sleeving an old drainage pipe to public sewer possible ?

Looking for advice /experience with possibility/pros/cons of sleeving an existing old public sewer connection (house lateral) with PVC.

The old drain pipe is 6" concrete sections.

Could that drainage run be reused/updated by inserting 4" or 5" PVC drain ?

To avoid digging another separate line through critical root zones. Maybe a little cheaper too.

Is it possible to do something similar with water supply line ? Use old line to somehow pull a new one

thanks for any helpful advice, robb

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Reply to
robb
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*I seem to recall an episode of This Old House from a few years ago where t he main sewer line was relined. I think the original sewer pipe was concre te or terra cotta. They did not pull in a new pipe. They pulled in a form and injected something into it which formed around the old pipe. I don't r ecall what the process is. Talk to a plumbing company that specializes in sewer lines.
Reply to
John G

the main sewer line was relined. I think the original sewer pipe was conc rete or terra cotta. They did not pull in a new pipe. They pulled in a for m and injected something into it which formed around the old pipe. I don't recall what the process is. Talk to a plumbing company that specializes i n sewer lines.

+1

That type of relining process definitely exists. Here:

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They also allude to other ways too.

Video:

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Of course one of the problems with the existing pipe may be those "critcal root zones". If roots screwed this one, I would think they would probably screw a relined one too. Cost, IDK. Trenching isn't cheap. But I'll bet the other processes aren't cheap either and they know the competition is the trench method, so I'll bet they price accordingly.

Reply to
trader_4

There's a process where they dig next to the house and out at the street. The pull a hydraulic head through the pipe which expands and breaks the old pipe, pushing it out of the way, and pulls a new plastic drain line behind it. Check with plumbing and drain contractors in your area.

For the water line, easiest may be to use a horizontal drill rig to run a new line. Utilities use them all the time to avoid tearing up landscaping.

Paul F.

Reply to
Paul Franklin

We had something similar done recently. I had an idea very similar to what you're thinking -- to push PVC through and out to the main sewer hookup. A plumber told me that wouldn't be legal. That makes sense, since a smaller pipe pushed through would not yield a sealed drain connection. There would probably end up being sewage flowing outside from the end of the pipe.

What we have are 2 or 3 foot sections of clay pipe. They had shifted a bit and were getting clogged with roots periodically. In the process of getting it fixed I learned something interesting: The sewer cleaning people who were charging $300 to ream out the roots only use a small bit to make a hole. They don't actually clear all the roots from the inside of the pipe. As a result, that needs to be done every

6 months or so. For anyone doing that a better solution might be to get a commercial grade, 50' reamer with cutting bits and maintain the drain themselves. Such a tool is about $500, I think, so it would pay for itself on the second use, and the reaming would last much longer than one gets from the sewer cleaning people.

The final solution was overpriced. It was $4,600 for a crew of about 8 men, but most of those men were not necessary, and most of them weren't actually doing anything aside from handing a wrench to the boss. It took a few hours, then one man stayed for a few hours more. But the price is typical. It's based on a rate of $100 per foot. The solution is clever. They first run a sleeve into the old pipe, after having thoroughly reamed out all the roots with a number of different cutting bits. The sleeve then somehow gets pumped with a liquid. I don't exactly know the details. Then they inflate the inner sleeve to push the liquid against the pipe and they cure the liquid, with heat, I think. The result is a tough plastic pipe that looks to be maybe 3/16" thick, which is molded to the old clay drain pipe. No more roots because they no longer sense the water. As part of the deal we got a DVD movie showing the length of the finished drain pipe. :)

It seemed like a very good solution, though it's only been there a year so far. I think the companies are price gouging, but probably because they can get away with it. To open up the ground and run new pipe to the street costs in the 10s of thousands, so the liner is cheap by comparison. And of course these are plumbers getting plumber's rates.

One limitation, though: In our case the clay pipes had separated a bit and the sealant between them was gone, but the pipes were still OK. In some cases the old pipes will be collapsed, badly broken, or rotted away. In that case I'm not sure they can use the plastic liner. The whole thing would probably have to be ddug out and re-piped.

On the supply line, I don't know. If you're hooking up to municipal supply you're going to have to talk to them to see what they allow.

Reply to
Mayayana

Robb:

If you Google "pipe lining" you'll find several companies that do this kind of work. Maybe give them a phone call and see if they foresee any problems doing that to your pipe.

I know the City of Winnipeg did that kind of work on the water supply piping in my area, and it's been great. I used to have leaking faucets from the sand and dirt that got in with the water all the time. Now, I rarely have a faucet leak. Considering I have a kitchen, bathroom and bathtub faucet in each of 21 apartment, and another 3 laundry room faucets, my not having to continuously repair leaking faucets is a testament to the fact that lining water supply pipes really works well to repair old conventional water supply pipe.

Reply to
nestork

John G posted for all of us...

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Reply to
Tekkie®

Shop around if you do this. I had several plumbers quote me $2Kto drill/pull a PEX water line. Had an independent contractor do it for $400.

Reply to
mike

Plumber working at a dentist office. Hands in the bill.

"Hey, I don't make that much, and I'm a dentist!"

"I didn't make that much, back when I was a dentist."

More seriously, I had a leaky fluid line on the transmission of my work van. Garage wants $85. Fortunately, it was reasonable weather, and only took less than an hour and five bucks or so in parts.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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