For homeowners

Replacing a home's sewer line without a trench

The lateral from your house to the street is yours to maintain, and when it fails you have more than one way to replace it. Here is the homeowner's version of the whole process.

How a sewer line tells you it is failing

The early signs are easy to blame on something else. A tub that drains slowly after the washing machine runs. A gurgle from the floor drain when a toilet flushes. One strip of lawn still green in late summer, or a sewer smell in the basement after rain. The late sign is unmistakable: sewage rising in the lowest drain in the house. Snaking the line clears the symptom for a season. It does not change what the pipe is made of or what the roots are doing to it.

The camera inspection comes first

Before anyone talks about replacement, a camera goes down the line from a cleanout and records the full run to the city connection. The footage shows the material, every crack and offset with its distance from the house, where the roots are, and whether the pipe still has its slope. Above ground, a locator pinpoints the depth over each defect. That recording is the basis of any quote worth signing, and you should ask for a copy.

Two ways to replace it without digging

Structural lining rebuilds a pipe that is damaged but still round. The line is jetted clean, a resin-saturated liner is pulled in from the cleanout, inflated, and cured into a smooth new pipe inside the old one. No pits, one access point, water off for 4 to 8 hours and back on the same afternoon. Read more on the cured-in-place pipe page.

Pipe bursting is for a pipe that has lost its shape. One pit about 3 by 4 feet goes in where the lateral exits the house and a second at the curb or over the main; the bursting head drawn between them breaks the old line apart as new HDPE comes in behind. The old pipe stays in the ground in pieces; the new one takes its exact path. Details on the pipe bursting page.

What the day looks like

Morning: the crew locates and marks the line, confirms depths, and opens the access pits if bursting. Water use is paused.
Midday: the pull or the liner installation. Bursting a 60-foot lateral takes 30 to 90 minutes of pulling; a liner cures for 2 to 4 hours with hot water or 1 to 2 with steam.
Afternoon: connections at the house and the main, a camera run to document the new pipe, the city's inspection of the tie-in, and the pits closed and compacted.
Same evening: water back on. Sod or pavers over the two pits are the only restoration.

Questions worth asking any contractor

Will I get the inspection video before and after the work?
Which method are you proposing, and what in the footage decided it?
What is the liner or pipe material, and what is its rated service life?
Who pulls the plumbing and right-of-way permits, and is the city inspection on the schedule?
Is the crew doing the work your own, and is the warranty in writing?

Find the contractor covering your city through the state directory. Estimates are free, and the camera inspection is where they start.

Common questions from homeowners

How much does it cost to replace a residential sewer line without digging?+

A typical 50- to 80-foot lateral runs $4,000 to $12,000 by pipe bursting and $5,000 to $15,000 by CIPP lining, installed, in most of the country. Open-cut under a driveway or street often costs more once restoration and permits are added.

How deep is a residential sewer line?+

Usually 3 to 8 feet below grade, deeper in cold climates and on long runs to a deep main. The camera locator reads the depth at each defect so the crew knows how deep the pits will be before digging them.

Who owns the sewer lateral?+

In most cities the homeowner owns and maintains the lateral from the house to the main, including the section under the sidewalk and street; some utilities take over at the property line or curb. The contractor's permit application settles who inspects the tie-in.

Will my yard be dug up?+

Not for lining: the liner goes in through a cleanout. For bursting, two pits about 3 by 4 feet are dug at the ends of the run and nothing between them is disturbed. The pits are backfilled, compacted and re-sodded the same day.