Pipe Bursting in Forest Park

A planned city, built in phases

Forest Park is unusual in Hamilton County because it did not grow up around a crossroads. It was planned, platted and built by a single development group starting in the mid-1950s, with curving streets and cul-de-sacs fanning out from Waycross Road, Kemper Road and Hamilton Avenue. Each phase went up with a handful of house plans and whatever building sewer material was cheapest that year.

The first sections, nearest Winton Woods and the older core, got vitrified clay tile in short jointed lengths. The 1958 to 1970 sections, which make up most of the city, were the heyday of Orangeburg fiber pipe, and it is common to find it from the foundation to the main. The last phases in the 1970s used early PVC. Inside the foundation, every era used cast iron under the slab or basement floor. Knowing the build year of a Forest Park house narrows down the pipe before the camera even goes in.

Clay till, roots and a 60-year-old fiber pipe

The ground under Forest Park is glacial till, a dense gray clay with stones in it, draining slowly toward the tributaries of the Mill Creek. Trenches cut in this clay stay wet, and Orangeburg laid in wet clay softens over time. The weight of the backfill then presses the pipe from round to oval, and the inner layers delaminate and blister. A sewer snake pushed through an oval Orangeburg pipe can punch right out the side.

Frost adds a seasonal squeeze down to about 30 inches, and the developer's street trees finish the job. Silver maples and pin oaks planted in the 1960s now have canopies over the road and root mats under the lawn. On clay laterals they enter the joints. On Orangeburg they grow through the wall. Either way, the symptom is the same: a slow floor drain in the basement, then a backup after a heavy rain or a load of laundry.

Why bursting dominates here and when lining wins

Pipe bursting is the standard trenchless answer for deformed Orangeburg. The crew digs a launch pit at the house and a receiving pit at the main, pulls a steel bursting head through the old pipe, and tows new fused HDPE behind it. The old fiber pipe simply tears apart and stays in the ground. The new pipe is one piece with no joints, and it handles the clay movement that destroyed its predecessor.

Cured-in-place lining is the better choice when the host pipe is clay or cast iron and still round. The installer jets it clean, removes roots, inverts or pulls in an epoxy-saturated felt liner, and cures it in place with hot water, steam or UV. Lining is faster, needs only one access point and does not disturb the tree lawn at all. For a single broken joint or a root ball at one spot on an otherwise sound clay line, a sectional point repair covers just that few feet.

MSD, the right-of-way and the inspection

Forest Park laterals come under the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, which issues the building sewer permit and inspects either the open pits or the post-installation video. The City of Forest Park permits any work in the public right-of-way, and the tree lawn counts, so a bursting job with a receiving pit near the curb involves both offices.

The property owner is responsible for the lateral all the way to the main. That matters in Forest Park because the laterals here are short but the mains often run under the street rather than an alley, so the critical last few feet are under pavement. Trenchless methods avoid cutting that pavement, which is the main reason they are chosen over an open trench.

The day of the job

The crew camera-inspects, locates and paints the pipe route, then jets and inspects again. If the line is being burst, two pits are dug, the HDPE is fused on site into a single length, and the pull takes under an hour once set up. If it is being lined, the liner goes in and cures over a few hours during which the house cannot drain. Both end with a final video and a cleanout at the house if there was not one already.

Choose the installer on evidence. Ask whether they have handled Orangeburg on your street before, since they probably have. Ask for the video, the pipe or liner spec, and the warranty in writing. To compare qualified contractors for a Forest Park home, find a verified CIPP contractor and request a camera report from each before accepting a quote.

Pipe Bursting in Forest Park

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.

More trenchless services in Forest Park

Questions we hear in Forest Park