I’m sure some of you have been there. Turned on the sprinklers yesterday. I found a leak, but it is under 12" of tree roots. But, after a bunch of hatchet work and digging, I found this:
Yeah that is nasty work. Cutting through the roots. I had a issue about 6 months ago. Had my sewer line back up…the plumber scoped it, tree roots in the main 4-5" line. We were discussing options to get to it 5’ down. The next day my water main into the house popped. They were on opposite sides of the tree. Both messed up 2 days apart.
Plumber brought in a backhoe and a helper, took all day to get through the roots to the 5’ deep sewer line. He took one scoop on the water main side and said he would not do it and left. Said it wasn’t worth it. So Me and a neighbor tackled the 3’ deep water main with a shovel and a sawszall…and a shop vac, blasted the dirt with a hose, vac it out, cut the roots, rinse and repeat.
Dirt kills the blade pretty fast. So the hose and vac got the dirt out from around the large roots, then sawzall, I went through a few blades. The other roots I used a hand trimmer lopper. There were a lot of roots 4’ or so from a 20’ tree.
Google Sawzall ugly pruning blade.
I had one for YEARS and beat the crap out of it on trees, lumber, and cutting roots through dirt. Bent it a bunch of times, just bent it back.
Edit: Google keeps linking me to Amazon and this thing keeps dragging me into the app where I can’t share a link. Looks like this.
+1 on the Diabolo blades for Sawzall’s on roots! And also for ShopVac excavation. Only way to get things cleared out, at least here in Colorado root bound neighborhoods!
I used to do this stuff with a chainsaw, clear out as much dirt as you can and you still need to sharpen the chain after every 1.5 cuts. The sawzall pruning blades are awesome, do the job really well, stay sharp much longer, and are pretty useful for otherwise pruning any other wood/trees/bushes.
Round 2 happened this afternoon. The sawsall was pretty good at cutting through the pipe I didn’t realize was there (from another zone). I actually still think the hatchet is competitive with it, but they work better in different situations.
I would have wanted to replace it anyway, since it was directly above the leak I am trying to fix. I am once again at the place where I have room to work, but I need more pipe.
All fixed. You can hardly tell where it was, but if you look very close, you can see where the grass looks like it is all torn up, dried out, and hastily replaced.
No leaks though. And I am trying really hard to not pay attention if there are any more near this tree.
Save the tree! unless its large enough to cut up for a replacement waste board for the MPCNC. (sorry tree, that was meant as a joke)
Cut pipe on each side of the tree and dig around it and lay new pipe. 2 bends and a bit of new pipe. Much easier than fighting with roots. Tree gets to live another day, no blunt saws, no dead body to dispose of. Hinge the grass layer back and replace when done and no one will ever know.
Killing a tree cause it broke your irrigation seems a little extreme don’t you think. Live and let live old boy.
sorry, Above was a poor attempt at humour, getting mal being stuck at home. Gotta find a new project to start.
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