Pipe Bursting in Fairfield

Fairfield's housing and the pipe that came with it

Fairfield was a township of farms and the Village of Fairfield until it incorporated as a city in the 1950s, and the growth came in waves. The oldest neighborhoods near Pleasant Avenue, Nilles Road and the Route 4 corridor hold ranches and capes from the 1950s and early 1960s, with vitrified clay laterals and, in some streets, Orangeburg fiber pipe. The subdivisions off Mack Road, Winton Road and Gilmore Road filled in through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and those homes have PVC building sewers.

Plastic pipe does not rot or crack the way clay and fiber do, so a newer Fairfield lateral fails differently. Its weak points are the glued or gasketed joints, the transition at the foundation where it meets cast iron or where it was tapped into the main, and the grade. The camera on a 1985 Fairfield home rarely shows a crumbling pipe; it shows standing water in a sag, a pulled joint, or a bad tap at the street.

Why the Great Miami valley is hard on pipe

The river built this valley out of sand and gravel, and in much of Fairfield the water table sits only a few feet below the lawn in spring. Trenches cut in saturated outwash never compact well. Over the years the backfill shifts, the pipe loses the slope it was laid at, and a belly forms where it drops. Everything heavy settles there, and the line backs up a little more each year.

Frost is a secondary factor on the valley floor, reaching about 30 inches in a cold year, but it still works on shallow runs near the house. Trees are the third factor. Willows and silver maples love the wet ground, and cottonwoods along the river and creeks send roots a long way. On the 1950s clay lines near the older core, those roots are the main reason for a stoppage.

Matching the fix to the problem

A cracked, rooted or leaking clay lateral that is still round is a straightforward cured-in-place job: hydro jet to bare pipe, cut the roots, invert or pull in the epoxy-saturated liner, and cure it with hot water, steam or UV. In the wetter parts of Fairfield, lining has a second benefit. The sealed liner stops groundwater from infiltrating through the joints, which is also what the city wants, since clear water in the sanitary system costs everyone at the treatment plant.

A bellied line is the exception. A liner follows the shape of the host pipe, so lining a sag just produces a smooth sag. Correcting the grade means pipe bursting with careful pit placement, or a short excavation at the low spot to re-bed that section, after which the rest can be lined. A sectional point repair handles one failed joint or a bad tap at the main without disturbing the rest of the run.

Permits in a two-county city

Most of Fairfield is served by the City of Fairfield Public Utilities Department, which issues the sewer permit and inspects the connection. The portion of the city inside Hamilton County falls under the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, which has its own permit and inspection process. Either way the lateral is the owner's responsibility to the main, and the city separately permits any cut in the sidewalk or street.

Because trenchless methods keep the street intact, the inspection is usually a review of the post-installation camera video plus a look at any pit that was dug. Confirm which authority the contractor is filing with; a crew used to MSD paperwork may not know Fairfield's own forms, and the wrong permit delays the job.

Choosing a crew and what to expect

On the day, the crew locates and marks the lateral, records its depth and the position of the water table in any pit, jets the line, and runs the camera again before committing to a method. In saturated ground they may need to dewater a bursting pit with a pump, which adds an hour or two. The curing window is the only time the house cannot use water.

When comparing installers, ask how each would handle a belly, because that answer separates a crew that understands Fairfield ground from one that lines everything. Request the before and after video and the liner specification in writing. To find a vetted installer for a Fairfield home, find a verified CIPP contractor and compare camera reports side by side before deciding.

Pipe Bursting in Fairfield

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.

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