Pipe Bursting in Lakewood

Lakewood's housing stock and the pipe beneath it

Lakewood was mostly finished before the Great Depression. The streets between Detroit Avenue and Clifton Boulevard, the doubles along Madison Avenue, and the brick apartment blocks near the Gold Coast all went in between 1900 and 1930. That means the sewer laterals are vitrified clay in short lengths with mortar or tar joints, connected inside the foundation to cast-iron drain piping that has had a hundred years to corrode.

Lots are narrow, often forty feet or less, so the lateral usually runs under the driveway or a side-yard walk to reach the street. Many houses share a driveway with the neighbor, and a surprising number of laterals cross a corner of the adjacent lot before turning toward the main. Lakewood has almost no PVC laterals, because there was almost no building after PVC became standard, except for the occasional infill house or a lateral replaced after a collapse.

Combined sewers, clay soil, and old trees

Lakewood is one of the Cuyahoga County communities with a combined sewer system, where sanitary flow and storm runoff share the same pipes. In a hard summer thunderstorm the mains fill, and a basement with a floor drain and no backwater valve can take on water that is not just rain. Lakewood runs its own treatment plant on the lakefront and has spent years separating sewers and adding storage, but the older cores still see surcharge.

The ground under the city is lake-plain clay over shale, with a water table that rises close to the surface near the lake and along Rocky River. Saturated clay pushes on a pipe from the outside while frost heave, down to roughly three feet, lifts the shallow end near the house each winter. A century of that leaves joints open. Lakewood's tree canopy is one of the densest in the county, and the sycamores, silver maples, and Norway maples lining the streets send roots straight into those openings.

Choosing between lining and bursting on a narrow lot

Lining is the default in Lakewood because excavation is so costly on a tight lot. After a camera inspection and a thorough hydro jetting to strip the roots, the installer inverts an epoxy-saturated felt liner from the basement cleanout, cures it with hot water or steam, and cuts open any branch connections with a robotic cutter. The result is a jointless pipe inside the old clay, and nothing above ground has moved.

Pipe bursting still has a place when the camera shows a crushed section, a joint offset so badly the camera cannot pass, or a belly deep enough to hold standing water. Bursting needs a pit at each end, and on a Lakewood lot one of those pits may land in a shared driveway, so the installer should walk the route with you first. For a single cracked bell in an otherwise sound line, a sectional point repair saves lining the whole run.

Permits in Lakewood and the sidewalk boundary

Lakewood issues sewer and plumbing permits through its building department, and an inspector will want to see the camera video before and after a lining job or the open trench at a bursting pit before backfill. Work that disturbs the tree lawn, sidewalk, or street needs a separate right-of-way permit. Because Lakewood's sewers flow into Lakewood's own plant rather than the regional district's, the city's own sewer regulations govern connections, though NEORSD rules may apply at the regional boundary.

Check who is responsible for the stub between the sidewalk and the main. In most communities around Cleveland it is the property owner, and a contractor who works Lakewood weekly will know the current rule and whether the city will inspect that section.

On the day, and how to find the right crew

A Lakewood lining job usually starts early. The crew jets the line, films it, measures the run, and saturates the liner on the truck. The cure takes a few hours, then the reinstatement cuts, a final video, and a quick cleanup. Most homes have drains back by dinner. Bursting takes a day for the pull and another for restoring the pits, and shared driveways get a steel plate overnight if needed.

Ask every bidder for the camera footage, the exact footage of pipe to be lined, and the liner thickness. To compare contractors who have verified training and insurance, find a verified CIPP contractor and request a recent Lakewood reference. A crew that has worked these narrow lots will have an answer for the driveway question before you ask it.

Pipe Bursting in Lakewood

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 Lakewood

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Lakewood, including ZIP codes 44107.

More trenchless services in Lakewood

Questions we hear in Lakewood