Water began pouring out from under the toilet tonight... I thought that maybe the wax ring had gave out so I buy a new one. Remove toilet and remove wax ring to find a tree root coming up from around the flange and through the sewer pipe right at the flange connection it is a 3" pipe with an outside flange on a concrete slab. Is there a way to cut out pipe to the tree root in the pipe and put a coupling and raise it back up without breaking up concrete??

No.

First, you go outside and kill the tree. Then you start digging and find where the tree roots got in the sewer line. Then you figure out what to do next.
What you do depends on how far away from the house the roots got in the sewer line, how deep the sewer line is and what kind of pipe you have.

Unless you are young, strong as a bull and the luckiest man alive, this is a job for a professional with the proper equipment.

Roots get in to the pipe either through falling joints or break in the pipe. Once you have roots inside sewer pipe, they are almost impossible to get out.

Best way to get rid of this problem is to replace the sewer pipe with ABS pipe with glued joints. Otherwise, you will have to keep periodically snaking the pipe. You can also buy a crystals that are designed to "choke" the roots. You simply flush them down the toilet and hope they will do the job.

In suggest you first have the sewer pipe jetted ( or snaked ) and have sewer video inspection done so you see what exactly is going on. Then you make a decision how to proceed

Hope that helps

Milo

I've seen this a number of times over the years.

If the root are coming out of the ground and entering the drain/flange there then I would just use a chisel to cut away at the roots... remove the roots from inside the pipe and then pour liquefied copper sulphate on the cut root ends and then reinstall the toilet. Puddle the liquid copper sulphate and then install the wax gasket and toilet. This could be a long term solution, or not... really depends on just how thick the roots are.

Certainly, killing the bush or tree is a good idea and then continuing to treat the drain pipe with a FOAMING ROOT TREATMENT ( www.rootx.com (http://www.rootx.com) ) 2 or 3 times a year should prevent you from having to replace the pipe... IF you are lucky!

Good luck!

Mark