Cutting the roots is half of it. Finding the way in is the rest.
Beach town roots are survivors. Sandy soil drains fast, moisture is precious, and every established tree in Imperial Beach has spent its life following water wherever water leaks. The older sewer lines near the pier, with their decades of joints and seams, leak just enough vapor to ring the dinner bell. A root slips in through an opening smaller than a pencil line, and from there, time does the rest. The thread becomes a mass, the mass becomes a blockage, and the blockage becomes your Saturday morning.
If it's happened more than once, here's the pattern you're in. Clearing removes the roots but leaves their doorway open, and roots reliably reuse a doorway. The repeat schedule isn't bad luck, it's biology, and it continues until the entrance itself gets closed. Finding it is the camera's job, and it does the job precisely, showing the exact joint or crack, how established the intrusion is, and whether it's one entry or several. That picture is the difference between another temporary clearing and an actual ending.
From the picture comes the plan, sized to the evidence. Seal the entry. Address the section if the section's truly gone. Nothing speculative, nothing padded. All of it explained in plain English, decided by you at your pace, and performed by or under a licensed contractor on your go. The trees keep their place in the neighborhood. Your line just stops being on the menu.
"Clear the roots, find the crack they came through, then you've got a real fix."
