A camera run that stops at a crushed section, or footage of cracks and dropped joints from the foundation all the way to the sidewalk, means the old lateral is finished. Chicago Plumbworks sets up sewer line replacement across Chicago, and a licensed plumber can dig out the old line or replace it trenchless, even under a garage slab or a two-flat’s gangway. If the line hasn’t been scoped yet, the rodding and camera run come first, because the method gets picked from the footage.
Is the old line beyond patching?
One or two bad spots with sound pipe between them can still be repaired. The footage that tips it toward a new line looks like this:
- A collapsed sewer line or a crushed section, with no open pipe left to clean or line through.
- Cracks or dropped joints along most of the run, not at one spot.
- A long sag where water and solids sit after every flush.
- Roots back at joint after joint within months of the last rodding.
- An earlier dig-and-patch, with the new trouble in a different place.
With structural damage along most of the run, each spot repair patches one place on a pipe that’s still failing, and the yard gets dug more than once. A new line ends the repeat digging, and the method sets how much of the lot gets opened.
Trenchless vs open trench
Trenchless sewer replacement means pipe bursting or sewer lining. Each one differs from an open trench in how much ground gets opened and what shape the old pipe has to be in.
| Open trench | Pipe bursting | Lining (cured-in-place pipe) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | The old pipe is dug out and new pipe laid in the trench | A cone-shaped head is pulled through the old pipe, breaking it into the soil, and new plastic pipe follows behind | A resin-soaked liner is pulled into the old pipe and hardens into a jointless pipe inside it |
| What gets dug | The whole run | A pit at each end | Access points at the ends |
| Old pipe has to be | Anything, even collapsed | Breakable, like clay, with room around it | Open enough to pull a liner through |
| A sag in the old line | Fixed, the new pipe gets a new slope | Follows the old path | Takes the old pipe’s shape |
| Near a parkway tree | Hardest on the roots | Digging only at the pits | The least digging |
Open trench
Digging is still the right answer when the line has collapsed, when it needs a new slope to cure a sag, or when the camera can’t get through at all. It’s also the most disruptive. The trench crosses the yard, and if the bad pipe runs under the public way, the sidewalk and parkway come up too. On a tight Chicago lot that can mean working around a garage, a gangway or the front steps.
Pipe bursting
Bursting is built for brittle pipe like clay tile, and the yard opens only at the two pits. Other buried lines are the catch. Where gas, water or electric service runs close to the sewer, your plumber exposes it and checks the clearance first, because the head pushes outward as it goes.
Lining
Lining needs an open path. A section that’s caved in has to be dug out first, and because the liner hardens against the old pipe, a sag stays a sag. For one bad stretch on an otherwise sound line, a short liner can be the trenchless sewer repair instead. In 2019 the City’s water department announced a pilot lining private drains instead of digging them, to limit tree removal.
Questions to settle before you pick
- Which stretch is bad, measured in feet from the cleanout on the footage?
- Where would the trench or the pits go, and does the sidewalk or parkway have to open?
- How does the new pipe connect at the house and at the City main?
- Does the job end with a camera run through the new line, so you can see it’s clear?
Working under parkways and sidewalks
In Chicago the public way runs from the city sidewalk to the center of the street. That usually puts the last stretch of the lateral on City ground: the run through the parkway and under the street to the main. Sewer work runs through several City offices, and more of them once the public way opens:
- Department of Buildings issues the sewer permit for repairing, replacing or lining a private sewer. Only licensed drainlayers can get one, and since 2022 licensed plumbing contractors can hold a courtesy drainlayer license for it.
- Chicago Department of Transportation issues the public way opening permit when the sidewalk, parkway or street has to be cut, and its regulations cover how the pavement gets put back.
- Department of Water Management inspects the sewer work.
- Bureau of Forestry protects the parkway tree. The City’s standard calls for a fence at least 4 feet tall, set along the parkway 5 feet from a trunk under 9 inches across, 10 feet from one 10 to 15 inches across and 15 feet from anything bigger, with no materials or equipment inside it. Root pruning near the tree takes a Forestry permit.
- The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District may also need to sign off, depending on the scope and the location.
Before anyone digs, the job is registered with the City’s Digger dig-notice system so gas, water and electric lines get marked.
The tree fence can push the hole away from the trunk, and the City’s forestry standard asks for boring under a tree instead of open cutting where that’s possible. Even then, City rules on work near parkway trees can end with a tree coming out. Once the pipe is in, the sidewalk and parkway have to be put back to the City’s standards.
How long the job takes
These are the things that set how long the job runs:
- The method. Bursting and lining open the ground only at the ends. A trench has to be dug, laid, inspected and backfilled along the whole run.
- Depth and length. A deep lateral or a long front yard means more digging and more pipe.
- Whether the public way opens. A sidewalk or street cut adds the CDOT permit, the tree fence and the restoration work.
- The inspection. The schedule has to leave room for the City’s sewer inspector.
- Restoration and the season. New sidewalk concrete and parkway soil come last, and fresh concrete needs time to set before anyone walks on it. In a Chicago winter, frozen ground slows the digging too.
Before work starts, ask your plumber for the day the house loses its drains and the day the sidewalk goes back, with the inspection in between. If the old line backs up while you’re waiting on permits, rodding can sometimes keep a pipe that hasn’t fully collapsed open a little longer. Sewage on the floor can’t wait for the paperwork, so call it in as soon as it happens.
Is it the sewer, or something else backing up?
Water or sewage that rises through the floor drain only in heavy rain is a basement backup from the street sewer, and it needs flood control on top of any new lateral. If the yard pools against the foundation every storm, check the catch basin before blaming the pipe. And when only one sink or tub is slow, start with that clogged drain before anyone talks about digging.