The Basics of Trenchless Technology

What happens to your yard when you need to have major repairs or replacements to your sewer line or water main? If you immediately have a vision of something out of the front lines of France during World War I, only minus the brambles of barbed wire, then you’re almost right. The standard way of making repairs to buried pipes involves deep excavations.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! Thanks to the invention of trenchless “no dig” technology, you no longer need to have sewer or water line repairs look like the British Army has encamped in your yard to hide from German mortar attacks. Instead, professional plumbing experts with the best technology only need to make a few small holes and finish up the job in no time at all—and for a lot less money.

Larry & Sons, Inc. performs work in Charles Town, MD with trenchless technology. If you have water line or sewer line problems, call us for the clean and fast work that will restore your plumbing without shredding your property.

Wait…how does this “trenchless” repair work?

Glad you asked. It’s remarkable in many ways, and it relies on a combination of hydraulics and expanding pipe replacement liners. We’ll use the example of a leaking sewer line that needs replacement for our demonstration.

The plumbers come to your house and locate from above ground the area of pipe that is leaking and needs to be replaced. They don’t dig a huge trench to reach the buried pipe, however. Instead, they make two small holes at either end of the pipe. Usually, one of the holes will go in a spot closest to the street where the pipe is about to enter the municipal sewer system. On the other end of the pipe, the trenchless experts insert a pipe replacement line—essentially, the new pipe material that will replace the broken pipe. On the other side, the plumbers attach a hydraulic system. The hydraulic system then pulls the replacement pipe through the older pipe until it emerges on the other side. Now a “pipe burster” goes through the replacement pipe, forcing it to expand; as it does so, it causes the older pipe to shatter and… presto!, you have a new pipe in place of the old one. The plumbers then secure the fresh pipe to the rest of the system and carefully fill in the two holes and landscape them.

The process is fast and clean and leaves behind little evidence that the plumbers were ever there. Don’t let the “war zone” treatment affect your property the next time you have sewer or water main trouble; call Larry & Sons, Inc. for trenchless pipe replacement and other plumbing services in Charles Town, MD.