Pipe Bursting in Strongsville

A newer city with a mix of pipe

Strongsville was still a township of farms and crossroads into the 1960s. The subdivisions that filled it, from the colonials around Westwood and Drake Road to the cul-de-sacs south of Royalton Road and the executive homes near Mill Hollow, were built mainly from 1970 onward. Most laterals are PVC, solvent-welded in long lengths, with a cast-iron or PVC stub through the foundation. The older houses near the Town Center and along Pearl Road, plus the farmhouses that survived on large lots, have vitrified clay laterals or, in a few cases, were on septic until a sewer main finally reached them.

That mix matters. A 1960s ranch on the east side of town may have forty feet of clay meeting newer PVC where a past owner repaired the first few feet. The transition coupling between the two materials is a favorite entry point for roots.

Wet till, settling trenches, and roots

Strongsville sits on glacial till, a dense mix of clay, silt, and stone that drains slowly. Builders in the 1970s and 1980s often backfilled lateral trenches with the same material, and in wet years it settled, leaving bellies where water stands and solids drop out. Frost reaches two and a half to three feet here, so the first run outside the foundation gets lifted and dropped every winter. Over a few decades even a glued PVC joint can rock loose.

The city planted silver maples, pin oaks, and sycamores along many subdivision streets, and those trees are now mature. Roots do not break PVC, but they find any joint that is weeping and grow into the pipe. In the clay laterals near the old town center, roots at every joint are the rule rather than the exception. Strongsville's sanitary sewers are separate from storm sewers, so basement backups are usually a lateral blockage rather than a surcharged main, though a hard storm can still overload a line that takes in groundwater through cracks.

Picking the right trenchless method here

Because so many Strongsville laterals have one or two defects rather than failure along the whole length, sectional point repair is used more here than in older cities. The installer positions a short fiberglass or felt liner on a packer, inflates it over the bad joint or crack, cures it, and removes the packer. The rest of the pipe stays as it was.

Full cured-in-place lining fits the clay laterals and any PVC line with several cracks or separated joints. The pipe must still be round, and the camera must be able to pass end to end after jetting. A belly cannot be lined out; the liner simply follows the dip. A deep belly, a crushed section, or a lateral that is too small for the number of fixtures in a finished basement calls for pipe bursting, which pulls fused HDPE through the old path from two pits and can upsize the pipe at the same time.

Permits, inspection, and the right-of-way

Strongsville's building department issues the permit for lateral repair, and the city engineer's office handles any opening in the street or tree lawn. The inspector will review the post-cure video for a lining job or look at the pits and the new connection before backfill on a bursting job. Strongsville's sewage flows to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's system, so district connection rules apply, and the city is strict about keeping storm water, sump pumps, and footer drains out of the sanitary lateral.

Ask the contractor who pulls the permit and whether the price includes the inspection fee and any right-of-way bond. In most communities the owner's responsibility runs to the main, but confirm it for your street.

The day of the job and choosing the installer

A point repair is a few hours with the drains off. A full liner takes a day: jetting, filming, wet-out, a cure of two to four hours, branch reinstatement, and a final video. Pipe bursting means a crew with an excavator for the pits, a pulling rig, and a second day to restore the lawn and any sidewalk panels.

Compare bids on the same scope. Each should state the method, the footage, the liner thickness or HDPE size, and what happens if the camera finds a surprise. To find installers who have been verified for training and insurance, find a verified CIPP contractor and ask for a job on a similar subdivision lot. A contractor who has lined through a Strongsville transition coupling will know how to handle the step between clay and PVC.

Pipe Bursting in Strongsville

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.

ZIP codes served in Strongsville

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Strongsville, including ZIP codes 44136, 44149.

More trenchless services in Strongsville

Questions we hear in Strongsville