Cured-in-place pipe lining is a fast-growing technology in pipe rehabilitation. There are several established CIPP system manufacturers, and new products appear every year. CIPP is attractive because it allows repairs to be made without disruption on the surface and often saves the customer money.
For contractors, the startup costs are substantial, and the process takes time to learn. Here, three contractors share what they have learned about adopting CIPP technology to solve their customers’ problems.
Geoff James, owner of G.F. James Plumbing Services, has brought pipe lining to his factory and other commercial plumbing customers in Australia. He is a proponent of CIPP technology, but acknowledges that it is not a cure-all and is not a solution every contractor should adopt.
He says pipe lining requires skill and takes time, patience and perseverance to perfect. “A lot of the success in using a lining system is being properly trained on it,” he says. “You have to practice a lot. You have to give it a go, and be okay with trial and error. You have to be willing to work outproblems.
“If it doesn’t work, you’ve got to pull it out and do it again so you keep your name right with your customer. It’s not for every job, but it will get you out of a lot of restoration problems. Where a customer would normally have to allow us to dig things up, we can go in and line the pipe without all the other costs involved with restoration.”
James says the pulling and repositioning of saturated lining can be physically demanding, but he thinks the bigger challenge is having team members with problem-solving skills. “You need guys who are willing to think outside the square, and who are able to tackle each job separately,” he says. “In the four-and-a-half-years that we’ve been doing it, we’ve found that every job is different. There is no standard CIPP job.”
James cautions business owners considering CIPP lining to be comfortable with and committed to being educators for each new crew member. “These systems have a significant learning curve,” he says. “The good news is that the more jobs you do, the more skill you accumulate, so things do get easier.”
“It’s important to choose a product with great flexibility, to have a lot of experience with the product you’re using, and to have a great company supporting you,” says Frank Rossi, owner of NuFlow Pipelines of New York, based in Manhattan.
“We have very complicated jobs in high-rise office buildings. When I’m standing there with a facility manager and he’s got 6,000 people up above him, I can’t say, ‘Oh, we can do this part, but not that part.’ We’ve got to solve a problem. We need a system that’s flexible enough to get the whole job done. It needs to be able to negotiate bends, to go down to inch-and-a-half pipe, maybe accommodate several different reinstatements.”
Even the best technology will fail if installed by an inexperienced team. That’s where training and confidence come in. “When a pipe breaks in Manhattan office buildings going for $150 a square foot, there’s no time to waste,” Rossi says. “They can’t afford to have a company that’s indecisive because they’re not confident about their product’s quality or their training with it.
“Especially in a high-rise building, there are custom jobs that need special handling.” Rossi leans on intensive training from the liner manufacturer. “Because I have a company behind me that taught me how to do the whole job, we know how to clean the pipes with special products, how to do complicated jobs around bends, and reinstate laterals. I can do jobs that no other company can do, so I can make more money.”
Manufacturer support extends to real-time troubleshooting. Rossi appreciates that his manufacturer representative is accessible whenever needed. “We have to do most of our work at night, when nobody’s in the building,” he says. “When we’re having a problem in the middle of the night, we have a system of communication that allows us to talk to an entire team of experts who will help us until we get the answers we need.”
“You need to get people who are willing to learn the product, and you need to buy within your means to get started with equipment until you’re familiar with the product,” says Ron Stake, labor superintendent at Hoerr Construction in central Illinois.
The company’s biggest customer is a heavy equipment manufacturer. Hoerr performs repair and replacement of water and sewer lines, manhole rehabilitation, point repair, and pipe cleaning and relining on plant properties. The firm uses both traditional open-dig and CIPP methods.
“You also have to be able to work fast, safe, and not make a big mess, while still solving your customer’s problem,” Stake says. All of these abilities depend on having the confidence that comes with thorough training and practice. “If you get it down to a fine art, you can work within your budget and still make money.”
Stake believes CIPP is the future of pipe rehabilitation. “You don’t have to go out there and dig holes,” he says. “You go in through a manhole, pull it in, steam it, cook it, cut in your laterals, and you can walk away. It’s a done deal, and you can do quite a bit of footage in a day without anyone knowing you were there.”
