A sewer lateral, the pipe that carries waste from your house to the City main under the road, has a finite life. Pre 1970 Vancouver homes typically have clay tile or cast iron laterals that have crossed the 60 year mark. Homes from the 1970s to 1985 have vitrified clay or early cast iron. Homes from 1985 to 2005 often have black corrugated polyethylene that crushes under settling soil. Anything after 2005 is PVC and should be good for another 40 to 60 years.

Replacement, not repair, is the right answer when there are multiple failure points along the same lateral that no single liner or spot repair can solve. When the pipe has fully collapsed in one or more sections, because a liner needs a host pipe to invert into and no host means no liner. When the lateral is undersized for the current fixture count, which is common on an older line that now serves a secondary suite or an added bathroom. When root infiltration has destroyed structural integrity along more than 30% of the length. When the pipe is illegally connected, meaning combined storm and sanitary or a broken connection at the City main, and the City has flagged it for correction. And when sinkholes are appearing above the line, which is soil actively washing away through the pipe.

Then the method question. Replacement happens two ways, open cut excavation or trenchless pipe bursting through small access pits, and which one is right depends on what sits above the pipe and how far gone the pipe is.

Open cut has been the standard for a hundred years. We excavate the full trench from house to City main, pull the old pipe, bed new 4 inch SDR-28 PVC in 6 inches of clean drain rock, backfill and restore the surface. It is the right method when the lateral runs under lawn with no mature landscaping, the route is short at under about 30 feet, nothing sits above the line, and the existing pipe is collapsed too severely for trenchless to have anything to work with.

Trenchless pipe bursting pulls a hydraulic head through the old pipe, splitting it outward into the surrounding soil while drawing new HDPE in behind it. It is the right method when the lateral crosses a driveway, sidewalk, road, mature trees, hardscape or irrigation. When the existing pipe is mostly intact but failing structurally. And when the City connection is the failure point, because an open road permit plus traffic control plus asphalt restoration often costs more than the entire trenchless job. There is also the boulevard tree to think about. Open cut near anything twenty years old or more usually kills it through root damage, and a mature tree carries real property value.

Hybrid is common in Vancouver. Open cut the property side section under lawn, where digging is cheap, and burst the boulevard or road crossing, where digging is expensive. We design the hybrid plan after the camera scope and put it in the quote.

Mamba scopes every lateral on HD camera before recommending replacement, and the footage is yours. About 25% of the scopes we run come back as repair is fine, replacement not needed yet. We tell you that.