Underground Piping is Less of a Mess with Trenchless Sewer Repair
Underground water and sewer piping can often end up in precarious areas. Running under streets, trees, walks, or porches, the location of underground piping can cause a headache if problems arise. However, improvements in trenchless sewer repair for underground piping projects are making piping problems much easier and less messy to accomplish. Trenchless piping technology has helped reduce the time, costs, and the mess of digging up piping to solve piping problems.
Two particular methods are most often used in trenchless repair, “pipe lining” and “pipe bursting”. The two methods are not used interchangeably. Each trenchless pipe repair method has itS own process and how those processes accommodate a pipes issues determines which method gives the best or most economical solution. It’s up to your piping repair expert to decide which application is the most suitable for your needs.
Pipe lining can usually be done from one point of access. So if that access is already available in a building, then no digging at all may be required. If the existing piping is collapsed or cannot be completely cleaned, then it isn’t suitable for pipe lining. In such a case, the pipe bursting trenchless repair method is the best option for underground piping repair. This trenchless repair method needs to get access to each end of the piping using “launching and receiving pits”. A new pipe is pulled through the existing pipe behind a bursting head which fractures and pushes aside the old pipe ahead of the new piping being pulled in. This method was originally used to fracture cast iron and clay piping. However, it now used on concrete piping, orangeburg piping, and others as well.
If the existing problem pipe is not collapsed, then pipe lining is the process where a piping repair expert will use a different trenchless system and line the inside of an existing pipe with a fiberglass or felt liner impregnated with epoxy. This application seals up any holes or cracks that the existing piping may have. The pipe lining process adds to the strength of the existing pipe which the lining is be applied within.
Both these process have their pros and cons and are not necessarily appropriate for the same situations and have different costs associated with them. New HDPE piping will always result in a longer lasting product for the future. But sometimes, especially on short runs, pipe lining is less expensive. Both will repair or replace the old piping with less disturbance both these less invasive trenchless methods can increase the flow characteristics of the piping - especially important in home sewer lines with the new low water use fixtures.
