Is Trenchless Pipe Repair the Right Choice?

Pipes, plumbing and sewers can often be explained as the bane of a homeowner’s livelihood. When a pipe bursts or starts to leak, the process that follows can be hectic, stressful, expensive and time-consuming. While plumbing issues are inevitable for most homes, advancements in the industry have revealed a new way to fixing hidden pipes: trenchless pipe repair.

Although trenchless plumbing methods have been on the market for almost two decades, a poll found that almost 80% of respondents don’t know what “no dig” sewer technology is. Created as an alternative to digging up the ground surrounding a broken pipe, trenchless pipe repair is a favorite among homeowners.

In most suburban or rural yards, the top 12 inches of soil are usually riddled with tree roots. This makes it difficult for plumbers to see and repair the pipes underneath. By using a microscopic camera for sewer line repair, professionals are able to get a view of what they couldn’t otherwise.

With one employee stationed at one manhole and another stationed at an adjacent manhole, they are able to get to the pipe that needs repair without breaking any ground. Cured-in-place pipe technology also allows them to repair the pipe without having to dig up one speck of dirt.

The process of digging a trench to get to pipes may seem like a reasonable undertaking but it involves a lot of planning and destruction. If the pipes that need repairing happen to fall beneath a garden, your driveway, into the roadway, or a neighbor’s yard, it becomes much more expensive. If professionals have to come in and tear apart your driveway to get to a broken sewer line beneath it, that becomes an added expense. Repairing the driveway then becomes another task to tackle.

While the initial upfront cost may be more than conventional trench repair, it can significantly offset the cost of repairing the landscape, driveway, roadway and other tangent costs. Trenchless sewer repair also requires less manpower and less bulky equipment. So if you’re looking to avoid turning your front yard into a circus of destruction, trenchless pipe repair may be the best way to go.