Pipe Bursting in Geneva

The housing stock and the pipe that goes with it

Geneva sits at the center of Ashtabula County's grape belt, and its neighborhoods span more than a century of building. The blocks around Broadway, Main Street and the old rail line are filled with homes from the 1880s through the 1920s. Those houses almost always have vitrified clay laterals, laid in short lengths with a mortar or clay joint every couple of feet, and often a cast iron section where the line passes through the foundation.

The ranch and split-level neighborhoods that spread south and east of downtown in the 1950s and 1960s may have clay, Orangeburg or early transite pipe, depending on the builder. Orangeburg is the one to worry about, since it deforms and delaminates rather than cracking. Subdivisions and infill from the late 1970s onward are generally PVC, and the camera rarely finds more than a minor belly or a root at the tap.

Soil, frost and the roots that find the joints

The ground under Geneva is glacial till capped with lake-plain clay, with pockets of better-drained soil that made the vineyards possible. Where the clay is heavy, water sits in the trench around the lateral for weeks after a thaw. When that saturated clay freezes it expands and lifts whatever is in it, and a jointed pipe does not lift evenly. Thirty or forty winters of that produce the offset joints and sags that show up on nearly every inspection of a pre-1970 home.

Street trees are the other constant. Silver maple was planted heavily in the mid-century neighborhoods, and its roots are relentless in a weeping joint. Willows near the creeks and drainage ditches are worse. A root mass can fill a four-inch clay pipe completely in a few seasons, and cutting it only buys a year or two before it returns thicker. Grease and wipes caught on those roots are what finally stop the flow.

Which trenchless method fits a Geneva lateral

Nothing responsible happens before a camera goes down the line. For the common case, a clay lateral with cracks, root intrusion and leaking joints but no collapse, cured-in-place pipe lining is the standard fix. The crew cuts the roots, hydro jets the pipe to bare wall, then inverts or pulls an epoxy-saturated felt liner through the whole run and cures it with steam, hot water or UV light. The liner becomes a continuous pipe with no joints for roots to find.

If the camera cannot pass a section, or the pipe has flattened or dropped so that a liner would simply follow the bad shape, pipe bursting is the better tool. A pit is dug at the house and another near the main, a bursting head splits the old pipe outward, and fused HDPE is pulled into its place. Where a single joint has failed on an otherwise good line, a sectional point repair over that one spot is cheaper and just as durable.

Who issues the permit and who inspects

Within the city limits the sewer permit and inspection come from Geneva's building and utility departments, and work in the street or tree lawn needs a right-of-way permit as well. Properties just outside the city on county sewer go through the Ashtabula County sanitary engineer instead. Homes still on septic in the surrounding township deal with the county health department. The inspector checks the connection at the main for bursting jobs and reviews the post-cure video for lining.

The day of the work and how to choose a crew

Expect a few hours without water use, a truck and a reel at the curb, and a crew working from the cleanout or a small pit near the foundation. Lining is usually done by late afternoon, and bursting can run into a second day when the pits need to be deep. Before signing anything, get the camera video, a written description of the method, and the liner or pipe specification. To compare candidates, find a verified CIPP contractor and ask each one to walk through the footage from the inspection. A crew that will not explain why it chose lining over bursting on a particular line is one to pass on.

Pipe Bursting in Geneva

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 Geneva

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Geneva, including ZIP codes 44041.

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Questions we hear in Geneva