Pipe Bursting in Westlake

From vineyards to subdivisions

Westlake was Dover Township for most of its history, a place of grape arbors and greenhouse farms along Center Ridge and Detroit Road. The village around Dover Center Road and the ranches off Hilliard Boulevard from the 1950s and 1960s have vitrified clay laterals in short lengths with a cast-iron stub through the basement wall. Everything built after about 1975, which is most of the city's housing from the colonials near Crocker Road to the cluster homes around Crocker Park and the estates on the west side, has PVC laterals.

A few farmhouses and older homes on the larger lots were on septic systems until the sewer main reached them, and those connections sometimes used whatever material the plumber had on the truck. A camera inspection will show a mix of clay, PVC, and the occasional cast-iron run on those properties.

Wet clay, drainage ditches, and roots

The ground in Westlake is flat lake-plain clay that drains poorly, which is why the township was laced with open ditches for a century and why sump pumps run constantly in the spring. The clay swells when wet and shrinks in drought, working on every joint. Frost reaches roughly three feet, and the shallow end of the lateral heaves each winter. Clay joints open under that movement; PVC laterals develop bellies where the trench backfill settles into the wet till.

Westlake's street trees and the willows and silver maples along the remaining ditches are aggressive root growers. Roots enter at any weeping joint, and in a clay lateral that means every joint. In PVC the entry point is usually a separated joint or the transition coupling where a past repair tied new pipe to old. Westlake's sanitary and storm sewers are separate, so a basement backup is almost always a lateral blockage rather than a surcharged main.

Lining, bursting, and point repair on Westlake lots

For a clay lateral that is still round, cured-in-place lining fixes the roots and cracks in one day. The crew hydro jets the line, runs the camera, inverts an epoxy-saturated felt liner, and cures it with hot water, steam, or UV. For a PVC lateral with one separated joint, a sectional point repair over that joint is usually the better value than lining the whole run.

Pipe bursting is the method when the camera cannot pass. A collapsed clay section, a joint offset more than a third of the diameter, or a deep belly all rule out a liner, which cannot bridge a gap or straighten a sag. Bursting pulls a fused HDPE pipe through the old path from a pit at the main to a pit at the house while the bursting head breaks the old pipe outward. It can also upsize a four-inch lateral to six inches for a house with a finished basement and extra fixtures.

Westlake permits and the right-of-way

The city's building department issues the sewer repair permit, and the engineering department handles any work in the street or tree lawn. For a lining job the inspector reviews the pre- and post-cure videos; for bursting, the inspector looks at the new connection before backfill. Westlake's sewage flows to the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District system through the Rocky River interceptor, and the district's rules on storm connections apply. The city checks that sump pumps and footer drains are not tied into the sanitary lateral, so expect that question during the inspection.

Confirm with the city where the owner's responsibility ends on your street. In most communities it is the main, but a few newer plats in Westlake put the dividing line at the right-of-way.

Scheduling the work and picking a contractor

A lining day runs from early morning to late afternoon, with drains off during the cure. Point repairs are a few hours. Bursting needs an excavator for the pits, a pulling rig, a dewatering pump in wet months, and a second day to restore the lawn. Ask about the driveway if the lateral passes under it, since a lining job leaves the concrete alone but a bursting pit might not.

Each bid should state the method, the footage, the liner thickness or HDPE size, and what happens if the camera finds a different pipe material than expected. To compare installers who have been verified for training and insurance, find a verified CIPP contractor and ask for a reference on a similar Westlake lot. A contractor familiar with the city's inspection routine will save you a return visit.

Pipe Bursting in Westlake

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 Westlake

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Westlake, including ZIP codes 44145.

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