City of Miami Re-lines Residential Cast Iron Sewer Pipes

Most people have no idea that their sewage is leaking into their lawns and into the ground water beneath their homes. The problem is that the cast iron sewage pipes that drain waste from the house to the clay sewer pipes under the road are cracked and corroded by the time they’re 30 years old.

For homeowners the problem is that roots grow into the cracks and repeatedly back up the drains. So homeowners have to dig up their lawns and driveways and other landscaping to replace the pipes. Sometimes the water table is so high that special pumps have to be installed around the excavated areas so that the holes do not flood while the pipe replacement is occurring.

From the City of Miami’s perspective, they had a different problem. They were not concerned with sewage leaking out of the pipes, but groundwater leaking into the pipes. The sewage treatment plants that receive all this water are only designed to process a certain amount of gallons per day. Any excess has to be spilled into a nearby river, creating hazardous environmental conditions.

There is one additional complication – who pays to replace the pipes leading from the house to the road? That depends on the city/county and where the easement starts, and sometimes, who is affected by it the most. In this case, homeowners were supposed to pay for the pipe replacement. But this type of pipe repair can be very costly, and so the City of Miami decided to bear the costs of replacing all the sewage pipes.

The task was very complicated. First the sewage laterals/pipes would have to be located, then the electrical, cable, potable water and other utilities would have to be identified to preserve them. Then homeowners would have to be informed that they will not be able to use their broken drains for days or weeks. This was going to cost the City of Miami $6,000,000 and take 2-3 years to replace around 1,000 laterals.

Fortunately in 1998 a new process for replacing pipes on the inside of the old pipes was perfected. It does not require any excavation. This pipe lining procedure installs a new pipe as thick and strong as regular PVC inside the old pipe within 3 hours. It comes with a 50-year warranty, and only reduces the internal diameter of the pipe by 5% so that there is negligible effect on flow. The city opted to line the sewer pipes for a total pipe lining cost of $1,500,000 instead of $6,000,000, which took 4 months instead of 3 years. The process can be observed at www.CraftsmanPipeLining.com and they also have a free pipe lining E-book that is e-mailed upon request.