Pipe Bursting in Orwell

Orwell's homes and the laterals under them

Orwell grew as a farm-service village where Route 45 meets Route 322, and its core along Main Street and the streets around the village green holds homes from the late 1800s through the 1930s. When the village sewer system was built, those houses were connected with vitrified clay laterals laid in short jointed lengths. Many are still in service. Homes with basements generally have a cast iron section through the foundation wall before the clay begins.

The village added ranches and modest two-story homes through the 1950s and 1960s, especially along the side streets toward the school and the edges of the corporation, and those lots can hold clay, Orangeburg or asbestos-cement pipe. Houses built from the late 1970s on, and the newer lots toward the township line, usually have PVC. In the surrounding township most homes are on septic rather than sewer.

Wet clay, high groundwater and frost

The southern end of Ashtabula County is a nearly flat plain of clay till at the headwaters of the Grand River, and drainage is slow everywhere. Trenches dug for laterals decades ago still fill with water every spring, and in a hard winter the frost reaches three feet or more into that saturated clay. The heave lifts jointed pipe unevenly, and over sixty or eighty winters the line ends up with offset joints and low spots.

Because the water table sits so high, an opened joint does more than let roots in. It lets groundwater pour into the lateral all spring, which keeps the line running half full, washes fine soil into the pipe, and over time creates a void outside the pipe that lets it drop further. Silver maples and willows along the ditches and older streets send roots into the same joints. On a camera run in Orwell the inspector usually sees water trickling in at several joints and roots at the rest.

Lining, bursting or a point repair for a village lateral

Nothing is decided before the camera inspection and a locate of the line. If the clay is cracked and rooted and the joints are weeping but the pipe is still round, cured-in-place pipe lining is the standard fix and it also stops the groundwater infiltration that overloads the village plant. The crew cuts roots, hydro jets the pipe, then inverts or pulls an epoxy-saturated felt liner through the run and cures it with hot water, steam or UV light.

A collapsed or crushed section, or an offset the camera cannot pass, calls for pipe bursting. Two pits are dug, one near the house and one near the main, and a bursting head breaks the old pipe outward while a fused HDPE pipe is pulled in behind. In wet clay the pits need shoring and dewatering, which is part of what an experienced crew brings. When one joint has failed on an otherwise sound line, a sectional point repair with a short liner over that spot avoids relining the whole run.

Village permits and the inspection

The Village of Orwell issues the sewer permit and performs the inspection, and work under the street or sidewalk requires a right-of-way permit from the village. Along Route 45 or Route 322 the state transportation department may also be involved because those are state routes. Township properties on septic go through the Ashtabula County health department. The inspector expects to see bursting pits open before backfill and the post-cure video on a lining job.

What the day looks like and how to pick an installer

Plan on water being off for several hours, a truck at the curb and a crew at the cleanout or a small pit near the foundation. Lining is typically a one-day job. Bursting in wet ground can take two days once dewatering and restoration are counted. Before signing, get the camera footage, a written method and the liner or pipe product. To compare bids, find a verified CIPP contractor and ask each candidate how it handles groundwater in the pits and at the liner ends, since that is the problem that defines sewer work in this part of the county.

Pipe Bursting in Orwell

How pipe bursting works

A steel cable is threaded through the old sewer line from a pit at one end to a pit at the other. A cone-shaped bursting head, with new high-density polyethylene pipe fused to it, is pulled through by a hydraulic unit. The head splits the old clay or cast iron outward into the soil and the new pipe follows in the same alignment at the same depth. The result is a single fused length of pipe with no joints for roots to find.

When bursting is the right call

• Collapsed sections — a liner needs a host pipe to hold its shape; a collapsed run has none.
• Bellies — a low spot that holds water stays a low spot after lining. Bursting lays new pipe on a fresh bed.
• Undersized lines — bursting can upsize a 3-inch lateral to 4 inches; lining slightly reduces diameter.
• Badly deformed pipe — Orangeburg that has flattened, or cast iron with most of its bottom gone.

What the job looks like

One pit at the house or cleanout, one at the property line or the street connection, each a few feet square. Utilities that cross within a foot or two of the sewer path are located and potholed first. The pull takes an hour or two; the whole job, including fusing, connections, inspection and backfill, is usually one day.

Permits and the street

If the downstream pit is in the sidewalk, parkway or street, a right-of-way permit and restoration to city standards are required in addition to the plumbing permit. If the connection at the main is replaced, the city inspects it before the pit closes. Confirm who is handling this before work starts.

ZIP codes served in Orwell

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Orwell, including ZIP codes 44076.

More trenchless services in Orwell

Questions we hear in Orwell