Pipe Bursting in Reynoldsburg

The postwar lateral under most of Reynoldsburg

Reynoldsburg was a crossroads village on the National Road, and the blocks around Olde Reynoldsburg along Main Street carry its oldest sewer connections, vitrified clay in short lengths with cast iron through the foundation. But most of the city was built between about 1950 and 1972, when subdivisions went in along Brice Road, Livingston Avenue, Rosehill Road and the streets between Main and Broad. Those are the laterals that keep trenchless crews busy.

The typical one is four inch clay pipe in short lengths, laid in a trench of local clay, with a cast iron stub through the block wall and often a cast iron run under the basement slab. Some plats from that window used Orangeburg fiber pipe instead, by now usually ovalled and blistered. The camera makes the material obvious: clay shows a joint every few feet, Orangeburg a flattened, ragged interior.

East and south of the old city, the plats from the 1980s onward along Taylor Road, Waggoner Road and into Licking and Fairfield counties are PVC, which fails by settlement rather than roots.

Clay, creeks, trees and the frost line

Reynoldsburg sits on glacial till between Blacklick Creek and the smaller runs that drain east toward the Licking County line. The soil is heavy clay that holds water, so laterals sit wet much of the year and the water table rises every spring. The frost line is around 30 to 36 inches, and the shallow run closest to the house heaves and drops each winter, which over decades opens the mortar at clay joints and loosens the connection at the cast iron stub.

Once the joints leak, the trees take over. The street trees and backyard plantings from the 1950s and 1960s, mostly silver maple and pin oak with sycamore and willow near the creeks, are now fully mature. Their feeder roots run in the top few feet of wet clay, exactly where the lateral is. A hairline opening becomes a root mat, then a dam of roots, soil and paper, and the first sign is a floor drain that backs up when the washer discharges.

Reynoldsburg does not have the combined sewers of the old Columbus core, but a cracked lateral still admits groundwater during a storm and can surcharge the basement.

Picking the repair for a Reynoldsburg lateral

Most clay laterals here are candidates for cured-in-place lining. The line is hydro jetted to cut roots and scale, a felt liner saturated with epoxy resin is inverted or pulled in from a cleanout or a small pit near the house, and it is cured with hot water, steam or UV light. The finished product is a continuous pipe with no joints, so there is nothing left for roots to enter. The installer should reinstate the connection to the cast iron stub carefully, since that transition is a frequent leak point.

Pipe bursting is the choice for Orangeburg, for a collapsed section, or for an offset at the main that a liner cannot bridge. A pit is dug near the house and another near the main, a bursting head is winched through the old pipe, and fused HDPE follows. The main constraint in these neighborhoods is the mature tree that often stands directly over the lateral, since the pit near the house has to avoid the trunk and major roots.

A sectional point repair fits the case where the camera shows one bad joint with sound pipe on either side.

Permits and the right-of-way

Reynoldsburg receives sewer service through an agreement with Columbus, so permits and inspections for a lateral repair may involve the city building office, the Columbus Division of Sewerage and Drainage, or both, depending on where the work touches the system. The installer should sort that out before scheduling. Work in the sidewalk or street requires a right-of-way permit. Addresses on the Licking or Fairfield County side of town may fall under that county's sanitary engineer instead.

In most communities in the area the owner is responsible for the lateral all the way to the main. Keep the inspection video.

What the day looks like and how to compare installers

The crew will camera the lateral, locate it across the yard, and mark the depth near the house and at the sidewalk. Lining is a one day job, with water off for a few hours during the cure. Bursting usually runs into a second morning for backfill, inspection and sod.

Ask every installer for the pre and post camera video, the liner and resin specification, and a written warranty covering both material and labor. To compare installers already vetted on those points, find a verified CIPP contractor and ask how they handle a clay lateral under a mature silver maple, which is the standard Reynoldsburg job.

Pipe Bursting in Reynoldsburg

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 Reynoldsburg

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Reynoldsburg, including ZIP codes 43068.

More trenchless services in Reynoldsburg

Questions we hear in Reynoldsburg