Hydro Jetting 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.

Hydro Jetting in Reynoldsburg

What a jetter does that a cable cannot

A hydro jetter pushes water through a nozzle at several thousand PSI. Rear-facing jets pull the hose down the line and scour everything off the pipe wall: roots, grease, sludge, mineral scale, and the rust flakes inside old cast iron. A cable machine drills a hole through the blockage and leaves the rest on the wall, which is why cabled lines re-clog on a schedule.

Where it fits in a repair

Jetting is step one before lining, because a liner has to bond to clean pipe, and step one before an honest camera inspection, because a line full of roots or scale hides its own condition. It is also legitimate maintenance on its own for a structurally sound line that roots keep finding.

When a line should not be jetted

Cast iron that is paper-thin at the bottom can be opened up by an aggressive descaling pass. A collapsed clay section will not let the hose through. Orangeburg can delaminate under pressure. An experienced operator checks the line first, matches the nozzle to the material, and stops if the pipe is not holding up.

Maintenance versus repair

If the camera shows sound pipe, annual or semiannual jetting is a cheap way to stay ahead of roots. If it shows open joints, channeled cast iron or offsets, jetting is a stopgap and the money is better spent on lining, which removes the joints the roots are using.

ZIP codes served in Reynoldsburg

Hydro Jetting is available throughout Reynoldsburg, including ZIP codes 43068.

More trenchless services in Reynoldsburg

Questions we hear in Reynoldsburg