Local guide
Clay laterals, mature trees, and the backup in your basement
The trees that make Florissant's subdivisions pleasant to live in are the same trees whose roots have spent sixty years finding every joint in your clay sewer lateral. This is the most common serious plumbing problem in the city, and it is almost entirely predictable.
- Why clay tile invites roots
- Three ways a lateral fails
- How to tell which you have
- What each one costs to fix
The short version
Start here
Work down the list. Most situations are answered in the first two rows.
Clay tile, by design
Clay laterals were laid in short sections. Every joint is a seam, and a seam is an opening once the sealing material degrades.
Joints every few feet
Roots find moisture
Roots do not break into sound pipe. They find an existing gap, then thicken inside it until they block flow and widen the opening.
Not force, but opportunity
Offset or collapse
A section cracked, shifted or dropped. Cabling will not fix it, and every clog afterward is a symptom.
Structural
A belly
Ground settled and a stretch now holds water instead of draining. Solids accumulate and the line backs up on a schedule.
Settlement
Scale and buildup
Decades of accumulation narrowing the effective diameter, often alongside one of the above.
Age
General guidance for Florissant-area homes. Every house is different — call if you are unsure.
Detail
Reading the symptoms
Backups after heavy rain
Often points at root intrusion or a compromised joint letting groundwater in. Rain-correlated backups are a strong signal.
Multiple fixtures at once
If the basement floor drain and a first-floor toilet both back up, the problem is the lateral, not a fixture.
Clockwork clogs
Backing up every few months at the same interval usually means a belly holding water rather than roots.
Slow everywhere
Whole-house sluggish drainage rather than one fixture points downstream, at the main or the lateral.
A sinkhole or soft spot in the yard
Soil washing into a broken lateral. This is worth a call promptly.
Gurgling
Air moving past a partial blockage. Often the earliest warning, and the easiest to ignore.
The honest answer
Roots can be managed, structure cannot
This is the distinction that determines whether you are spending hundreds or thousands.
If the camera shows roots at one or two joints in an otherwise sound line, cutting them back is legitimate maintenance — it will need doing again every year or two, but that may be the right economic choice, particularly if you are not staying in the house long. If the camera shows an offset, a collapse, or a belly, no amount of cutting helps, and continuing to pay for clearings is money spent delaying an unavoidable repair. The good news specific to Florissant: if the defect sits out in the yard rather than right at the house, the city lateral program may cover much of that repair. That is why the camera comes before any decision.
Common questions
What homeowners ask us
Why do tree roots get into sewer lines?
Roots seek moisture and find existing gaps at pipe joints. They do not break into sound pipe — they exploit a seam that has already opened, then thicken inside it.
Can I just cut the roots out every year?
You can, and sometimes that is the right call. But roots return to the same joint until the joint itself is repaired, so it is maintenance rather than a fix.
How do I know if it is roots or a collapsed pipe?
Only a camera tells you reliably. The symptoms overlap, and the two have very different repair costs.
Do root-killing chemicals work?
They can slow regrowth at a joint but do not repair the opening, and some are harsh on older pipe. We would rather camera it than sell you a treatment.
Will the city pay to fix root damage in my lateral?
If the defect is in the covered portion of the lateral and the property qualifies, the Florissant program may cover much of it. A camera inspection is required first.
Free estimate
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Related: sewer lateral repair, the city program, lateral repair cost, camera inspection, drain cleaning
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