Usually not. Roots do not break into a sound pipe. They follow moisture and enter through a crack, an open joint, or a failed seal that already exists. Seal that defect and the roots lose their way in, so the pipe needs the repair and the tree stays where it is.
Removing the tree stops that tree’s roots and leaves the pipe exactly as damaged as before. Groundwater still escapes through the same opening. Any other tree within reach follows that moisture to the same place. Most DFW properties carry two or three mature trees within thirty feet of the lateral.
In North Texas the defect usually has one of two causes. Cast iron laterals in homes built before the mid-1970s corrode from the inside and open at the joints. And the clay soil across the Metroplex shifts seasonally, which pulls apart joints that sat tight when the plumber first laid the line.
The repair that keeps the tree is trenchless lining. Our crew pulls a resin liner through the existing pipe and cures it in place, which leaves a jointless pipe with no crack for a root to find. It goes in through existing access points, so we dig nothing up around the tree. Excavating to replace a lateral usually severs enough root system that the tree comes out anyway.
Nuflow DFW is a licensed trenchless sewer contractor serving 25 Dallas-Fort Worth cities, RMP# 46694. A camera inspection shows exactly where the roots enter before anyone decides anything about the tree, and you keep the footage.