Main and Sewer Line Repair - Wisler Plumbing and Air - Roanoke, VA

Filthy, smelly sewage transports bacteria like E. coli. Fortunately, it’s out of sight, out of mind.  Until it isn’t.

When sewage fluids begin to pungently seep through your lawn, or worse yet, backs-up into your home you have a serious problem.

Don’t procrastinate. CALL US IMMEDIATELY. We can right the situation for you, leaving nothing behind but an outstanding plumbing job and complete satisfaction. And, with trenchless technology, we can even make it look like we were never there.

1) Diagnose the Problem

The sewer line (also known as the main line) carries wastewater and sewage from your house to either the septic system or municipal sewer.

Backups are caused by a block or stoppage somewhere in the sewer line. The stoppage must be located, identified, and removed.

Root growth is one of the primary causes of backups. Trees love sewage; they love the nutrients, water, and moisture living inside the pipe. Roots pester the sewage pipe till they breach it and take root. As the roots become established inside the pipe, toilet paper or other waste gets caught on the roots and stop the flow of waste.

Collapsed pipes are another common cause of backups. Obsolete pipes like clay and orangeburg are no longer viable and are collapsing from ground pressure.

The next common cause for a main line issue happens when the ground settles around the line creating what we call a belly in the line – a high point on either side and a low point in the center. That belly holds water and whenever solids or paper go down the sewer line, it’s like hitting the pool of water at a water park-it slows down anything that lands in it. As items get caught in the belly, they’ll build up and cause blockage in the sewer line.

2) Fix the Problem

Wisler Plumbing and Air takes care of every step of what needs to happen to get your line back in order.

• Determine the path and depth of the sewer line by sending a camera with a transmitter down the line.
• Get the necessary permits from the county or city official that governs the area.
• Call Miss Utility to have participating utilities mark their underground facilities in advance to prevent damage to underground utility lines, injury, property damage and service outages.
• Contact with the municipal sewer cleaning company or whoever is in charge to avoid problems that may arise as we uncover their system.

3) The Physical Work (1 day start to finish)

Two Options for Getting the Job Done

If your sewer line needs replacement, we’ll gladly explain the two options below and help you decide which is best for you based on budget, your yard, and overall needs. The two methods we’ll discuss with you are:

The Standard Way

This method leaves a scar on your yard or your floor.

For outside work, a mini excavator is used to dig a trench. For an inside job, a jackhammer is used to get through the floor. Both tools create a fair amount of mess, from debris to dust. Once access is gained, we pull out the old and put in the new. When the job is complete and the work passes inspection, we do our best to put things back the way they were (but when you open the ground up, you’re going to see the scar).

The Trenchless Way

Sewer line repair? What sewer line repair?

There is no scar left on your yard or your floor. We use pipe bursting or pipelining depending on where the needed fix is.

If the pipe needs fixing inside the house, we’ll likely use a process called pipelining. Basically, we create a new pipe inside your old one (it’s like double bagging at the grocery store).

If the pipe that needs fixing is outside your house, we’re like to use a pipe bursting process, and it’s what it sounds like. As we pull a new pipe, we burst the old pipe out of the way to make room for the new pipe.

Why The Difference?

To save you money. Period. No fine print. Why spend more money on technology when you can have the same outcome but spend less money? Pipe bursting costs less than pipelining. However, you really can’t perform pipe bursting under your foundation, so that’s where pipelining comes in to allow for trenchless repair inside your home. It comes down to what makes sense for you and us.

Trenchless technology is a perfected 25+-year-old process. With this process, we figure out the size, direction, and length we need to fix. When we arrive, we clear the pipe of any debris using hydro-jets. Once clear, we get to work and start building your new pipe within the old.

Once complete, we test the new pipe for its strength, and as an extra precaution, we send a camera through to make sure all is well. Then, we clean up our small mess, and you’ll never know we were there.

Watch What Pipe Bursting Looks Like

(want to know what pipelining looks like?)

We leave nothing behind but an outstanding plumbing job, a working sewer, and complete satisfaction.