Trenchless water line repairs will significantly reduce the costs and disruption that are associated with major excavations, where digging trenches across your yard and tearing up the existing landscaping, driveways and structures commonly occur. Using traditional trenching techniques, you will often be forced to pay for digging up the street in the front of your property, for the rerouting of traffic and for incidental repairs for damages to any municipal property. These costs associated with trenching can range from one or two thousand dollars each, to over twenty thousand dollars in total.
Trenchless water line repair allows you to avoid all the mess, noise, stress and cost that comes with digging trenches to access your damaged water lines. It used to be the case that trenching was the only option, but now it is possible to repair your pipes without destroying your lawn, and perhaps even save money on the final bill as well.
Trenchless Repair Techniques
Trenchless repair techniques for residential and commercial properties have been practiced safely and consistently for over two decades now, yet many property owners remain unaware that trenchless technologies are an option for water line repair. The most common two kinds of trenchless water line repair are pipe bursting and pipe lining.
Pipe liners, also called “cured-in-place piping”, are flexible tubes coated with a resin that are pulled or blown inside your damaged water line, and then inflated. The resin hardens, which creates a new pipe inside your old pipe that has no joints and is highly resistant to corrosion. The lining process reduces the size of the remaining pipe by around one quarter of an inch, but this will not affect the ability of your property to draw water. The pipe lining process usually only involves the digging of one small access hole, which will leave your lawn and surrounding property virtually undamaged once the process is finished.
Pipe lining is not always possible, such as when the water line has joints or has completely collapsed, but the alternative method of pipe bursting can still be performed on a collapsed line if there is adequate space for dragging a cable through your old pipe. The pipe bursting technique works by pulling new pipe through the remains of a damaged one, while also fracturing your old pipe outward at the same time. This process usually only involves two small access holes at either end of the affected length of water line.
According to the experts, the results of pipe lining and bursting techniques are equally durable. The costs of trenchless repair vary widely depending on various factors, such as material prices, water line depth and soil type. Trenchless techniques can cost up to 50% more than traditional digging in some cases, but the entire project can still be more cost effective because you do not need to spend thousands of additional dollars restoring your lawn and other damaged property.
The Right Technique for You
Depending on the conditions where you live and the exact damage to your water lines, traditional trenching may still be the best option, even if it means digging up your lawn and restoring it after. Do some research and discuss with reputable and licensed plumbers about which technique will work best for your specific situation.