Questions about buried sewer and water lines
All 63 questions we are asked, in one list, each one linked to the page that answers it in the context of the work. The ones at the top are what Google surfaces on the Calgary trenchless searches; below them are the ones that belong to a particular piece of work.
Three things you will not find. Prices: no figure is published anywhere here, and the answers explain what moves the number instead. Municipal process: fees, forms and timelines belong to the authority reviewing the file, and we confirm them for an address rather than stating them on anyone's behalf. And anything about your insurance policy, which is between you and your adjuster.
People also ask
The questions we field most often, wherever in the Calgary area the house is. Each is answered on the page it belongs to.
Trenchless Sewer Repair
Sewer lines replaced from two pits, not a trench. See how the work is done .
Pipe Bursting
The whole line replaced without opening the yard. See how the work is done .
CIPP Lining
A new jointless pipe cured inside the old one. See how the work is done .
Sewer Camera Inspection
See the problem before you pay to fix it. See how the work is done .
Trenchless Sewer Repair Cost
What actually drives the price, with no guesswork. See how the work is done .
Water Line Replacement
New water service pulled through, lawn intact. See how the work is done .
Lead Pipe Replacement
Lead does not fail on its own. That is the problem. See how the work is done .
Water Line Replacement Cost
What drives the price of replacing a water service. See how the work is done .
Water Line Repair
One leak in sound pipe is a repair, not a rebuild. See how the work is done .
Leak Detection
Find the leak before digging for it. See how the work is done .
Drain Cleaning
Drains cleared, and an honest answer on why. See how the work is done .
Hydro Jetting
Cleans the pipe wall, not just a hole through it. See how the work is done .
Sewer Backup
Sewage in the basement — what to do right now. See how the work is done .
Commercial & Multi-Residential
Underground work scheduled around your tenants. See how the work is done .
For Property Managers
Multi-site scheduling and one point of contact. See how the work is done .
For Condo & Strata Boards
Evidence a board can actually vote on. See how the work is done .
For General Contractors
Underground scope on a schedule that holds. See how the work is done .
Before you call
What settles a quote, and what actually changes from one address to the next. The variable that matters is what is buried, and each area page is written about the material and era commonly found there, because the decade the ground was built out in is what decides whether you are looking at jointed clay, cast iron, or plastic with decades left in it.
What do you need to know before you can quote?
Four things settle most of it, and the first two you can tell us before anyone drives out. What the symptoms actually are — every drain in the house slow, or one fixture; a one-off, or something that returns on a schedule. What is on the ground between the house and the street: lawn, a driveway, a patio, a mature tree. Roughly where the line leaves the building and where a cleanout is, if you know. And any history — previous work, repeat blockages, anything a contractor has told you before. The rest is footage. We camera the line before we quote it, because a recommendation about buried pipe without footage is a guess with a price on it.
Does it matter which part of the Calgary area the house is in?
Not for whether we come — Calgary, the quadrants, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks, Chestermere and High River are all inside the service area. It matters enormously for what we expect to find, and that is set by when the house was built rather than by the postal code. Inside the older rings, laterals are commonly vitrified clay, laid in short lengths with a joint every few feet, under one of the healthiest mature American elm populations left in North America. Those lines genuinely fail, and they fail at the joints. In the communities built from the 1980s onward the same house has plastic pipe in long runs with almost nothing for a root to enter, and a backup out there is usually a blockage rather than a failure. We will say so on the day rather than sell past it. Either way the camera settles what a specific property has — the era is a good guess and nothing more.
Still holding a question this did not answer?
Tell us what the line is doing, roughly how old the house is, and whether it has done it before. If the answer is that you do not need us, that is what you will be told on the phone.