Pipe Bursting in Columbus

Columbus housing by era, and the pipe that came with it

The neighborhoods inside the I-270 loop tell the story of the sewer lateral in Columbus. German Village, Olde Towne East, the Short North, Clintonville and the older parts of the Hilltop were built between the 1880s and the 1930s and were plumbed with vitrified clay tile in short lengths, sometimes with a cast iron run under the house. The post-war ring, from Linden and the Northland tracts to Whitehall, Westgate and the streets south of Bexley, went in during the 1950s and 60s with clay or early bituminous-fiber pipe and cast iron under slab houses. The suburban belt of the 1970s onward, out through Dublin, Hilliard, Gahanna and Reynoldsburg, used plastic pipe that fails less often but is not immune to crushing, bellies and builder mistakes.

Each era has its own failure pattern. Clay joints let roots in and shift with the soil. Bituminous-fiber pipe, where it survived, goes oval and delaminates. Cast iron under a slab channels out along the bottom. Plastic laterals fail at the connection to the cast iron stub, at a crushed spot under a driveway, or where a belly formed in soft backfill.

Soil and water in Franklin County

Columbus sits on glacial till, mostly clay with pockets of sand and gravel along the Scioto and Olentangy corridors. Clay swells and shrinks with the seasons, and in a wet spring it holds water against the pipe for weeks. Laterals here are often deep, eight to twelve feet in the older neighborhoods where the mains were laid deep to drain basements, which makes an open trench a shored, dewatered excavation rather than a quick dig. The city's street trees, especially the maples and sycamores in Clintonville and the near east side, are the other constant: root intrusion at clay joints is the most frequent finding on a Columbus sewer camera inspection.

Sewers and permits

The City of Columbus Division of Sewerage and Drainage operates the sanitary and combined systems inside the city; the older core still has combined sewers that carry storm and sanitary flow together, which is why a marginal lateral backs up in a downpour. Suburbs such as Bexley, Upper Arlington, Worthington and Grandview Heights maintain their own local sewers. In practice the homeowner is responsible for the lateral from the house to the connection at the main, including the part under the tree lawn and sidewalk. Repair work needs a plumbing permit, and anything in the right of way needs a separate permit and an inspection before the hole is closed. A good contractor pulls both and schedules the inspection; if a quote does not mention permits, ask.

Choosing the trenchless method

• Sewer pipe lining fits the classic Columbus lateral: clay tile with root-intruded, slightly offset joints that still holds shape and grade. A cured-in-place liner from the basement cleanout to the main seals every joint in one pass and leaves a smooth, jointless pipe.
• Pipe bursting fits a collapsed section, a long belly, or a line that needs to be upsized. Two small pits, one at the house and one at the main, and the new fused polyethylene pipe follows the old path.
• Sectional point repair handles a single defect, such as one joint crushed when a driveway was poured over it or the transition from cast iron to clay at the foundation.

Deep laterals and combined sewers make Columbus a strong case for trenchless. Digging to a main twelve feet down under a street with a permit, traffic control and restoration costs far more than the pipe itself; lining or bursting leaves all of that alone.

What to expect on the day

Hydro jetting first to clear roots and scale so the camera can see the pipe wall and, if lining, so the resin bonds to clean pipe. Then the camera pass and a locator marking depth and position on the lawn. Lining runs from an existing cleanout or a small access at the foundation and is normally done in a day, with the water off for a few hours during the cure. A post-repair camera pass records the finished line, and the city inspects any work in the right of way before backfill. Keep that video.

Pipe Bursting in Columbus

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 Columbus

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Columbus, including ZIP codes 43085, 43201, 43202, 43203, 43204, 43205, 43206, 43207, 43209, 43210, 43211, 43212, 43213, 43214, 43215, 43216, 43217, 43218, 43219, 43220, 43221, 43222, 43223, 43224, 43226, 43227, 43228, 43229, 43230, 43231, 43232, 43234, 43235, 43236, 43251, 43260, 43266, 43268, 43270, 43271, 43272, 43279, 43287, 43291.

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