i havent had the line snaked in at least 10 years, since the salt works so well.
you want to avoid snaking since theres always a chance the snake can jam and break off in the line.
at that point its call the backhoe.
my line is bad from under the home about 4 foot down, to the street at over 8 feet deep. it runs under basement and garage floor, under part of my driveway, under a large retaining wall and sidewalk.
worse my basement and garage are packed with stuff for my business including industrilal steel shelves.
Except that counts as simply another opinion with no solid information. ;-)
What size dosage? A cup? A pound? 25 pounds?
What's a "regular interval"? Every week? Every month? Every quarter?
Right there I've got 9 possible sets of "repeated dosages at regular intervals", but still no clue as to what is the optimum.
With all the "science" I've seen posted in this ng across a variety of topics, I'm surprised no one knows the correct amount and time frame.
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My understanding is that maximum root growth occurs in the fall and winter. Now would be the time to be treating. Rock salt is cheap. Dissolve as much as possible in a gallon of hot water. I suspect a pond or two is about all that will dissolve.
Copper sulfate, if you can find it is a far more effective choice and the directions are the label. :) Heck you might even get some regularity information from that.
Let us know how that salt works out. And your recipe. I don't have a root problem now as far as I know, but I think about it since I had roots in sewer line of my last house. Think about it enough that I had a big maple near my sewer line cut down. Don't miss the tree, as it was dumping bushels of leaves into my gutters too. Got plenty of trees elsewhere. Be nice to get before and after camera recordings of the roots, but they're about $300 a pop. Guess you'll find out how it works from the gurglings.
Me too. I switched from (very expensive) copper sulfate to rock salt last fall. I flush 2-3 cups down the toilet before bed ... every 3 weeks or so. Too soon to judge the results.
I flush immediately upon pouring the salt into the toilet bowl: hoping that the root mass will act as a strainer and trap the crystals where they will do the most good. I'm going to switch to (water softener) salt nuggets. Same drill; flush and hope they will get caught in the root mass and slowly dissolve there to lengthen exposure.
replying to DerbyDad03, DT wrote: A septic contractor just put in an new leach field for my son. The contractor recommended #5 pounds of rock salt once a year. This is one bathroom house. You can do the math is you have a larger leach field. I'm sure, how much vegetation you have in your area is a factor. Someone had mentioned to you, that each system has different factors.
I have been using rock salt to kill tree roots for at least 20 years. i do the 25 pounds split over a few days in the early spring when trees are abou t to bud out. works great, cant kill trees. killing a tree with root killer can cost thousands to remove a mature dying tree
o the 25 pounds split over a few days in the early spring when trees are ab out to bud out. works great, cant kill trees. killing a tree with root kill er can cost thousands to remove a mature dying tree
As long as we've revived my very old thread, thanks to HOH, I'll tell you of my root experience since then:
Rock salt did nothing to help. I eventually had the drain scoped and determined that the roots were entering the clay pipe from the *top* They would hang down and catch toilet paper, eventually causing a blockage.
Rock salt laden water flows along the bottom of the pipe and doesn't make enough contact with the roots to do much damage to them.
Since that time I have been using 2 pounds of RootX in the early spring. RootX foams and fills the pipe, coating the roots that hang from the top. I haven't had a blockage in the 5 years since I switched to this process.
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Does RootX Harm Trees And Plants?
No. RootX only kills the roots inside the pipe and prevents their re-growth . Since the RootX foam only flows through the pipe, it has no effect on roots outside the pipe.
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