Hiring for Pipe Bursting

The job you are actually buying

This page is about hiring, not mechanics. How the method itself works, head, rods, fused pipe and all, is covered on the lining site's pipe bursting page. What matters here is that bursting is a replacement, not a repair. When it is finished you own a new sewer service, and the utility treats it as one: new pipe, new connection, new inspection. The bid therefore has to read like a replacement bid, with the same items an open cut would carry for the connection and the right-of-way, plus the items unique to pulling pipe through the ground.

The two pits

Every burst needs an insertion pit and a receiving pit. The bid should show where each will be, how large, and how deep. On a typical lateral one pit sits at the foundation or an exterior cleanout and the other at the property line or at the main in the street. Their positions decide a great deal: whether a driveway or a sidewalk panel comes out, whether the receiving pit is in the public right-of-way and so needs its own permit and traffic control, and whether a pit deeper than five feet will need shoring or a trench box under the same rules that govern any excavation. A bid that says "small access pits" and nothing more has not decided any of this.

Ask also what happens between the pits. A burst displaces the old pipe outward and can lift the ground above a shallow line. If the run passes under a slab, a patio or a thin asphalt drive at less than about three feet of cover, the bid should say how the contractor will handle surface heave and who repairs it.

Utility locates and clearances

The 811 one-call ticket is the minimum, and the bid should state that it will be placed and the required waiting period observed before either pit is opened. It is not enough on its own. Public marks stop at the property line, and a bursting head displaces soil in every direction, so the contractor needs to know what runs parallel to or across the sewer on your side as well: the water service, gas service, irrigation, electrical to a detached garage. The bid should describe how the private side will be located and what minimum separation the crew requires before it will burst. Where another utility crosses within a foot or two, the honest answer is to hand-dig and expose it at the crossing, and that pothole should be in the bid as a line, not a surprise.

The new pipe

The replacement pipe should be specified by material, diameter and pressure rating or dimension ratio, and by the fusion method used to join it. On laterals this is nearly always high-density polyethylene, butt-fused into a single length. If the bid is upsizing from four inches to six, it should say so and say why, and it should also say that the utility has agreed to a six-inch connection, since some will not accept it without an engineer's letter. If the contractor proposes something other than HDPE, ask what the utility's standard specification allows for new services. Many utilities publish that list and will not pass an inspection on pipe that is not on it.

The connection at each end

The weakest points on a burst line are the two ends, where fused plastic meets something else. At the house, the new pipe is typically joined to the remaining cast iron or PVC stub with a mechanical coupling or a fused transition fitting, and the bid should name the fitting and its manufacturer. At the main, the connection depends on who owns the tap. In cities where the utility owns the segment under the street, the contractor stops at the property line and the utility makes or approves the connection; in cities where you own to the main, the contractor reconnects to the tap or installs a new saddle, and the utility inspects it before the pit closes. The bid must be clear about which rule applies at your address and about what work is included at the main. The ownership and permits page explains how to find that out.

Permits, inspection and restoration

A pit in the sidewalk or street puts the job in the public right-of-way, which means a right-of-way or street-opening permit, a traffic control plan on anything busier than a quiet residential street, and a city bond that most plumbing companies do not carry. The bid should list that permit by name, say who holds the bond, and include the right-of-way restoration to the city's standard: compacted backfill, concrete sidewalk panels replaced full-panel rather than patched, asphalt cut back and restored to the city's detail. On your own property, restoration of the pits means specified backfill and compaction and the surface put back to what it was. Sod, concrete and asphalt are not the same cost and the bid should say which it is replacing.

The inspection sequence should also be written down: the utility's inspection of the connection before the pit at the main is backfilled, any air or water test the utility requires, a post-installation video from house to main, and the city's final look at the right-of-way surface. Final payment should follow the last of these, not the pull.

Questions about experience with your pipe

Bursting behaves differently in every host material, and a crew that has only pulled through clay is on its first try when it meets yours. Ask directly: how many lines of this material and this size have you burst? Clay and Orangeburg split easily. Cast iron needs a head that can split or cut it and sometimes a rod puller with more force. Ductile iron and steel require a cutting head, and some contractors will not attempt them. Concrete and asbestos cement raise handling questions of their own. Ask what head and what pulling force they will use and why. Ask what they do when the pull stalls partway through, because every experienced crew has had one stall and has a procedure. Ask for two owners whose lines were bursted in the past year and call them. Confirm the license in your state's register through Find a Contractor, and remember that the license tells you nothing about the rig.

The red flag that matters most

A bursting head follows the old pipe. If the camera shows a belly, a flat spot where water stands, the new pipe will lie in the same belly and hold the same water, only in plastic. A contractor who proposes to burst a line with a belly, and does not plan an open cut through the low section to correct the slope, has not read the footage or is hoping you have not. The same caution applies to a reverse grade and to a line with a separated joint that has dropped. Bursting replaces pipe. It does not move pipe. When slope is the problem, an open cut through the bad section is the honest proposal, and a bid that recommends bursting anyway belongs on the red flags list.

Comparing the bids

Set the totals aside and compare the bids against the items above. One that shows both pits, the locate plan, the pipe specification, the fittings at both ends, the right-of-way permit and its restoration, the inspection sequence and a written warranty is a bid for the job. One that shows footage and a price is a bid for part of it. The general bid checklist applies on top of everything here.

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