When is trenchless sewer line replacement in Denver a good option?

The short answer

Trenchless sewer line replacement in Denver is a good option whenever the cost or disruption of what is on top of the pipe outweighs the cost of the pipe itself. That is most residential lots and nearly every commercial one. It is a poor option when the line is short and shallow in open ground, when the route has to change, or when the grade of the pipe is wrong along a long stretch. Everything else on this page is a longer version of those two sentences.

Situations that favor trenchless

• The line runs under a driveway, patio, deck or sidewalk. Removing and replacing hardscape is often the largest line item in an open-cut job. Trenchless works through a cleanout or a small pit at each end and leaves the surface alone.
• The line runs under the house. Slab-on-grade homes and finished basements put the sewer beneath the floor. Cutting the slab, jackhammering a trench and re-pouring is disruptive for days; lining or bursting from an access point at the edge of the building is a day.
• Mature trees sit on or near the route. A trench through a root zone can kill the tree that made you want to keep the yard. Trenchless leaves the roots undisturbed, and a jointless new pipe gives them nothing to grow into.
• The line is deep. Below about five or six feet, an open trench needs shoring, more spoil handling and more restoration. Trenchless cost does not rise much with depth.
• The line crosses a neighbor's property or a public sidewalk. Access agreements and right-of-way permits for an open trench are slow; a pit on your own lot is not.
• The property has to keep operating. Restaurants, clinics, retail and multifamily buildings cannot close for a week of trenching. Trenchless work can be staged overnight or in segments.

Situations where digging still wins

A short lateral, twenty or thirty feet, buried a couple of feet deep in a bare lawn, can be dug and replaced by a small crew in a morning, and the sod goes back the same day. There is no reason to mobilize lining or bursting equipment for that. A line that needs to be rerouted, because an addition was built over it or because the original alignment was poor, cannot be moved by any trenchless method; the new route has to be dug. And a long belly, a section that has settled below grade, can only be corrected by re-laying pipe at the proper slope, which means excavating that section at least. In each of those cases a contractor who offers both should tell you so plainly.

Lining or bursting?

Once trenchless is the right family of methods, the choice between the two comes down to the condition of the old pipe. If it still holds its shape and the camera can pass end to end, cured-in-place lining rebuilds it from inside through a single access point. If it has collapsed, crushed, or lost so much shape that the camera cannot get through, pipe bursting replaces it: a bursting head is pulled through from a pit at one end to a pit at the other, fracturing the old pipe and drawing new high-density polyethylene into its place. Bursting also lets you install a larger diameter, which matters when a property has grown past the line that serves it. Companies that provide trenchless sewer line replacement in Denver typically do both, and the footage should decide which you get, not the equipment they happen to have on the truck that week.

Utilities, permits and the things underground

Trenchless does not mean blind. Before a burst, the route is marked for gas, water, electric and communications lines, because the bursting head displaces soil outward and can damage a crossing utility that sits too close. A locate request handles the public utilities; private lines, irrigation and lighting on the property are the owner's to identify. Most municipalities in Colorado treat lateral replacement as permitted plumbing work with an inspection before the pits are closed, and the contractor should pull the permit as part of the job.

Making the call

Get the camera inspection recorded with a footage counter, note what is on the surface above each section, and ask each contractor to walk you through why their proposal fits. The reasoning should reference the footage, the depth, the surface, and the presence or absence of a belly. For a plain description of how trenchless sewer line replacement is done, from pit to final video, read that page and compare it with what you are told. And if you want a list of installers who have documented their process and equipment for review, verified CIPP installers serving Denver exists for that purpose. The right answer for your lot is usually obvious once the four facts above are on the table.

Common questions in Denver