Are you wondering if your facility is a good candidate for trenchless pipe lining? The truth is that most commercial, municipal, industrial and multi-unit residential buildings are great candidates for trenchless pipe lining in Chicago. The goal of pipelining is to rehabilitate and restore your plumbing pipes without having to replace them.
Of course, the easiest and most efficient way to get a go/no-go decision on trenchless pipe lining is to call us for an evaluation of your building’s plumbing pipes – this is easy do with an assessment.
11 Reasons Trenchless Pipe Lining Will Work for Your Facility
1. You have a Historic Building.
Historic buildings often have old plumbing pipes and historic finishes, like wood moldings, original hardwood floors, decorative plaster ceilings and plaster walls. Replacing the plumbing pipes in these buildings often results in the historic features getting damaged and needing to be repaired or replaced in order to maintain the building’s historic status. In some instances, replacing those features can be extremely difficult, costly or impossible. Trenchless pipe lining can restore the plumbing pipes in historic buildings while minimizing the damage to historic finishes and reducing or often eliminating the need to hire additional historic building contractors to repair the damage caused by the plumbing system replacement.
2. You Have Low Water Pressure.
If your building suffers from chronic low water pressure, it may be due to having numerous hidden leaks. The plumbing pipes in modern buildings are often hidden behind walls for aesthetic reasons. Unfortunately, since you can see them, you don’t know if they’re leaking until the leak is severe and water is spraying on the inside of your drywall, causing bubbling paint, huge water spots and drywall that is wet or crumbling.
Prior to all the damage, you may notice water pressure that gets lower as it moves through your building. This is because pressure escapes from the system each time the water encounters a leak. This can result in the units or water fixtures closest to the water meter receiving optimal water pressure, but as you get further away from the meter, the water pressure slowly decreases. Lining your plumbing pipes with an epoxy coating can seal small leaks, restore your water pressure and extend the life of your plumbing system.
3. You Have Extremely High Water Bills.
Along with water damage and leaks, a decaying plumbing system can result in extremely high water bills. This is because when the water to your building is on, the system is pressurized and full of water. For every leak in your system, water is continuously spraying from the leaking plumbing pipes. This means that even if you were to turn every tap and water-using appliance off at the shutoff valves, your water meter would still be running and still costing you money.
For example, if you have a single drip her minute from any faucet, toilet or pipe, it wastes 53 gallons per year. If you have 10 pipes leaking a single drip per minute, you are wasting 526 gallons per year. If you have 200 family dwellings in your building and they all have a single one drip per minute leak, your building is now wasting 10,512 gallons per year or 864 gallons a month. In Chicago, that can start adding up to quite a sum of money.
4. You Have an Unexplained Puddle on Your Property.
If it hasn’t been raining and you haven’t turned-on your sprinkler system in 24 hours, you shouldn’t have puddles on your property. If you notice a puddle in an area, it could be due to a leaking sewer line, especially if the soil has also sunk in the area, which indicates that the sewer line has crumbled. In addition to the puddle, you may also notice a foul odor or that the water is particularly disgusting-looking. If this is the case, you may want to consider trenchless pipe lining in order to repair your sewer line without having to dig a huge trench across your landscaping in order to remove the existing line and replace it with a new sewer line.
5. Your Drain and Sewer Lines Keep Backing Up.
If your Chicago drains and sewer keep backing up, it could be due to frequent clogs in the system, a section of pipe that has collapsed or root infiltration. The good news is that trenchless sewer pipe lining can clean the pipe and restore its structural integrity. This is because an epoxy soaked liner is inserted into the sewer line, after the pipe has been thoroughly cleaned, inflated to the diameter of the existing sewer pipe and left to sure in place. Once the liner has completely cured, it functions just like a new sewer pipe.
6. You want to Avoid Extreme Damage to Your Building and/or Property.
Even if you do not own a historic building, you still may not want your walls cut open or huge pieces of equipment on your property, crushing your landscaping and leaving large trenches and dirt piles. Trenchless pipe lining is trenchless indoors and outdoors. The only holes that need cut or dug are the ones used to access your existing plumbing pipes. For the inside of your building, these holes in your drywall are turned into new access points, so there’s no need to call another contractor for a drywall repair and repainting of the area. For the outside of your property, the small holes are easily filled and seeded with grass. This reduces the amount of damage caused to your building and makes the pipe lining process much faster than a traditional pipe replacement.
7. You See Water Spots and Mold.
Water spots and mold are most common in kitchens, bathrooms, break rooms and utility rooms, but you shouldn’t see them in areas of your building that do not contain water-using appliances or fixtures. If you see water spots or mold on ceilings in your halls or units or on the floors, it most certainly indicates an active leak. In severe cases, the water leak can destroy structural components inside your walls and lead to extensive black mold growth, which is toxic. The good news is that trenchless pipe lining can seal small leaks and cracks in your plumbing pipes and stop the water damage.
8. Your Grass Is Green and Thriving in a Single Area.
If you notice that a section of your grass looks better in one area of your property than in other areas, it most often means that your sewer line is cracked and leaking wastewater. While this may be a boon to the plant life and trees in the area, it also means that dirt, roots and other objects are able to enter your sewer line, causing a clog and potential sewer backup. If you notice thriving plant life that doesn’t match the other areas of your property, it’s best to call our pipe lining technicians here at Nu Flow, serving Chicago, to see if trenchless pipe lining would be right for your building.
9. Your Plumbing System is Near or at the End of Its Expected Useful Life.
When did you have your sewer system installed or when was it last replaced? As plumbing pipes age, they develop corrosion that can restrict water flow, and they can develop thin spots or pinhole leaks and cracks, especially around water valves and welded seams. If it’s been more than 20 years, your plumbing pipes are probably nearing the end of their expected useful lives, and it’s time for a plumbing pipe inspection and to consider either replacing or lining your plumbing pipes in order to extend the useful life of the system.
10. You’ve Spent a Considerable Sum of Your Maintenance Budget on Plumbing Repairs.
Large commercial, residential, industrial and municipal buildings often budget a portion of money for maintenance and repairs, which is often housed in its own account, and every year that maintenance budget is estimated based on the previous years’ maintenance, upgrade and replacement costs. If you find that you are increasingly spending more on your plumbing pipes each year, it’s time to consider trenchless pipe lining before you have to take money from other areas of your building’s budget or issue a special assessment, if you have an HOA in your building, in order to pay for large repairs.
11. You Want to Avoid the Hassle of Having Your Water Off for an Extended Period of Time.
No one likes having the water off in their building for an extended period of time while the plumbing pipes are being repaired. When the water is off, it means you can’t cook, clean, wash clothes or even take a shower until the water is restored. The good news is that trenchless pipe lining doesn’t involve turning off the water to your entire building. Instead, the water is only turned off for the section of the building that is having its plumbing pipes lines, and it’s not a 24-hour shutoff. The shutoff only lasts during the day because we take steps to provide water in the early mornings, evenings and overnights, even while your pipes are being lined.
If you’d like to explore your options with trenchless pipe lining in order to extend the useful lives of your plumbing pipes and avoid the hassles that come with a traditional pipe replacement, give us a call at 915-790-9000.