Pipe Bursting in Costa Mesa

Eastside, Westside, Mesa Verde

Costa Mesa's oldest streets, on the Eastside near Newport Boulevard and around the original downtown, date from the 1920s and 30s and sit on the oldest clay laterals in the city. The Westside and the tracts north of the fairgrounds were built in the 1950s on clay with cast iron under early slab houses. Mesa Verde, Halecrest and the neighborhoods along the Santa Ana River were built in the 1960s and early 70s on cast iron and then ABS plastic, almost all on slab foundations. The city also has a large stock of 1960s and 70s apartment and condominium buildings with shared laterals that serve several units through one connection.

Clay joints admit roots and shift with the soil. Cast iron under a slab channels out along the bottom. ABS cracks at fittings and crushes under widened driveways. A shared multi-unit lateral does all of the above under more flow than it was sized for.

Bluff soils and coastal groundwater

Costa Mesa sits on a mesa of sandy, silty soil above the Santa Ana River and the Back Bay, with clay lenses that swell and shrink with the seasons. Toward the river and the southern edge near the bay, groundwater is close enough to matter, and cast iron in that ground corrodes fast. The city's mature ficus and pepper street trees find every leaking joint, and root intrusion is the most common finding on a Costa Mesa sewer camera inspection, with channeled cast iron close behind in the slab neighborhoods.

A separate sanitary district

Costa Mesa's local sewers are not run by the city. The Costa Mesa Sanitary District owns and maintains the sewer mains, and it has historically taken an active interest in private laterals, including programs that help owners with lateral work; the current rules are worth checking with the district before a repair. The lateral from the house to the connection at the main is still the property owner's responsibility.

Lateral repair or replacement needs a plumbing permit from the city, and anything in the sidewalk, parkway or street needs an encroachment permit and an inspection before the pit is closed. The contractor should pull both and say so in the quote.

Which trenchless method fits a Costa Mesa lateral

• Sewer pipe lining is the answer for Eastside clay with root-intruded joints that still holds its shape, and for channeled cast iron under a Mesa Verde slab. A cured-in-place liner from the cleanout rebuilds the pipe without breaking the floor or opening the driveway.
• Pipe bursting is for a collapsed section, a belly, or a shared lateral that needs to be upsized. Two small pits and a new fused polyethylene pipe on the old path.
• Sectional point repair handles one crushed joint or one bad fitting on an otherwise sound line.

Crews doing trenchless sewer repair in Costa Mesa work with the sanitary district's requirements routinely, and a good one will confirm the district's current lateral rules before quoting.

What the job looks like

A camera inspection maps the line and marks every defect on the ground with its depth. Hydro jetting clears roots, scale and grease so the pipe wall can be seen and, if the line is being lined, so the resin bonds to clean pipe. Lining runs from the cleanout at the house; bursting needs a small pit at each end of the run. Most residential jobs finish in a day, with water off for a few hours during a liner cure, and you should receive the before-and-after footage. how a trenchless repair is sequenced from inspection to cure is worth reading before the crew arrives.

To compare installers who have been checked for licensing and CIPP training, you can find a verified CIPP contractor through an independent directory.

Pipe Bursting in Costa Mesa

How pipe bursting works

A steel cable is threaded through the old sewer line from a pit at one end to a pit at the other. A cone-shaped bursting head, with new high-density polyethylene pipe fused to it, is pulled through by a hydraulic unit. The head splits the old clay or cast iron outward into the soil and the new pipe follows in the same alignment at the same depth. The result is a single fused length of pipe with no joints for roots to find.

When bursting is the right call

• Collapsed sections — a liner needs a host pipe to hold its shape; a collapsed run has none.
• Bellies — a low spot that holds water stays a low spot after lining. Bursting lays new pipe on a fresh bed.
• Undersized lines — bursting can upsize a 3-inch lateral to 4 inches; lining slightly reduces diameter.
• Badly deformed pipe — Orangeburg that has flattened, or cast iron with most of its bottom gone.

What the job looks like

One pit at the house or cleanout, one at the property line or the street connection, each a few feet square. Utilities that cross within a foot or two of the sewer path are located and potholed first. The pull takes an hour or two; the whole job, including fusing, connections, inspection and backfill, is usually one day.

Permits and the street

If the downstream pit is in the sidewalk, parkway or street, a right-of-way permit and restoration to city standards are required in addition to the plumbing permit. If the connection at the main is replaced, the city inspects it before the pit closes. Confirm who is handling this before work starts.

ZIP codes served in Costa Mesa

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Costa Mesa, including ZIP codes 92626, 92627, 92628.

More trenchless services in Costa Mesa

Questions we hear in Costa Mesa