Pipe Bursting in Anderson

Housing on the hills and the pipe beneath

Anderson Township developed as Cincinnati pushed east after the war. Forestville and the streets near Beechmont Avenue hold 1950s and 1960s ranches and splits, often on clay or Orangeburg laterals. Coldstream, Cherry Grove and the subdivisions up Eight Mile Road and Clough Pike came in the 1970s through the 1990s on PVC. Near the Ohio River and the Little Miami, older farmhouses and cottages from the early 1900s sit on clay lines or, in some cases, on septic systems that were never connected to a sewer.

Because so many Anderson homes are walkouts built into a slope, the cast iron through the foundation wall can be very deep on the uphill side, and the lateral then has to climb or fall sharply to reach a main that may be on the street above or in a ravine below. The sonde locator on the camera is essential here, because the depth at the property line decides what is practical.

Shale, creep, water and roots

The township is underlain by the same Ordovician shale and limestone that makes Cincinnati's hills slide. The clay cover on those slopes creeps downhill when wet, and after a wet spring the movement is enough to offset a clay joint or crack a cast iron hub. Groundwater seeps along the shale contact and keeps trenches wet, which accelerates Orangeburg deterioration and feeds roots.

Frost reaches about 30 inches but is a minor factor compared to the slope. The trees are the major one. Anderson lots were marketed on their woods, and mature oaks, maples, sycamores and tulip poplars now stand directly over most laterals. Every pulled joint is a root entry, and on a long sloped run there are dozens. Ravine lots along the Little Miami add willow and cottonwood roots from the bottomland.

Lining, bursting and point repair on a slope

Cured-in-place lining fits most Anderson clay laterals. The installer jets the line, cuts roots, then inverts or pulls in an epoxy-saturated felt liner and cures it with hot water, steam or UV. A liner handles steep slopes and moderate bends without difficulty, and because it is installed from the house there are no pits in the hillside at all. The pipe must be round and continuous; a joint offset beyond about a quarter of the pipe diameter cannot be lined over.

Where creep has separated a joint badly or crushed a section, pipe bursting replaces the entire run with fused HDPE through two pits. On a deep lot those pits need shoring and take time, but they are nothing compared to an open trench down a slope with retaining walls. A single bad joint on an otherwise sound line is a sectional point repair. Homes converting from septic get a new lateral by whatever method the terrain allows, and bursting is sometimes used to install new pipe along the old septic outlet path.

Permits in an unincorporated township

Anderson Township has no city sewer office. The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati issues the building sewer permit and inspects the work, and because Anderson is unincorporated, any opening in a county or township road right-of-way goes through Hamilton County rather than a city hall. The owner is responsible for the lateral all the way to the main.

Septic systems and septic-to-sewer conversions involve Hamilton County Public Health, which must sign off on abandoning the tank once the new lateral is inspected and connected. A contractor who works in Anderson regularly knows the sequence; the wrong order can leave a homeowner with a connected sewer and an open permit on the old tank.

What to expect and how to choose

The crew will run the camera, locate and mark the lateral on the slope, and record depths at several points before deciding where any pit can go. After jetting and a second inspection the liner is installed and cured, with the house unable to drain for a few hours. Bursting pits on deep lots are shored, the HDPE is fused on site, and the pull itself is quick.

Ask any contractor to show hillside work, not just flat-lot video, and to explain how they will reach the main if it sits in a ravine. Ask for the videos, the material spec and the warranty. To compare installers who work in Anderson Township, find a verified CIPP contractor and request a camera report with depths from each one before signing.

Pipe Bursting in Anderson

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 Anderson

Questions we hear in Anderson