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3 INCORRECT IDEAS ABOUT PIPE BURSTING
Mar 15, 2019
If your home utilizes a municipal water supply, then it contains a key pipe known as the sewer line. As you may know, the sewer line provides a way for waste to flow out of your home and back into the city water system. As time goes on, a sewer pipe often becomes degraded and damaged and eventually needs replacement.
One of the most exciting techniques used to replace aging sewer pipes goes by the name of pipe bursting. Unfortunately, many homeowners believe misunderstandings about this vital technique. If you would like to learn more about the facts regarding sewer line repair, keep reading. This article sets the record straight regarding three common myths about pipe bursting.
1. Pipe Bursting Only Works When Excavation Isn't an Option
Two main approaches exist to the problem of replacing an aging sewer line. Historically, this task was almost always accomplished using excavation-based techniques. In other words, a contractor had to literally dig up your yard to expose and replace the damaged pipe. As you can imagine, this approach often becomes time-consuming, expensive, and disruptive.
Pipe bursting falls into the second category of pipe repair techniques, known as trenchless repair. As the name implies, trenchless repair techniques repair or replace existing pipes without disrupting the soil of your yard at all. Technically speaking, pipe bursting does require some relatively small holes into which the contractor threads the new pipe.
Unfortunately, a common myth regarding pipe bursting holds that this technique only works in cases where excavation-based techniques aren't practical. This idea has no basis in reality. On the contrary, pipe bursting represents a viable option in almost any case where a damaged sewer line needs to be replaced. And in many cases, the far less invasive nature of pipe bursting makes it a much more appealing option.
2. Pipe Bursting Is the Same as Cured in Place Repair
A second main type of trenchless repair goes by the name of cured in place repair. Because many people don't understand trenchless repair very well, they often conflate these two very different techniques. As its name suggests, pipe bursting involves breaking up the existing pipe and immediately pulling a new section of pipe into place. The fragments of the old pipe remain embedded in the soil around the new pipe.
Pipe bursting allows a contractor to replace the old pipe with one of the exact same diameter. In fact, pipe bursting even allows for the option of installing a new pipe with a diameter greater than that of the old one.
Cured in place repair, by contrast, leaves the existing pipe largely intact. Instead of breaking up this pipe, the contractor installs a special liner inside of it. This liner adheres to the old pipe, forming a new, water-tight conduit. Unfortunately, in the process, cured in place repair also decreases the diameter of the pipe, potentially leading to decreases in flow rate.
3. Pipe Bursting Only Works for Installing HDPE Pipes
In the past, pipe bursting had certain limitations in terms of the material of the new pipes installed. In most cases, the new pipe had to consist of the plastic known as high-density polyethylene, or HDPE.
Make no mistake: HDPE makes for a safe, durable, and long lasting sewer pipe. Yet in certain cases, structural features of the home or plumbing system may mean that HDPE cannot be used. Fortunately, contractors can now use the pipe bursting technique to install a wide range of other pipe materials, including PVC, ductile iron pipe, and welded steel pipe. To use these materials, the contractor simply has to switch from the style known as pneumatic pipe bursting to the one known as static pipe bursting.
Pipe bursting has become one of the most popular and effective ways to replace an aging sewer line. For more information about plumbing repairs on your property, contact Meridian's experts at Roto-Rooter
Sewer Service.
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