How Trenchless Sewer Repair Works

For much of the plumbing industry, repairing the sewer drain meant performing excavations along the entire sewer line. Consequently, the work of repairing the drain line was messy, intrusive, expensive, and overbearing to homeowners. However, technological development in the plumbing industry has given rise to innovative ways of performing repairs �” the trenchless sewer repair methods which saving homeowners from the trouble of the past.

The trenchless sewer repairs technologies, as the name suggest do not involve any excavation of trenches that were common in the years past. The technologies classified under this category make use of innovations that do not rely on excavations to repair the drain lines. Herein, we are going to explore how such technologies work. After all, there is value in understanding these services as you might need them.

Inspection And Preparations Of The Sewer Line

Before the actual repairing, the sewer line is usually inspected to determine the level of damage, the structure of the sewer line, and to gauge the amount of debris there is in the pipe (if there is any). For this part of the task, an access hole is dug at the shallowest point of the sewer line. This is usually just outside of the house and sometimes in the basement of the house.

A flexible camera is the snaked into the sewer line to conduct the inspection. Through the camera, the plumbers are also capable of determining anything and everything pertaining to the sewer line. Thereafter, the sewer line may be flushed out using hydro-jetter. If any debris still remains, a plumbing snake may be used to get rid of the debris.

Repairing The Line

When it come to the actually repairing the drain line, there are two ways of going about it. The first option is the trenchless cured-in-place pipe lining, or the CIPP method and the trenchless pipe bursting and splitting method.

#1. Trenchless CIPP �” This method involves installing an epoxy saturated lining through the prepared drain line. Through the access point, the flexible lining is fed into the sewer line all the way up to the main sewer line connection.

The inner lining is left to sure, thus forming a hard, impermeable lining that repairs seal of any leak. However, owing to the fact that the lining is installed inside the pipe, the interior diameter will reduce a bit. However, this does not affect the flow rate along the line.

#2. Trenchless Pipe Bursting And Splitting �” The second method does not necessarily require the flushing of the pipe. However, it can be done when there are huge chucked of debris lying in the pipe. For the pipe bursting and splitting method, a pneumatic or hydraulic head is fed to the drain pipe. The head breaks and spreads apart the existing pipe, be it an iron pipe or a clay pipe, creating room for a new pipe to be installed.

While breaking the old pipe, a new pipeline is drawn, thus occupying the space of the old pipe. Thus, this method gets rid of the old pipe while at the same time installs a new one at a go without excavation.