Sewage question

[brirea]

Hello,

Not sure if this belongs here or not. If no then sorry.

We're looking at buying a house and had the inspection done. They found an issue with the plumbing. The owner has said that they had it looked at and had the following done.

A. Clog removed from double trap contained roots but no terra cotta.
B. company plans to insert a foam that will "seal" the piping. This is guaranteed for 5 years.

My question is that this seems a little bit fishy. I would think that a plumber would be able to tell how and why there are roots in the plumbing. I would think that with roots being there that there would be a break of some sort. I'm not really sure how inserting an hardening foam will resolve the problem. This is an issue that could cost a large amount of money if we continue with the purchase.

Thank you for your replies.

[Speedwrench]

tree roots will follow any water, so if there are any seeps the roots will grow toward them. sealing the piping is just a very temparary measure. the line will need replace soon as the roots will grow back, how fast depends on the species of tree. also some grasses will put roots down to over 20 ft. I have seen bermuda grass roots 20ft down in some monitor wells where the closest tree was over 150 ft away.

life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies

[swooper]

Speedwrench is right, those roots will try to get back into all that moisture in the pipe as hard as they can. The foam may contain a herbicide, but eventually it will wear off...I imagine that is the reason for the short 5-year guarantee.

In this economy the Seller is probably desperate to unload the house. I would get him to fix the problem permanently.