Laterals: Inspecting and Reinstating
Sewers are interconnected systems that coincide with roadways through neighborhoods and commercial spaces to remove and treat wastewater through. Lateral pipes are one of the key ways wastewater travels from your home or business into the public sanitary wastewater system. They’re generally smaller pipes, with the average home connections being anywhere from four to six inches. There are several aspects to a lateral system that may come as a surprise, some of which introduce challenges for our team’s inspection and cured-in-place lining services.
First of all, despite connecting to a public system, laterals tend to be privately owned by the owner of the connecting property. Ownership of the lateral can depend on the area. In some cases the homeowner only owns the portion of the lateral up to their property line. In other situations, they own the entire lateral pipe system up to the street connection. In either situation, the property owner owns some portion of the pipe and is often responsible for repairs. Lateral pipes connect to wastewater sources in your home, such as a toilet, bathtub, or laundry machine. Laterals typically have cleanouts on the property in some form to allow for easier access when doing maintenance. They may even have systems to prevent sewer backups into the home if there’s an issue with the main sewer.
Like any other pipe, laterals can face a number of inflow and infiltration issues that can have an effect on their operation. Cracks, collapses, blockages, joint issues, and root growth can prevent proper flow from a lateral into a sewer main, resulting in backups that can cause further issues to your property. Sometimes laterals can even protrude into main sewer lines, resulting in the potential for blockages in the main sanitary system if not maintained. Our team at Trinity Subsurface is able to inspect lateral pipes by using a specialized crawler system called a lateral launch camera. The lateral launch system operates similarly to a normal video pipe inspection crawler The difference is that the camera is connected through a separable cord that is launched into the lateral pipe from the main system, allowing for the camera to be inserted and retracted into the smaller lateral pipes. In doing this, we can examine both the connection points to the main sewer and determine defects or blockages within the lateral.
What about cured-in-place-lining? CIPP lining involves inserting a liner into a sewer main and curing a resin-lined tube to an existing sewer pipe, usually from one manhole to another to strengthen the internal structure. What do you do with all of the laterals in between those manholes to make sure the sewer continues to operate? In this case, the lateral would need to be reinstated: using a specialty cutting attachment to a crawler, the connection points to lateral systems can be cut out from inside the main sewer line. This system can also be used to remove those protruding taps from the main line.
If you need your pipes (and laterals) inspected and pipes restored, our team at Trinity Subsurface can help. Visit our website to find out more about our video pipe inspection, hydro jetting and cured-in-place pipe lining services.
