A Guide to the Maze of Pipes, Sewers, Drains and Cables Under Your Property

sewer repairYou’ve probably heard the phrase “gone but not forgotten.” When it comes to the mess of pipes running under your property, a better phrase might be forgotten but not gone.

Most people never think twice about the underground labyrinth of pipes, telecom cables, gas mains, sewer lines, storm drains, and assorted other pipes lurking just below the ground. If you’re renovating your home, you might know that your designer calls the city to locate any underground gas pipes, but otherwise, we tend not to think about this network of pipes until something goes wrong. Unfortunately, when it finally does, it often goes catastrophically wrong, and we’re not just talking about raw sewage leaking onto your property.

In Omaha, Nebraska this March, a natural gas explosion and fire prompted the local city newspaper to finally take a closer look at that underground network, which transports everything from stormwater and waste to electricity and your cable TV. In total, there is an underground maze 35 million miles long just beneath our feet, with more phone lines and fiber optic cables being laid every day. Not only that, but there are also abandoned pipes and sewers no longer in use, and where they go, nobody knows.

One civil engineer told the Omaha World-Herald, “you have a mess of spaghetti under there.”

So what about your own property? Whether it’s a residential property or commercial building, you certainly have your own network of pipes running underneath it. Some might service your home, others might be municipal. When you offer the best trenchless sewer repair Cleveland has ever seen, you become intimately familiar with this maze of pipes. So, as a trenchless sewer repair company, let’s start with your sewer and water system.

Many people don’t realize it, but most properties and homes have three sets of pipes: storm drains, water pipes, and sewer lines. The storm drain prevents water from collecting around the foundation of buildings while also carrying away stormwater from drains, curbs, and gutters. These pipes carry water to a public storm drain. Water pipes carry water to your property, and from this central water main separates to water heaters, boilers, bathtubs, toilets, and taps. Meanwhile, your sewer lines carry water away from your home, then also connect to a public sewer system.

On top of that, you likely have telecom cables, gas lines, and possibly underground electrical cables as well.

So when your sewer or drain breaks down, how do you replace it without wreaking havoc on this system of pipes? That’s why trenchless sewer repair has been such a massive breakthrough in the plumbing repair industry. New drain linings and sewer replacement can be put in without digging, sparing you from the tedious and expensive process of excavating around all those pipes.

Instead, trenchless sewer repair creates a new jointless, seamless pipe right inside your existing broken pipes.