Resourceful! And great tree roots!
That image reminded me of a condo that I managed about ten years ago. One of the residents had raw sewage back up into his house regularly - about every two years. Before I was involved the remedy was to accuse him of flushing something inappropriate down the toilet and then having someone run a camera thru the lines to see what was wrong. Someone would then "root" the lines and everything was proclaimed good and well and the insurance company would pay out.
The first time it happened on my "watch" I didn't accuse, I had a camera run down the line and then asked how far the camera went. It barely went past the outside walls of the condo! Common sense prevailed with the powers to be and I had a contractor hand dig following the suspected path of the sewer line, and after hitting a gas line (another story - another time) he discovered a sewer manhole that had been covered up with dirt since the complex was built in the mid 1970's. Once the top was removed the real source of the blockage was discovered - a solid mass of tree roots 30" in diameter and about 6' in length and then growing out like tentacles into all the other pipes exiting into the manhole.
After that clean out he hasn't had problems since. I hope that goes the same for the poor individual who lives in the same community who has a manhole directly under the floor of his home in the crawl space. Yes, you read that correctly. I was the one who discovered that one.
Boy I am glad I don't have their headaches any more!
Peter
