Pipe Bursting in Edgewood

Edgewood's subdivisions and what was laid under them

Edgewood is the postwar extension of Ashtabula, a grid of ranches, split-levels and modest colonials that filled in the township south of the city line from the late 1940s into the 1970s. The streets off Lake Avenue, Columbus Avenue and the Route 20 commercial strip were built in waves, and the laterals under them reflect what each builder had on hand: vitrified clay in jointed lengths through the 1950s, Orangeburg fiber pipe on a good share of the 1950s and 1960s lots, and PVC once the 1970s arrived. Basement homes usually have cast iron through the foundation before the change to clay or fiber outside.

The Orangeburg lots are the ones that generate most of the calls. The material was never meant to last seventy years in wet clay, and it fails by going soft, ovaling and blistering inward until the camera cannot pass. Clay laterals from the same era fail differently, at the joints, but just as reliably.

Clay, frost and the trees of a 1960s street

The ground under Edgewood is glacial till with a high clay content, flat enough that water lingers in old trench backfill well into summer. That backfill settled unevenly over the decades, which is why so many laterals here have bellies. Add a snowbelt frost line of three feet or more and each winter lifts the pipe a little more at one joint than the next.

The silver maples and pin oaks planted when the subdivisions were new are now full-grown, and their roots run straight to any joint that weeps. A camera in a 1960s Edgewood lateral typically shows root curtains every few feet, with grease and wipes caught on them. In the lower-lying blocks near the drainage ways that feed the Ashtabula River, groundwater infiltration through those same joints keeps the line running half full in the spring.

Choosing between lining, bursting and a spot repair

A camera inspection and a locate always come first. If the clay or Orangeburg is cracked, rooted and leaking but still round enough for the camera to pass, cured-in-place pipe lining is the usual solution. The installer cuts roots, hydro jets the pipe clean, then inverts or pulls an epoxy-saturated felt liner through the run and cures it with hot water, steam or UV light into a jointless, structural pipe.

If the Orangeburg has flattened, the clay has collapsed or a joint has dropped so far the camera stops, pipe bursting replaces the run. A pit at the house and a pit near the main let a bursting head break the old pipe outward while fused HDPE is pulled in behind. A single bad joint on a sound line can be handled with a sectional point repair instead of lining the whole lateral.

The county permit and the inspection

Edgewood's sewers are operated by Ashtabula County, so the permit and inspection come from the county sanitary engineer's office rather than the city. Work in the right-of-way of a county or township road requires a separate permit from the county engineer or the township, and any pit along Route 20 involves the state. The inspector wants to see bursting pits open before backfill and reviews the post-cure camera video on a lining job. Experienced installers handle all of this as part of the contract.

The day of the job and how to pick a crew

Expect a truck and trailer at the curb, water use paused for several hours, and a crew working from the cleanout or a small pit near the foundation. Lining jobs are usually finished by late afternoon; bursting may need a second day for restoration. Ask every bidder for the camera footage, a written method and the liner or pipe product, and ask how it will handle the transition to cast iron at the foundation wall. To compare installers, find a verified CIPP contractor and look for crews that have worked on county-sewer lots in Ashtabula Township, where Orangeburg and clay in wet till are the daily reality.

Pipe Bursting in Edgewood

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.

More trenchless services in Edgewood

Questions we hear in Edgewood