The Best Sydney Plumber To Replace A Sewer
This short article refers to an actual sewer pipe replacement job performed in the Eastern Suburbs region of Sydney.
This type of job sometimes referred to as a dig up, primarily involved the excavating of part of the ground, in order to expose and access the broken section of earthenware pipe which had collapsed. Much care was required in executing this job, as for the most part, the work involved was just 1 metre away from the sewer mains.
The customer’s property allowed for easy access to the rear-yard via a driveway.
This being an advantage, as the vast majority of the work was to be done in the rear-yard. So, the drainage plumber’s equipment and materials were easily delivered to site, via the driveway, without any disruption to the customer.
Incidentally, sewer renewals are often only realised whilst a blocked drain is being unclogged by the drain plumber. It is therefore of great importance that you keep up with the maintenance of the entire drainage system to your home, taking note and monitoring any cause to your blocked drains.
That is because, if left unattended to, a drain blockage could lead to further unnecessary and expensive sewer renewal costs, much like the one in this example.
What’s involved in replacing sewer pipes?
The scope of works involved the dig up and renewal of a section of the sewer in the back-yard, 1 metre from the mains line.
This meant excavating so as to expose the section of the broken drain pipe which had a break approximately 1 metre below ground level. In addition to this breakage, the boundary trap was also in need of replacement, plus 3 inspection openings had to be installed. But for the purpose of this article, our description focuses on the main job, being the replacement of the collapsed sewer drain, and the finishing off to the ground, to complete the job. Equipment, materials and job execution
Due to the elaborate nature of this dig up, it involved the use of a number of different materials and equipment to complete the job.
The following list describes in detail, the way in which the job was executed by the drain plumber and his assistant, using these important materials and equipment :
- Firstly, a concrete saw was needed to begin the excavation process, by cutting away a section of the concrete ground. This cutting away of the concrete ground enabled the drain plumber to expose the soil underneath the concrete, which in turn, would expose the broken pipe.
- That said, after the concrete was cut away, the next step was to begin removing soil from the affected area. The soil was dug up and put to one side, for the time being, in order to expose the collapsed earthenware pipe.
- Having removed sufficient soil, thereby fully exposing the broken section of pipe, the old broken pipe was subsequently removed, and also put to one side with the soil, for removal from site.
- In so doing, any unwanted wastage and material from the site, like the old collapsed earthenware pipe, and the leftover soil from the excavation etc. was placed into a hired 2 cubic metre skip bin.
- With the excavation part of the job completed, the plumber was then in a position to cut and fit brand new 6″ PVC pipe in conjunction with new 6″ PVC fittings. This newly fitted length of PVC pipework was cut to size and snugly fit, to line up with the remaining earthenware pipe (situated either side of the new section of PVC pipe).
- The join between the earthenware pipe and the new PVC pipe was sealed using a special PVC to clay plumb-quick fitting, making the connection water-tight.
- Now that this all-important part of the job was complete, the next part of the process was to backfill the excavated section of the drain line. This involved close to a tonne of blue metal, a material whose function, in this case, was three-fold. By way of further explaining this, the blue metal was initially used to partially fill the excavated area, and at the same time lend support to the renewed pipe. In addition to this, it created a foundation (footing) for the new concrete slab to sit on. Therefore, by filling the hole in the ground, as it were, the blue metal, automatically lent support to the new drain line, preventing any shift from occurring due to any possible future ground movement.
- This new section of ground line was further achieved by the combination of some waterproof sheeting (pre-cut to size to fit the shape of the slab), together with some leftover soil, a layer of sand binding, and the pouring of a reinforced concrete slab, to act as the ground finish and uppermost layer.
- By way of further explaining the make-up of the ground. Put simply, once the blue metal was placed within the hole, surrounding the drain-pipe, the next layer upwards was created by approximately 200mm (nominal) height of leftover soil. Above this layer, a layer of 50mm (nominal) sand binding was created, which was levelled off in readiness to receive the waterproof membrane.
- The reinforcement rods were then laid on top of this sheet of waterproof membrane before the final step in the process took place, that being the pouring of the concrete ground slab.
- For this concrete finish, the correct mixture was made in advance and then put through a hired concrete truck (cement mixer). Once the slab was poured this was then levelled off precisely, in keeping with the surrounding ground to the rear-yard, thereby allowing for a neat finish to the concrete slab.
The Costs To Replace A Sewer
Naturally, all of this labour and materials can come at quite exorbitant costs to the drain plumber, all of which need to be weighed up and included in his quote to the customer.
The drain plumber and his assistant had spent 2 days on-site, perfecting a job, which had required a great deal of skill, expertise and expense to complete.
