Sewer Inspections: What Damages Can Be Found in Sewers
Storm and sanitary sewers transport millions of gallons of water every year. With this, it’s essential that the wastewater gets to treatment plants to prevent contamination. It’s also expected that these systems experience damages that prevent proper flow through both regular use and unexpected materials entering through pipes and surface features. Our team at Trinity Subsurface determines these issues by providing CCTV video pipe inspection: the method of sending a robotic crawler or push camera through the pipe to examine defects and damages.
With this service we offer observations of pipe damages as well as suggestions on how to fix them, offering hydro jetting to clear debris and UV cured-in-place pipe lining to restore pipes. What do we look for in a pipe to determine it’s been damaged? How can these damages be fixed?
Debris and Blockages
Blockages and debris are some of the most common issues you’ll find in pipes. Sometimes this ends up being foliage or earth material, other times it’s unflushable materials and trash that builds up and prevents proper flow. We’ve seen wrappers, paper, cans and more within pipes with our sewer inspection equipment. With enough debris and build-up, a blockage will completely prevent the flow of sanitary and stormwater. These issues can usually be solved through the use of hydro jetting. By blasting water through a pipe, we can remove excess material that causes blockages and perform a post-cleaning inspection to determine if there are any additional pipe issues.
Cracks, Holes, Offset Joints and Protruding Laterals
Cracks, holes and offset joints are key players in infiltration issues, bringing in excess water through the ground that can cause additional strain on sewer operations. While cracks and holes may be more expected, the joints between pipes can also cause issues. Some lateral connections to a sewer main can also cause issues with flow — a lateral may protrude into the main, which can be solved by cutting away the excess. Some of these issues may be solved by trenchless repairs and resealing any joints. More extensive cracking and joint issues may require full replacement.
Roots
Roots combine the previous two pipe issues and combine them into one. Roots seek water in any way they can get it. They have branching lateral roots that search soil in all directions for groundwater sources. They can enter pipes from plants on the surface through cracks and holes. With heavy enough roots, there can be blockages that prevent the flow of sewers. Dealing with roots is tricky, as they may be attached to plants you’d want to keep. To get to the root of this issue, roots can be cleared out with hydro jetting, root cutting, or through the use of root treatment chemicals. You also might want to repair the line itself — roots can always grow back.
Cross Bores
Cross bores are intersections of other utilities through sewers. These usually occur with directional boring operations or complete disregard of the operations of sewers in order to get utilities connected no matter what happens. Cross bores can cause blockages within sewers — they can also cause damages to the intersecting utility line, leading to possible contamination and service outages. If the cross bore isn’t known and the sewer is being worked on, there could be hazards to workers and the surrounding area. These situations usually require removal and reconnection of the interfering utility from the pipe and pipe repairs from the holes. This can be completely prevented by locating utilities prior to digging or drilling.
Deterioration, Corrosion, and Scaling
There’s one thing about all infrastructure - it ages and deteriorates over time. There isn’t really a way to avoid aging from happening, but there are ways to remedy it. With enough structural integrity, you can perform a cured-in-place pipe lining, trenchlessly inserting a new pipe into an aging structure to give it new life. I know what you’re thinking: “Everything ages, of course. Next you’re going to tell me that water is wet, right?” Water is wet. And with pipes that are often made of metal being exposed to constant water flow from regular use, they’re more susceptible to corrosion and rusting. Corrosion can lead to scaling: deposits of corrosion build-up on the interior surfaces of the pipe. This scaling can eventually lead to clogging if left untreated. Hydro jetting can help with some of the issues, though descaling with mechanical tools or chemicals is recommended by our team. Epoxy coating and pipe lining can also help with corrosion issues.
Bends, Collapses and Other Deformities
The last of the issues come from structural issues that may not be easily solved with trenchless solutions. These are usually caused by a combination of the previous issues and physical damage. Sewer bellies are dips in the pipe that can cause water and debris build-up to form within the bending portion of the pipe. Collapses in pipes are serious issues that prevent sewer operations and usually require a full pipe or sectional replacement. If you need video pipe inspection, our team at Trinity Subsurface can help determine pipe damages and offer solutions on how to fix them. Visit our website to find out more information and schedule your services today!
