Pipe Bursting in Saybrook

The ranches of Saybrook and what was buried with them

Saybrook Township filled in as Ashtabula's western suburb after the Second World War. The streets off Route 20, Lake Road and Depot Road hold ranches, split-levels and small colonials from the 1950s through the 1970s, with a scattering of older farmhouses and lake cottages near Saybrook Township Park and newer homes on larger lots to the south. Public sewer serves most of the developed northern half of the township, while outlying parcels remain on septic.

The laterals under the postwar homes are a mix of vitrified clay, Orangeburg fiber pipe and asbestos-cement, depending on the year and the builder, and basement homes usually have cast iron through the foundation wall. Orangeburg is common enough here that a camera inspection on a 1950s or 1960s lot should be expected to find it. Homes from the late 1970s on, and most of the newer subdivisions, have PVC.

Lake-plain clay, frost and the trees of a sixty-year-old street

Saybrook sits on the flat Lake Erie lake plain, and the soil is silty clay that drains slowly. Old lateral trenches hold water from the thaw into summer, and in the snowbelt the frost reaches three feet or deeper. Saturated clay heaves when it freezes, and a jointed pipe is lifted unevenly every winter. Orangeburg in that wet ground softens, ovals and blisters inward; clay separates at the joints and loses grade.

The silver maples, pin oaks and sycamores planted when the subdivisions were new are now mature, and their roots seek the moisture that leaks from every joint and crack. A camera run on an older Saybrook lateral commonly shows roots at joint after joint, with grease and wipes caught on them. Near the lake and along the drainage ways the water table is high, so an opened joint takes on groundwater all spring and washes soil into the pipe.

Which trenchless method suits a Saybrook lateral

A camera inspection and a locate come first, without exception. If the clay or Orangeburg is cracked, rooted and leaking but still round, cured-in-place pipe lining is the usual recommendation. The crew cuts roots, hydro jets the pipe to bare wall, then inverts or pulls an epoxy-saturated felt liner through the run and cures it with hot water, steam or UV light. The liner becomes a structural, jointless pipe that holds its shape even if the Orangeburg around it keeps breaking down.

When the camera cannot pass a flattened or collapsed section, pipe bursting replaces the run. A pit near the foundation and a pit near the main allow a bursting head to split the old pipe while fused HDPE is pulled into place. If the camera finds a single bad joint on an otherwise sound line, a sectional point repair over that spot is the economical answer.

County permits, the right-of-way and inspection

Because Saybrook's sewers are a county system, the permit and inspection come from the Ashtabula County sanitary engineer. A pit in a township road requires a permit from the township, a county road involves the county engineer, and Route 20 or Route 45 involves the state transportation department. Septic lots go through the county health department. Bursting pits are inspected open; lining jobs are verified by the post-cure camera video.

How the day goes and how to choose an installer

Expect a truck and trailer at the curb, water off for several hours, and a crew at the cleanout or a small pit by the house. Lining is normally finished by late afternoon; bursting may take a second day for restoration. Before signing, ask for the camera video, a written method and the product name of the liner or pipe, and ask how the crew will seal the liner where it meets cast iron at the foundation. To compare installers, find a verified CIPP contractor and favor crews that have handled Orangeburg in wet lake-plain clay, since that is the typical Saybrook job and the difference between a liner that lasts and one that does not.

Pipe Bursting in Saybrook

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.

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