Don’t Dig Yet!: TLC’s Trenchless Sewer Line Repair Can Save Your Lawn

Buying your first house is one of the biggest and proudest milestones of a person’s life. Putting your name on the mailbox, getting the deed and the front door key, and knowing you never have to pay rent again are some of the best feelings in the world.

Then comes the first thing you don’t know how to fix, and you realize: it’s all on you now. It can be intimidating, especially when we’re talking about a leaky pipe or, even worse, a backed-up sewer pipe. Sure, there’s water leaking out into your yard, but there’s also a whole lot worse backing up into your house. And now the sewer pipe repair is up to you! That means you have to hire a whole team of guys, dig up your yard, and replace the damaged pipe, right? And until you do, you’re gonna have to find somewhere else to…use the facilities.

Well, don’t panic yet, because at TLC, we’re experts at trenchless sewer repair and trenchless sewer line replacement, and we can get you up and running without having to dig up your hard-earned flower garden or precious lawn. How? Well, read on to find out.

What is Trenchless Sewer Repair?

Trenchless sewer repair is a process that allows sewer line repair and replacement without digging a trench in your yard. While it isn’t possible in every sewer line repair scenario, there are two possible methods of trenchless sewer repair: Pipe Bursting and Pipe Lining (CIPP)

When Does a Sewer Line Need Repair?

Sewer lines can need repairs for as many reasons as there are hazards and accidents in the world. Sewer lines can be damaged by animals, tree roots, storm damage, freezing, the usual weight of impact on your yard, or even just time and corrosion.

The main symptoms of needing sewer repair are:

A backed up sewer line (water/waste not going down)
Wet spots on the lawn
Strange smells are coming from the ground between your house and the street
Slow drains in multiple parts of the house
Clogs that come back after you’ve cleared them
Toilet gurgling when other water is used

It also may be worth looking at your sewer lines if your house was built before 1980 and still has the original pipes, or if there is a large tree growing near your sewer line.

How Does Trenchless Sewer Repair Work?

Trenchless sewer repair is actually very simple and far more convenient than traditional sewer line repair.

We’ve all seen construction crews off the side of the road replacing old sewer lines. It means digging up tons of dirt, sometimes sidewalks, or even sections of the road. They have to get to the broken piece of pipe, cut it out, and replace it. Now, imagine that happening in your own front yard! If you’re hooked up to a city sewer line, that could be a reality. While the city owns and maintains everything up to the sidewalk, once that line crosses into your property, it’s your responsibility. So, until trenchless repair, that means a crew of workers coming out to dig up the sewer line and everything above it – flower gardens, lawns, sheds, fences, you name it, and it would have to come up so they could find the problem section of the pipe and replace it.

Trenchless repair takes the existing sewer line, and it uses a camera to snake down through the line and find out where the problem is. The majority of issues can be at least temporarily cleared. If there’s a break in the pipe or an obstruction, we can clean out the damaged section, replace or line the old pipe, and make it whole again.

Then, once it’s clear, we put a new pipe inside in one of two ways:

Pipe Bursting
Trenchless Pipe Lining or CIPP Sewer Repair (Cured-in-Place Piping).

What is Pipe Bursting?

Pipe Bursting is also known as trenchless pipe replacement, but I think we can all agree that pipe bursting just sounds cooler, right? If you don’t think so, wait until I tell you about the “bursting head”.

Bursting heads are tools with attached blades that are fed down the old pipe to break it open, creating a larger clearance where the old pipe was. Then, right behind the bursting head, we feed down a brand new pipe. Once the pipe clears the end of the old pipe, we hook it in where the old pipe was hooked and, voila, you have a new sewer line fed right through the path your previous one used.

What is Pipe Lining and CIPP (Cured in Place Piping)?

The second method of replacing your pipe without trenching up your whole yard is actually even cooler than pipe bursting, if you can believe that. Pipe lining is a fast and simple four-step process:

Insert a camera into the sewer line to find the break.
Clear any obstructions in the sewer line using a cable or hydro-jetting.
Push a cure in place liner along the length of the sewer line.
Allow the liner to harden into a new pipe inside of the old pipe, free of breaks, bends, and potential weak points.

That sounds impossible, but it’s not! Our techs have a specially blended epoxy they can push along the length of the line to coat the inside of the pipe. Once that epoxy hardens, you have a new, unbroken pipe built right inside of the old broken one. Once the liner goes in, it should last for 50 years!

What are the Pros and Cons of Trenchless Sewer Repair?

What’s the catch, you ask? Don’t worry, it’s natural to try to find the weaknesses in the new system. Honestly, there are a lot more pros to trenchless sewer repair than cons, so let’s start with the con, right?

Con of Trenchless Sewer Line Repair:

It’s not always possible – If a pipe is deteriorated too far or the path is obstructed by something we can’t clear, then there’s no way around it. Somebody is going to have to dig up the yard and replace that pipe. Both trenchless methods rely on the existing pipe not being entirely degraded to get through.

Pros of Trenchless Sewer Repair:

It’s FAST – Most repairs can be done within twenty-four hours, and your house can be back to normal. There are few joys like being able to flush your toilet after not doing so for a while.
Minimal digging – Sure, you don’t want to dig up your yard, we’ve covered that. But that could just be the tip of the iceberg. You might have to dig up walkways, driveways, or flower beds, or even relocate trees. That’s a headache nobody wants to deal with.
Expense – The labor and materials expense of digging up the pipe is about the same as the trenchless repair, but that’s before we consider any of the costs of digging. That could mean far more work hours and far more in the way of destruction and repairs just to get to the line.
Higher quality and longer-lasting repair – replacing the whole line means that everything between the house and street will be brand new, not just the previously broken section. The real advantage of CIPP is that the pipe no longer has any joints or other weak points, which should make it last much longer.

Ready to Replace Your Broken Pipe?

If you’re tired of the backed up drains or terrible odors from your lawn, give TLC a call today, and our team of technicians can be on the job right away! Whether it’s a trend of seemingly small issues or a sudden and smelly emergency, our experienced techs are on the job 24/7 and can get you up and running and back to earth