Will Rock Salt Hurt My Shower Base?

[DerbyDad03]

I will using rock salt to help control roots in my drain.

I have two choices as to where to dissolve the rock salt:

1 - A fiberglass utility sink in the corner farthest away from where the drain exits the house.

2 - A fiberglass shower stall about 3 feet from where the drain exits the house.

I don't care what happens to the utility sink, but I don't want to damage, stain or in any other manner hurt the shower stall since it gets used (by me) on a daily basis.

If I was careful about how I place the rock salt in the shower, would dissolving it cause any damage to the base, which has a "textured" slip resistant base?

[RicodJour]

I would tend to doubt it, but if you're concerned, remove the drain strainer cover and pour the salt directly into the drain so it will never touch fiberglass.

R

[hallerb]

I would put the rocksalt in the wash tub. plus farthest from where drain exits home is better because tree roots grow under homes. I had to use loppers and a saw when i put a toilet in my basement, tree roots everywhere..

I use rocksalt to contrl tree roots in my sewer it works great

[Jon Danniken]

How close are the roots to your shower, does the shower sit right on the ground? I'm trying to see why you don't just use the stuff they sell to flush down the toilet....

Jon

[DerbyDad03]

I'll answer your questions in reverse:

re: "I'm trying to see why you don't just use the stuff they sell to flush down the toilet...."

2 reasons:

1 - Lots of people in this group have suggested rock salt.

2 - I don't know what "stuff they sell to flush down the toilet". Can you provide some info?

re: "How close are the roots to your shower, does the shower sit right on the ground?"

I guess I should have been clearer. Sorry.

Both the shower and the utility sink are in the basement. The cleanout for the exterior drain is right inside the front wall of the house, as is the shower. The cleanout is immediately outside the shower stall, so the shower drain is like "half a shower stall's width" away from leaving the house.

There is also a toilet in the bathroom and I used to flush rock salt down the toilet every now and then. However I've replaced that toilet with a 1.28 GPF and I want to do like 25 lbs of rock salt in early spring. I'm reluctant to do that in my new "I hardly use any water" toilet.

[N8N]

why not dissolve it in a bucket and then pour the resulting solution down your drain of choice?

nate

[hallerb]

Disolve in bucket then pour down drain.

The root killer sold today is copper sulphate. Its EXPENSIVE and can kill the tree as well as the roots.

Rock salt ONLY kills roots.it works fast the roots must shivel up and dissolve.

in my case it 10 bucks of rock salt a year or 10 grand for the new line, plus a new driveway, new retaining wall, part of a sidewalk, and tree removal. 15 to 20 grand.

rock salt is fine by me

[Jon Danniken]

Probably a hell of a lot better engineered than some folk remedy. Last time I recommended a product like that to someone, the homeowner purchased a foaming product. Flush it down the toilet, and once it is distributed through the owner's line it foams up for a couple of hours, ensuring that the product is distributed along the entire length and circumference of the pipe.

It used to just be a copper compound, but they might have something more efficient nowadays which is designed to just target the roots.

Jon

[leonard hofstadter]

What TP does everyone use/prefer nowadays? Seems that today's version doesn't break down like it used to and causes at least a yearly call to Roto-Rooter.

I'm thinking if rock salt will eat away tree roots it would break down built up TP too?!?!?!?

[Tony Miklos]

It's also considered a potent pollutant. Lot's of people trying to get it outlawed.

I can't win. The salt water from my water softener killed 3 75' oaks at my house. A good wind blew them over one by one. Half of the roots looked fine, others were dead and black and rotten. Oaks are especially sensitive to the salt, some trees are more resistant to the salt. BTW, the water softener discharge was routed by the previous owners here, they ran a pipe along the driveway directly to the woods where it goes downhill. Right now I have the discharge sort of soaking into the ground and drifting under the blacktop drive and the pad the house is on. I'm not sure and can't find an answer for the best place to send it. I don't know if the septic would water it down enough... there are a couple oaks close to the leach field.

[Harry K]

I just read the thread today. I was wondering why noone had mentioned that. One whole lot easier to do it that way as it can even be stirred, several buckets at a time prepared, etc. People tend to get focused in on the 'big picture' and forget the simple stuff.

Harry K

[DerbyDad03]

Sure, several buckets, mixed and dumped will certainly work, and is something I have considered. Actually, what I was considering was one of those 20 gallon plastic tubs. Obviously not filled up, but certainly more than I can get in a bucket.

However, carfefully dumping large amounts into the shower and then turning the shower on is certainly a lot less work.

That's the only reason I asked if the salt would damage the base.

[hallerb]

For optimum root killing!

Mix salt with a small amount of very hot water, let it gpo down drain, and go out for day without running more water so salt mixture lays in line.

Copper sulphate root killer is nasty, hazardous and expensive:(

Salt is cheap, easy to work with and edible:)

Plus salt kills roots well:)

[DerbyDad03]

quoted text -

re: "Mix salt with a small amount of very hot water..."

How much per application and how often to apply?

Is it 25# once a month (once a year?) or should it be 10# (or 5# or

1#) every week (every month)?

i.e. What's the optimal dosage to deal with one Flowering Dogwood with a 8" diameter trunk?

[hrhofmann]

The guy was asking a serious question, he didn't need your !#)(&!#^& response.

[Evan]

Dissolve salt in 5 gallon bucketfuls at a time...

Pour bucketfuls of salted water down the toilet, the china bowl of the toilet won't be affected by the salt... Your fiberglass shower stall shouldn't be either if you washed it down after your salting, as you shed lots of salty and soapy water whenever you shower...

The gallons per flush of a toilet is meaningless when you are pouring a container of liquid into it, as with more than 1.28 gallons of water poured into the bowl you will initiate the siphon and the bowl will clear fully as you continue to pour... You can flush afterward to refill the bowl...

Its clear not many of you on here have ever worked as a custodian, emptying mop buckets into toilets when you get really dirty water off a bathroom floor is much more convenient (and also much more healthy than using a mop bucket of dirty water to continue on cleaning spreading whatever was on the dirty floor all over) than making the long journey back to the wet janitor's closet to dump the bucket and refill as most bathrooms in commercial buildings these days have a hose bib connection somewhere inside them and you can refill your floor bucket with a splash of the floor cleaner and a short length of hose you carry with you on your cleaning cart... All you have to do is flush twice afterward to make sure the bowl is clean...

~~ Evan

[DerbyDad03]

re: "Your fiberglass shower stall shouldn't be either if you washed it down after your salting, as you shed lots of salty and soapy water whenever you shower"

Thanks for the tip on the buckets, but your comments about the shower seem a bit off.

I don't shed the equivalent of 25 lbs of rock salt per shower and I have no idea how soapy water has anything to do with this.

[Harry K]

Yup, I had a chuckle over that. I'll bet a water test on what runs down the drain during a shower would probably show a salt level barely higher than the drinking water if it registered at all.

Harry K