Trenchless Sewer Repair Techniques
Traditional vs Trenchless Sewer Repair
A broken sewer pipe used to mean that a homeowner would be forced to put a substantial amount of their time and money down the drain. That’s because traditional sewer pipe repair entails digging long trenches in order to access the damaged pipe, potentially tearing up driveways, landscaping, and other ground-level fixtures in the process. Trenchless sewer repair avoids some of these problems. We will be discussing two of the most common trenchless sewer repair techniques.
In some cases, the street in front of a home needs to be dug up as well. This can lead to additional expenses such as having to reroute traffic while the repair is taking place. These costs can quickly add up.
To make matters worse, traditional sewer pipe repair takes a significant amount of time. Even once the repair is completed, a homeowner will have to spend additional time and effort restoring the formerly excavated property to its previous state.
Trenchless sewer repair is a cost-effective and efficient alternative to traditional methods. Using innovative trenchless sewer repair techiques, damaged pipes can be fixed or even replaced entirely without needing to dig trenches. That is why trenchless sewer repair is also sometimes referred to as or simply no dig repair.
Advantages of Trenchless Technology
Although trenchless repair has been around for well over a decade, a significant amount of homeowners are still unaware of it being a potential option or are not well-informed regarding its many advantages. These advantages include faster repair time and reduced cost, labor, and property damage.
There are several types of trenchless repair techniques. This makes trenchless sewer repair a viable option in a variety of circumstances. After conducting an initial inspection of the damaged pipe using a camera specifically designed to navigate sewer lines, it can be determined what kind of trenchless repair technique will be necessary.
Once this examination process is complete, the trenchless sewer line repair, trenchless main line repair, or other type of trenchless repair can begin.
Trenchless Repair Methods
Sewer Pipe Descaling
Sewer pipe descaling is the process of removing scale deposits from your cast iron pipe. By removing corrosion deposits from the inside of a cast iron sewer line, you can avoid a clog and extend the life of the pipe. Disposed paper products and solid material can get caught on hard, iron deposits that build up over time inside the pipes. Sewer pipe descaling is used when hydrojetting cannot complete the job.
Sewer Pipe Lining
One trenchless repair technique, commonly referred to as pipe lining, entails threading a new, resin-coated pipe liner into the existing damaged pipe through a single access hole. The resin then hardens, securing the pipe liner into place. Although the pipe liner will reduce the diameter of the existing pipe by approximately a quarter of an inch, it will create a pipe within a pipe that is jointless, corrosion-resistant, and most importantly, repairs the damaged pipe with minimal digging.
Sewer Pipe Bursting
Pipe lining is not always a possible option however. For instance, if the damaged pipe has any joints or has collapsed, the pipe liner will not be able to be put into place. If that is the case, pipe bursting can be performed instead.
Pipe bursting is another one of the common trenchless sewer repair techniques that involves pulling a large, cone- shaped bursting head through the damaged pipe. The bursting head fractures the existing pipe so it can be extracted. As this is being done, a new pipe is simultaneously pulled into place. While pipe busting requires two holes to be dug at either end of the damaged pipe instead of the one hole needed to conduct pipe lining, it is still a far less invasive form of sewer pipe repair that will leave more property around the pipe intact than traditional methods.
