Re-lining a Sewer in Chicago’s frigid temps
Sewer relining is a bit more challenging in the winter months but it can be done with the proper equipment, some pre-planning and experienced technicians. Even though we were ready for the weather we ran into a few problems we did not foresee. The pipes in the traveling boiler froze so we had to thaw them with a blow torch. The project was definitely a success but we did double our labor costs due to the cold. The problem at this house was a root clogging the sewer line causing a back-up into the house. After cleaning the roots outwe saw that the the pipe was broken allowing sewage to leak into the yard attracting more roots into the sewer line. This job was an emergency situation and we moved very quickly from diagnosing the problem to making the repair.
This Cured In Place Pipe (CIPP) is also known as Trenchless Sewer Repair because there is no digging involved. Compared to the old fashioned excavation method this CIPP cost 1/2 as much and takes about a day and half to complete. This is considered a specialty among plumbers since this equipment is expensive and most won’t invest in it. It also takes special technicians with the technical training and a extensive background in the history of sewers since this CIPP is almost always performed on old complicated sewer systems. Chicago has miles of aging sewers as do other cities and this technology is being used across the country by municipalities who now dont have to dig up roads to fix them. The federal goverment has mandated that cities have to repair broken & craked municapall sewers because of the environmental impact it is having on local lakes, rivers and streams.