Why trenchless beats digging

What a trench actually disturbs

A residential lateral runs from the house to the main under whatever was built on top of it in the decades since: the driveway, the front walk, the slab, the landscaping, the sidewalk and the parkway tree, sometimes the street. An open-trench replacement opens all of it, and the restoration is often the largest line on the invoice. In older Fairfax neighborhoods the lateral can also be deep enough to need shoring and dewatering.

What trenchless leaves alone

• Lining works from the existing cleanout. Nothing between the house and the street is opened.
• Bursting needs a pit a few feet square at each end of the run. Everything in between stays as it is.
• Point repair treats one marked spot. If excavation is needed at all, it is a small hole exactly where the camera and locator said to dig.

Time and disruption

Most lined or burst residential lines in Fairfax County are finished in one day. Water is off for a few hours during a cure. A trench across a driveway and a sidewalk is a multi-day job with concrete to cut, haul, pour and cure, and a right-of-way permit for the part in the public way.

The result

A cured liner is a jointless pipe with a smooth wall that flows better than corroded cast iron or offset clay, rated around fifty years by its manufacturers. A burst-in HDPE line is a single fused length with no joints for roots to find. Either way the new pipe is at least as good as an open-trench replacement, without the restoration bill.

When digging is still right

A lateral that crosses a foundation footing within inches, a long stretch that has lost all grade, or a line undersized from the start may be better served by spot excavation or a new route by directional bore. An honest contractor says so. The point of trenchless is not to avoid digging at any cost; it is to avoid digging that does not need to happen. The camera decides.

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