Using Pipe Bursting to Replace Your Sewer Line

The old fashioned way of repairing or replacing your sewer line was to dig up your beautiful yard. With today’s new technology, your sewer line can be repaired or replaced, in most cases, by boring underground without ruining your yard. Rather than open cut excavation (trench digging), pipe bursting can be a restorative process used as an alternative instead of wrecking havoc with your landscaping.

Most of the work associated with this process is underground. Small holes are necessary to hook up service connections and for the entry/exit of the pipe bursting equipment. There may be some disturbing of your favorite foliage; however, the potential for land damage is minimal in comparison to that of major excavation.

New replacement pipe is, in essence, threaded into the old piping, using special heads that break the old pipe into pieces. In the process, the original hole is enlarged for the new pipe and the fragments of the old pipe are pushed back into the dirt. Hydraulic equipment pushes or pulls the bursting heads along the old pipeline, through smaller entry and exit points above ground, while also pulling the new pipe into place.

The only real limitations to this process are that the old pipes must be of a material that can be broken and the soil needs to be able to absorb the remaining fragment. Given the material of most pipeline installations, this method appears to be an excellent solution for storm and sewer line replacement.

If you are in need of repair or replacement for your existing sewer lines, be sure to ask your local plumbing/sewer specialist about trenchless pipe replacement. You’ll certainly find it a much quicker and less damaging process.