Single Family Home

Hidden Valley Home: Underground Drain Line Rehabilitation

Location: La Jolla, California

Situation:

The customer’s sanitary system experienced chronic backups due to heavy root intrusion in the pipeline. The 4″ clay sewer pipeline runs 6 to 9 feet underneath hilly terrain from the home’s yard and through the neighbor’s yard. The customer wanted a no-dig solution to preserve the yards.

Solution:

NuFlow successfully cleaned and lined this underground drain line without having to dig up any yard. After the blocked sanitary line was cleaned and reinstated, our Pull-in-Place liner was installed using existing access points. This structural liner forms a new, protective pipe that will prevent future failures.

Project: Rehabilitate failing drain pipes and prevent future pipe failures without digging up the customer’s yard and the neighbor’s yard.

Site: A luxurious one-story home in the Hidden Valley neighborhood of La Jolla, California. The house was built in the 1960s but was recently remodeled just a year before NuFlow’s work.

System: More than 200 feet of 4” clay sewer pipes that run underneath hilly terrain from the home’s cleanout in the yard to the city’s main sewer line. These pipes are located about 6 to 9 feet below grass and trees in the customer’s yard and his neighbor’s yard.

Problem: The customer’s sanitary system experienced chronic backups. A camera inspection showed that the backups occurred because of heavy root intrusion in the pipeline. Roots from the nearby trees grew into the joints and cracks in the pipeline, which then blocked the traveling sanitary waste. The customer wanted the pipeline rehabilitated, but did not want to turn his and his neighbor’s backyards into construction sites.

If the customer chose a traditional repipe instead of NuFlow’s no-dig solutions, he would have incurred an extremely messy, time-consuming, expensive, and disruptive situation. He would also have to get his neighbor’s permission to allow construction in his yard. Since the pipeline is located from 6 to 9 feet below hilly terrain, large excavators would have to get onto the customer’s property and in his neighbor’s yard in order to dig up the pipes. Trees, shrubbery, and grass would be pulled out of the ground and have to be replaced after the repipe was completed. If cracks or holes were found in the sanitary pipes, the contaminated dirt surrounding the pipeline would have to be removed and replaced.

Solution: NuFlow successfully cleaned the blocked sanitary pipeline using a combination of proprietary tools. Then skilled technicians used existing access points to install our no-dig structural liner. This Pull-in-Place liner is installed in-situ and cures within a few hours to form a new, protective, seamless pipe within the original pipe. This liner will prevent root intrusion, extending the useful life of the sanitary pipeline. Compared to a traditional repipe, NuFlow’s work was completed within a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost. NuFlow offers a wide array of pipe rehabilitation solutions for several pipe systems in all types of residential, commercial, industrial, municipal, and federal properties. Our innovative, no-dig technology has extraordinary benefits, which turn what could be a disastrous situation for our customers into a quick, hassle-free, mess-free fix.

The lining was half the cost of pipe replacement and was completed in just 3 days.

A retired Air Force Colonel and his wife were almost forced to sell the house they had lived in for over 40 years – until they found out about pipelining. A retired Air Force Colonel and his wife were having issues with the plumbing in their house, so they called a local plumber in Tampa Bay to deal with the issue. After inspection, the plumber determined there were multiple leaks that needed to be addressed – so many that the plumber told them they would have to replace the pipes.

But replacing the pipes required digging a trench in the concrete slab of the house. With 3 bathrooms and the laundry room to fix, this meant they would have to jackhammer almost the entire house. The project would take several weeks and would cost around $27,000 – a steep price that did not include the thousands of dollars that would be required to repair the damage that would be left behind after the re-pipe. The couple, Ken (92) and Ruth (89) were clearly distraught. They have lived in this house for over 40 years. They raised their kids there and are well into their retirement years. Putting that kind of money and time into the house at their age was just too much, so they decided that they would have to sell the house. The local plumber then referred the couple to SPT, a NuFlow Certified Contractor. Chris, an SPT representative, and a fellow military veteran arrived and instantly built a relationship with the couple. He performed a camera inspection and found a few cracks that could easily be fixed with pipelining.

Chris presented Ken and Ruth with an estimate and walked them through the process of pipelining. The job was half the cost of pipe replacement, and there were no additional repair costs.

SPT lined the entire house, and the job was completed in just 3 days. Ken and Ruth felt a wave of relief – their problem was solved and they didn’t have to leave their beloved home.