Pipe bursting to remove a belly.

[plbgbiz]

Is that after you use a Fernco or Mission coupling to connect the pipes?

What kind of "fabric"?

I have never heard of lime to be brushed on. I am familiar with the white powder in large paper bags (like bags of concrete). Do you mix it yourself or buy it ready to go?

**notepad in hand**

[Cuda]

Is that after you use a Fernco or Mission coupling to connect the pipes?

What kind of "fabric"?

I have never heard of lime to be brushed on. I am familiar with the white powder in large paper bags (like bags of concrete). Do you mix it yourself or buy it ready to go?

**notepad in hand**

Landscape fabric wrapped around the fernco tough back area, lime mixed with water, brushed because I found my guys would just dump it down and miss the connection area when if they brushed it on around the fernco it was in the spot that needed it. A journeyman I worked with in the 80's made me do it and it has just stuck with me. Like I said I don't know if it really makes much of a differance or not it was just how I was made to do it.

[plbgbiz]

Cool idea Cuda. Thanks.

[Ace Sewer]

Is your rig use a cable, a chain, or the steel links? The one I saw had the steel links. It was a clay line and was laid in a gentle curve, and the thing just kept wanting to go straight as an arrow and broke right thru the pipe and poked up out the ground a couple of times. This was just getting started running it through to pull pipe back.


Man, look out for ductile iron. There was another one they were doing where it had a section of ductile in it that stopped them dead. That was the one they were upsizing that kicked their butts. The ductile was kind of the icing on the cake on that one. That was when they switched machines and brought in the steel link one that then kept shooting through the pipe on the next job.

It seemed pretty cool to me but also like if I was going to get into it I'd want to see a lot of it done first.

[plbgbiz]

Is your rig use a cable, a chain, or the steel links?....

I have used Tric, Spartan, and Pipe Genie. All were cable except for Pipe Genie. It uses chain or cable.

We currently use the Pipe Genie 40 ton unit mostly with chain. Our longest burst so far is 500' of 6" clay replaced with 6" HDPE. Iprefer the chain on sewer replacements but the cable is better for water lines.

They are all good. I think a lot more depends on the men in ditch rather than the particular machine being used.

Cuda's opinion will carry more weight on this than mine. I think he has been doing pipe bursting longer than me.

[Cuda]

I am pretty new to bursting, Bought our Tric system a little over a year ago. But I do a lot of it the goal was to use it once every two weeks but it gets used about once a week and sometimes it gets used all week! But we use it differently then most contractors. If I can get a cable through something then it's game time. We do a lot of 100 year old concrete and clay footing drains. Reason is because they are full of mud and sand and roots. We snake/jet them to open them up then dig a pit at the corners, then pull in hdpe with holes drilled in it. This is not the right way to replace footing drains you should excavate to the footers, pressure wash or sandblast the walls, seal the outer wall, lay in insulation board to protect the coating, hand lay new pipe, cover with river rock and restore the hardscape. But that is probably one of the most expensive jobs a homeowner will ever pay for. So with pipe bursting the old pipes are broken outward to become the gravel a new high strength long life pipe is pulled in, we create cleanouts and catch basins so that the new pipe can be jetted if needed in the future something that is lacking in footing drain installation even today. Is it as good? No but it works and saves a ton of dough! We take our moles and bore holes where no drain ever was then use the pipe burster to pull in the size pipe we need. We use the burster to replace 100 year downspout lines that where in the same condition as the footer drains. Downspout drains and footer drains are the most neglected drains there are! People call quick when the sewer gets backed up but give very little thought to the ones I mentioned. I have written this before so that anybody who needs more business might consider doing these you already have most of the equipment needed to start! A camera, A locator, a snake, maybe a jetter. And a shovel! Some people want the aging sewer done at the same time because of the money they are saving. But I found the work for the burster to do, it was actually one of my worst business decisions ever. I looked at buying a sewer liner and I looked at the pipe burster. I decided the pipe burster was the better product for the customer i.e. new pipe! No joints! tough as nails, 100 year product vs. 50 on lining. What an idiot I was! People are not going to live in there houses for a hundred years so the 50 year product (lining) was good enough. Lining is cheaper than pipe bursting because you don't need and entrance and an exit pit. And for whatever yuppie reason whenever I go through my sewer replacement options to a customer they almost always go "Tell me more about this lining process" DOH I should have bought the liner first and the burster second oh well live and learn. Anyway I am flying into Chicago tomorrow to start my lining training.

[Cuda]

And yes stupid me this is the next thing I am buying (hopefully by summer)
http://powrmole.com/pd_6.html
A pipe pusher/burster! For use on straight runs only. Can push a pipe where none has ever been (no host pipe needed) Semi directional with different heads. Has a Sonde for finding it when something goes wrong. Can be used as a sewer or pipe burster or to help my burster overcome something. Seems a little safer for some of the water mains we do under buildings. And we already have the hydraulic source unit.

[Cuda]

No wonder you guys don't mind the snow it's flat here! now to go look around hehe

[Cuda]

Anyone reading this thread needs to read my updated bursting tips thread titled pipe bursting tips updated. Because my tip of adding water to saturate the soil can backfire in certain situations and make the belly or sag worse after the bursting operation depending on the soil conditions.