
Yes, unless the opening they came through gets fixed. Rooter service gets out what is in the pipe today and gets your water moving again. However, it does not close up the crack or the offset joint that let them in.
Plenty of homeowners have the line cut once a year and run an old sewer for another decade without much trouble. However, if the camera shows a pipe that is coming apart, you will spend less over five years fixing it than cleaning it. We will show you what we find and give you an honest recommendation either way.
Contact Us / Request a Quote
FAQs
-
Does rooter service damage my pipes?
Not when it is done right. The cutter head gets sized to the pipe, so the blade shears roots off at the wall.
Damage happens when somebody forces an oversized head through a line that is already fractured, which is one more reason to look at the pipe when there is a history of trouble.
-
How often will I need rooter service?
Most homes with active roots need it once a year, and some need it every six months. If you are backing up more often than that, the pipe is probably failing and it is time for a different conversation.
-
What is the difference between rooter service and hydro jetting?
A rooter machine cuts roots out mechanically. Hydro jetting uses high pressure water to scour the inside of the pipe and flush grease and sludge out. Roots respond to cutting. Grease responds to jetting.
-
Can I use a root killer instead?
Foaming root treatments can slow regrowth after a line has been mechanically cleared, and some homeowners use them that way. They will not open a line that is already blocked and they will not fix the pipe.
-
Do you offer after hours rooter service?
Yes. A blocked main line takes the house out of service, so we treat it as an emergency. Give us a call, and we will get you on the schedule.
From simple repairs to complex installations, Beach Air is there!
Beach Air provides repairs, maintenance, and installation work for any home service issue including cooling, heating, plumbing, and electrical.
No repair is too small nor installation too large, at Beach Air, our experienced HVAC Technicians, Plumbers, and Electricians are ready to make your home functioning and comfortable again!
Call us or schedule online for and an experienced Beach Air Technician will be there quickly!
