Pipe Bursting in Fullerton

Three Fullertons

Downtown Fullerton and the neighborhoods around the college and the old Santa Fe depot were built between the 1900s and the 1930s, and the houses there, bungalows and Spanish Revival cottages on tree-lined streets, sit on the oldest vitrified clay laterals in the city, laid shallow and jointed every couple of feet. The tracts that fill the flats west and south of downtown went in during the 1950s and early 60s on clay laterals under raised-floor and early slab houses. The hills to the north, from Sunny Hills and Raymond Hills to the newer neighborhoods along the Brea line, were built from the 1960s through the 1990s on cast iron and then ABS, on slabs, on graded lots with long laterals down to the street.

Clay joints admit roots and shift with the soil. Cast iron under a slab channels out along the bottom. ABS cracks at fittings and bellies where hillside fill settled. A long hillside lateral with a steep drop scours itself clean but drives fast water into the soil through every open joint.

Clay, hills and a century of trees

The flats are alluvial clay that swells in the winter rains and shrinks all summer; the hills are clay and fill on slopes that settle and creep. Fullerton takes its street trees seriously and has some of the oldest in the county, camphors, magnolias, jacarandas and sycamores planted with the downtown blocks a century ago, and root intrusion at clay joints is the single most common finding on a Fullerton sewer camera inspection.

Sewers and permits

The City of Fullerton operates the local sewer system, and the lateral from the house to the connection at the main is the property owner's responsibility, including the part under the parkway and sidewalk.

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 Fullerton lateral

• Sewer pipe lining is the answer for downtown and tract clay with root-intruded joints that still holds its shape, and for channeled cast iron under a hillside slab. A cured-in-place liner from the cleanout follows a long hillside lateral down to the street and seals every joint in one pass.
• Pipe bursting is for a collapsed section, a belly in hillside fill, or a line that needs to be upsized. Two small pits and a new fused polyethylene pipe on the old alignment.
• Sectional point repair handles one crushed joint under a driveway or one root ball on an otherwise sound line.

Crews that handle trenchless sewer repair in Fullerton see all three Fullertons, and a good one will tell you from the footage which method fits 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 Fullerton

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 Fullerton

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Fullerton, including ZIP codes 92831, 92832, 92833, 92834, 92835, 92836, 92837, 92838.

More trenchless services in Fullerton

Questions we hear in Fullerton