How To Check Your Clogged Drains and Toilet for Roots

The first sign of our clogged drain was that the toilet wouldn't flush properly.Then we noticed that the shower was also draining slowly.Then of course the sink started backing up. Realizing that we had a clogged drain somewhere in our plumbing pipes, we brought out the good old Drano and proceeded to flush that little clog out. I had no idea at this point that perhaps we should be checking our clogged drains for roots!

HA! What a joke on us because the Drano did NOTHING except for fizzle and sit in the sink. After letting it sit for a while, it did manage to make some little sizzle sizzle plunk plunk sounds and a little bit of the water went down - but not enough by any means to unclog the drain. This was a little concerning because usually Drano does the trick, but obviously our little clog needed a little more manpower.

Next my husband got out the good old hand held snake. This would do the trick, no doubt about it!!

So down went the snake (we later found out DO NOT USE THE SNAKE IN YOUR TOILET!) but even the snake would not dislodge the pesky clog.

Getting desperate now, and not wanting to call a plumber, we started to review our options. We figured all a plumber would do is probably use one of those BIG snake augers so we decided to rent one and do the job ourselves. Our plan was in place.

We rented a big snake auger from The Home Depot and snaked the entire plumbing system. ALL kinds of garbage came out of the pipes including lots and lots of earthy smelling dirt. Hmmm, we thought, some roots must have gotten into the system. We kept at it and eventually we got the pipes clear and the water flow started to return to normal.

All seemed well for a few months until we came home one night and found our entire family room flooded with water. The shower drain had backed up and all the water had flowed downward into our carpets, ruining not only the carpets but boxes of sentimental things I had stacked next to the wall (along with the damage to the bathroom floor) Needless to say, we were mad, depressed and downright puzzled as to why the plumbing system was again clogged. Accusations flew as family members blamed one another for various things: "If only you didn't flush those pamper wipes down the drain this wouldn't have happened!". "That kid must have thrown something down the drain!!". "It's because you always use too much toilet paper - it must have clogged the drain now!". Things were getting downright nasty, and even more so because the water that had flooded our family room also had you know what in it.

YUP, the shower drain was somehow connected to the toilet too.

Just lovely.

Needless to say, once again, we had a HUGE mess on our hands. After the initial clean up and tearing out the carpets, we put our heads together again. We decided we must have missed something in the drain.

Die-hards that we are, we once again decided to do the job ourselves. This time we ran the snake as far we could down the drain through the now open toilet drain and kept at it (or should I say my husband kept at it - I was getting discouraged) Hours into the snaking the snake started making a grinding sound, like it had come up against some pressure. We continued snaking. We followed where the grinding sound was coming from and my husband dug down in the dirt. A couple feet under the ground we found the main sewer line leading to the street.and roots growing into and around the pipe. We continued snaking. A few feet away from the grinding sound we eyed the beautiful thriving bougainvillea plant and a light-bulb went off. We had found our culprit!

Roots from the bougainvillea had grown so deep and stretched so far that they had entered the main sewer line and were blocking the sewer pipe. No wonder the bougainvillea was thriving! It had an unending supply of water for it's roots. How convenient! My husband decided to grind through the roots and hours later, we heard the snake clattering away under the street at the manhole. What a blessed sound that was - the snake auger had finally gotten all the way through the pipes!

So after many months and money spent, valuables ruined along with some shot nerves, we finally had great draining pipes (we had to remove the bougainvillea of course) When the bougainvillea was originally planted it was only a wee thing - so nobody ever thought this monster would overtake the pipes the way it did. A valuable lesson learned!

So my advice? If you are struggling with clogged drains, take a look at the trees, plants and bushes around where your pipes are. Consider that roots in your pipes may be the problem and take action accordingly. And a word for the wise, we did find out later that a good plumber with a microscopic camera could have gone down in the pipes and probably found our problem early on. But like they say, hindsight is foresight!

An overview of what we did again:

1. The first thing we did was use Drano according to the instructions on the label (this is the cheapest and first thing we always do for clogged drains)

2. Next we used a small household snake to try to dislodge the clog (when Drano fails this almost always works for us)

3. We rented a snake auger and snaked as much of the system as we could (this is always our last resort when it comes to clogged drains)

4. We removed the bougainvillea plant so the roots would not get back into the sewer pipes and start the whole vicious cycle all over again.

Best advice from our experience: Don't forget to check your clogged drains for those pesky roots!

(Dorsi Diaz is a freelance writer/publisher at HubPages and writes on a variety of things)