Pipe Bursting in Ashtabula

Harbor towns, lake cottages and farm lots

The city of Ashtabula and its harbor district, Conneaut and Geneva were built out between the 1880s and the 1930s around the docks, the railroads and the lake, and the houses on those streets still sit on the sewer laterals laid then: vitrified clay tile in short jointed lengths, with cast iron under the basement and through the wall. Jefferson, the county seat, Andover, Orwell and the villages inland have the same pattern in their cores. Along the shore from Geneva-on-the-Lake to Conneaut, a second kind of property is common: cottages and lake houses built between the 1920s and the 1960s, often on shallow, short laterals or on septic, with lines that were never meant to serve a year-round house. And across the largest county in Ohio by land area, most rural homes are on private septic systems, where the pipe that fails is the run from the house to the tank.

Clay joints admit roots and shift with the ground. Cast iron under a slab channels out along the bottom. Shallow cottage lines crush under vehicles and heave with frost. Plastic laterals in the newer subdivisions crack at the house connection or belly in soft fill.

Snowbelt frost, lake-plain clay

Ashtabula County is the heart of Ohio's snowbelt, and its soils are lake-plain clay near the shore and glacial till inland, with a high water table in much of the county. Deep frost and a wet spring thaw move the ground every year, which opens clay joints, offsets pipe and creates bellies that hold water and collect grease. The county's big maples, oaks and willows find every leaking joint. Roots and offsets are the routine findings on a sewer camera inspection here; on lakeshore lots, add crushed or frost-heaved shallow pipe.

Sewers and responsibility

Ashtabula, Conneaut, Geneva and Jefferson operate their own sanitary sewer systems, and the Ashtabula County Environmental Services department serves a number of the townships and lakeshore areas. In every case the lateral from the house to the main is the property owner's responsibility, including the section under the tree lawn and sidewalk. Repair needs a plumbing permit from the city or county, and work in the right of way needs a separate permit and inspection. Septic lines fall under the county health department. A good contractor knows which office covers your address and pulls the permit before starting.

Which trenchless method fits

• Sewer pipe lining is the answer for a clay lateral with root-intruded joints and small offsets that still holds shape and slope, and for channeled cast iron under a basement floor. A cured-in-place liner installed from the cleanout seals every joint at once and is unaffected by frost movement afterward, because it has no joints.
• Pipe bursting is for a collapsed or crushed run, a long belly, or a line that should be upsized, including many lakeshore cottage lines. Two small pits and a new fused polyethylene pipe on the old path.
• Sectional point repair handles a single crushed joint under a driveway or a single root ball on an otherwise sound line.

What a job looks like

Hydro jetting to clear roots and scale, then the camera pass with a locator marking depth and position across the yard. Lining runs from the basement cleanout or a small access at the foundation and is usually finished in a day, with water off for a few hours during the cure. A second camera pass records the finished pipe, and right-of-way work is inspected before it is closed. Keep the video; on a lake property it is worth having at resale.

Pipe Bursting in Ashtabula

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 Ashtabula

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Ashtabula, including ZIP codes 44004, 44005.

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Questions we hear in Ashtabula