Trenchless technology makes sewer pipe repair painless

Nothing’s worse than a sewer pipe needing repair or replacement on your property. But with trenchless pipe replacement, your landscaping won’t suffer. The sewer pipe carrying your home’s wastewater to the main sewer line can back up under a number of circumstances, but you can learn to anticipate what may happen with a little help from this guide.

Just in case you’re curious, the most common reasons for poorly flushing toilets, plugged sinks and poorly draining bathtubs, etc., are the following in your home’s sewer service pipes:

• Non-biodegradable wipes (baby wipes)
• Kids’ toys
• Hair
• Underwear
• Paper towels
• Rags
• Grease buildup

And then there are tree roots, which can enter sewer pipes through cracks, holes or joints. A small amount of intrusion usually is treated with herbicide, but a root-filled sewer pipe will undoubtedly require pipe repair or replacement.

Which means upheaval of your yard and landscaping, right? Not with trenchless pipe replacement, a relatively new (10 to 15-year-old) technology that allows contractors to completely replace damaged pipes without disturbing an above-ground area larger than 20 or 30 centimetres.

Sometimes called “no dig” pipe repair, trenchless technology works almost completely underground. A cable with a “bursting head” is threaded through the existing, damaged sewer pipe with new piping attached. As the bursting head is pulled through the old pipe by a hydraulic system, the new pipe follows along behind, breaking open and replacing the damaged pipe. The fresh new pipe is then pulled through a small exit hole and hooked up to your home’s sewer system.

Trenchless pipe repair and replacement is generally cheaper than the more traditional method of digging up lawns, and it takes only a day or two to complete. The type of pipe used nowadays has a life expectancy of about 200 years, so you won't likely need to repeat this task anytime soon.