What is Pipe Bursting? - Wisler Plumbing & Air

Pipe bursting is basically a method of replacing a drainpipe. We put in cables, splitting heads, and use hydraulic rams. We connect the pipe on one end to the cable and pull it through the underground area to the other side. It takes specialized equipment, knowledge, and materials.

The benefit of pipe bursting is that there’s less demolition or excavation. In the small chance that we would be doing pipe bursting inside the home, it would be under a concrete slab or in a basement. Instead of busting up so much of the concrete to replace the pipe, we could pull it from one hole to the other with our equipment.

Most of the time we are working outside the home at the main sewer line. We can dig a hole at the house and at the street, and then pipe burst that line to get a new line underground. This allows us to dig less dirt.

People might not think about this, but if you have a deep sewer and you have to displace all of that dirt to expose the whole pipe, you have to put that dirt somewhere. If you have a small front yard, it can very challenging and can mess up your grass. When you displace dirt on virgin ground, which is ground that hasn’t been excavated before, unless you compact it when you put it back, you’re going to have extra dirt. And sometimes even when you do compact it, it’s going to settle, and you might have a sunken spot in your yard.

If you pipe burst, you’re not disturbing that ground. In other instances, instead of cutting the sidewalk or driveway, we can pipe burst under it. And a lot of times, pipe bursting can be done quicker than an excavation job. In general, less excavation is a huge benefit.

There are some cases where we cannot gain access, so we can’t use pipe bursting every time. But it is about the same price as an excavation, since we don’t have to do the compaction, trench protection and a few additional things. So, it’s definitely something to consider.

If you have any questions about pipe bursting, call us at 540-483-9382.