The Horrors of a Decaying Sewage Drain

There are many home comforts we in the Canada have come to take for granted. One of the most crucial are flushing toilets. Unless we can get rid of our own personal bodily waste we are going to become a regular visitor to our neighbors to use their facilities.

When our sewage drain decays we have to get it sorted out immediately. This involves calling in the Calgary plumbers who are firstly going to try and clear the pipes, but if the drains have cracked then they will have to be replaced.

Oh the horror!

They are going to arrive with a small digger type machine which will make tracks as it digs a trench across your lawn, through your rose garden and breaks down your expensive wall. Then when they have lifted the pipes out and put the replacement ones in are they going to make good the havoc wreaked? Are they hell! Not only have you had your routines disrupted, been without waterborne sewage for a week, had to pay a massive check, but you are left with a devastated front yard which may take a year to put right.

There has to be a better way. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t!

There is a better less disruptive method; depending on the condition of your old pipes, they can either be lined from within or be replaced without digging any trenches.

To reline your pipes is fairly straightforward if they are in reasonable condition and there are only one or two leaks. A sewer repair man is usually able to do so without that disruption involved in digging other than to gain access at each end.

The initial step they take is to rod out the blockage and then push a video camera through to look at that condition. If the pipes are mostly still round and cracks are not collapsing the pipe the next step is to clean all drains getting rid of roots and any hardened crusting in the interior. If there may be a split or a crack is not too serious as the whole pipe will now be lined.

A bladder is now pulled through the pipe and inflated to a pressure forcing an epoxy resin to completely reline the pipe. Once cured the bladder is collapsed and the old sewage line, now repaired, is good to go for many more years of trouble free service.

If however on inspection the pipes are deformed out of round and there are serious breaks it might be deemed necessary to replace them.

Trenchless sewer replacement does not have to dig up your entire garden but will open up each end. A strong cable will be fed through from a powerful winch to which is attached a breaking head which is in turn attached to a fairly flexible long lasting polyethylene pipe. That breaking head is then steadily pulled back shattering that old pipe and replacing it with a new durable sewage line in its place. Both of these solutions have worked in hundreds of cases and have eliminated that need to dig up and destroy the yard.