Indiana · Open territory
Sewer Pipe Lining in Indiana
Indiana's older cities run on combined sewers and century-old clay, its suburbs on postwar Orangeburg and concrete, and its ground on glacial clay that freezes three feet down. This page covers what fails in Indiana sewer lines from Indianapolis to Evansville, who owns the lateral, and how it gets rebuilt without a trench.
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What is in the ground in Indiana
The median Indiana home dates from the mid-1970s, but the cities that generate the lining work are far older. Indianapolis's streetcar neighborhoods, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Evansville, Terre Haute, Muncie and the river and canal towns were built between 1880 and 1930 on terra cotta laterals with a joint every two or three feet, connected to combined sewers that still carry both sewage and stormwater in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Evansville and more than a hundred smaller Indiana communities. The postwar suburbs, in Lawrence, Beech Grove, Speedway, the first Carmel and Greenwood subdivisions and the rings around Fort Wayne and Evansville, used clay, concrete and Orangeburg, the tar-paper pipe of the period, in quantity through the 1950s and 1960s. Basements are common across the northern two-thirds of the state and crawl spaces in the south, and the under-house drains are cast iron in either case. Houses built since the mid-1970s, which is most of Hamilton County and the newer rings, have PVC laterals that fail at a fitting or settle into a belly where the lot was built on fill.
Soil, water and weather
Northern and central Indiana sit on glacial till, dense clay with stones that drains poorly and holds water against the pipe, while the southern third, below the glacial limit, is limestone country with karst, sinkholes and the thin, rocky soils of the hills around Bloomington and Evansville. The frost line runs about three feet in the north and a bit less in the south, so laterals are deep and shallow joints heave. Spring is the season of trouble: thaw and heavy rain surcharge the combined sewers, groundwater infiltrates every open joint, and basements back up through the floor drain. Indiana's combined-sewer communities have operated under federal and state long-term control plans for two decades, Indianapolis's DigIndy tunnel being the largest, and the utilities have grown strict about private laterals that leak groundwater into the system. Roots from the silver maples, ash and oaks planted along every older Indiana street fill clay joints in the same way they do everywhere east of the Mississippi.
What shows up on Indiana camera inspections
- Roots from silver maple, ash and oak in the joints of century-old clay laterals in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend and Evansville
- Orangeburg fiber pipe gone oval under 1950s-60s subdivisions around every Indiana city
- Spring basement backups from surcharging combined sewers and groundwater infiltration
- Deep basement laterals in glacial clay that make any trench a braced, wet excavation
- Karst settlement and rocky ground across the southern third of the state
- Frost heave at shallow or disturbed joints and a digging season that ends in December
Which trenchless method fits
The camera decides. A line that still holds its shape is a lining job; a line that has been crushed, has lost its slope or has collapsed is a replacement job; a single bad joint in an otherwise sound run is a spot repair. Here is what each one does and where it stops being the right tool.
Sewer Pipe Lining (CIPP)
A resin-saturated liner cured inside the old sewer becomes a jointless new pipe, installed from a cleanout or manhole with nothing dug up.
Best for: Root-filled clay joints, scaled cast iron under a slab, cracked concrete or Orangeburg that still holds its shape, and any line under hardscape, a building or a mature tree.
Pipe Bursting
A bursting head splits the old pipe underground and pulls a new fused polyethylene line in behind it, between two small pits.
Best for: Crushed, deformed or collapsed pipe, severe offsets, undersized lines that need a larger diameter, and Orangeburg that has gone oval.
Sectional Point Repair
A short liner, two to twelve feet long, cured over one defect, leaving the sound pipe on either side alone.
Best for: One cracked joint, one offset, one root intrusion or one leaking connection in an otherwise sound line.
Storm Drain Lining
Cured-in-place and spin-cast lining for corrugated metal, concrete and clay storm pipe, culverts and roof drains, without closing the road or the parking lot.
Best for: Corrugated metal pipe rusted through at the invert, concrete storm lines with open joints, roof drains and parking lot drainage under slabs.
Who owns the pipe, and who issues the permit
In most Indiana cities and towns the lateral is the property owner's to own and maintain, the sewer lateral from the house to the point where it joins the public sewer, including the length in the right-of-way. Citizens Energy Group in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne City Utilities, Evansville Water and Sewer Utility and South Bend all treat the lateral as private up to the main, and several require a licensed plumber for the work and an inspection or video of the finished connection. A plumbing permit from the city or county covers the private side; any pit in the right-of-way takes a right-of-way permit from the city engineer; and Indiana 811 must be called before any excavation. Several central Indiana communities run inflow-and-infiltration programs that test laterals and require repair of ones that leak, which has made lining a routine answer rather than an exotic one. Lining from the basement cleanout keeps the job off the street permit and out of the frost.
Finding a lining contractor in Indiana
Indiana does not yet have a verified installer listed on this site, which is why the number on this page rings the national line. Call it or send the form with the property address and what the camera or the symptoms are showing, and we will locate a qualified trenchless contractor near you and make the introduction; there is no charge for that. If you are a Indiana lining contractor with five or more years in business and a strong Google rating, the territory is open: apply to be listed.
Estimates are free. Call now. (855) 804-1434
Where lining is in demand across Indiana
The pipe problems described above are concentrated in the older cities and the postwar suburbs around them. The communities below are the ones Indiana property owners ask about most, and the same methods apply everywhere in between.
A straight answer about your Indiana sewer line
Under an Indiana basement the lateral is usually old, deep and still round, which is the ideal profile for a liner, but under the postwar subdivisions it is as likely to be Orangeburg that has already slumped past the point a tube can pass. The camera is what separates the two. It records the run, marks each fault above ground with its depth and leaves the footage with you; the written proposal then spells out the method, the footage, the price and the reasoning behind the options it rejected, bursting or an open cut included when that is the honest call.
Estimates are free. Call now. (855) 804-1434
How a job runs
Camera first. Always.
A sewer quote given without video is a guess, and guesses are how homeowners end up paying for a liner that was never going to fix the problem. Here's the sequence we follow on every job.
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Step 1
Camera inspection, recorded
A self-leveling camera runs the full line from the cleanout, manhole or roof drain to the main. Every crack, offset, root mass, belly and connection is logged with its distance, and a locator marks each one on the surface with its depth. You get the recording.
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Step 2
Cleaning to bare wall
A hydro jetter, with chain cutters or a descaler where cast iron or roots call for them, strips the pipe to its original surface. The camera goes through again afterward, because a cleaned pipe tells the truth about its condition in a way a dirty one cannot.
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Step 3
A written scope, with the alternatives
The scope names the method, the footage and diameter involved, the price, the permits and inspections that apply, and the reasons the other methods were set aside. When the right answer is a dig, the scope says so.
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Step 4
Permits and notifications
The installer pulls the plumbing permit, any right-of-way or sewer-authority permit, schedules the inspections the local authority requires and files the utility-locate ticket before anything is opened.
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Step 5
The work, usually in a day
A residential liner typically cures in a few hours; bursting a lateral takes a day or two; a building or municipal reach is phased so no one loses their drains for more than a night. Branch lines are reinstated with a robotic cutter.
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Step 6
Final video, with you watching
The camera goes back through the finished pipe. You see the new interior end to end, and the recording goes in your file along with the warranty and the permit sign-offs.