Last night I remembered what a rooter is. When I was growing up the commercial on TV kept singing "Roto Rooter, the way to get your drains unplugged"
In the US, a rooter is a mechanical snake that is sent through your sewer pipes to dislodge the roots that grow into your underground pipes. This happens in Los Angeles a lot where plants migrate to water since there is little surface water. It's compounded by the fact that construction companies used orangeburg pipe. From wikipedia:
Orangeburg pipe (also known as "fiber conduit") is bituminized fiber pipe made from made from layers of wood pulp and pitch pressed together. It was used from the 1860s through the 1970s, when it was replaced by PVC pipe. The name comes from the fact that most Orangeburg pipe was manufactured in Orangeburg, New York by the Fiber Conduit Company, which changed their name to the Orangeburg Manufacturing Company in 1948.
Since the pipe is basically paper, it decays in 30 years or so and becomes very vulnerable to tree and plant roots. Every house in my neighborhood had to have their sewer pipe replaced with PVC.
I know. More knowledge than you really needed.
Artemis
