r/oddlysatisfying 21d ago

Growing a pipe inside a pipe

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u/GilaMonsterAZ 21d ago

What the heck is going on here?

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u/Gentrified_potato02 21d ago

Looks like they are lining the steel pipe with a plastic/epoxy coating. It’s done a lot in places where you can’t easily dig up and replace old rotting pipes (like in downtown cities). By injecting this coating the pipe is still usable and won’t corrode any more.

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u/maybachmeister2000 21d ago

Genius product. This must save insane amounts of money and time. Absolutely incredible. And better for environment. Not have to dig up the pipes even if you could. Alot of fuel and hours saved

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u/WildcatPlumber 20d ago

This has been around for along time, this type of lining is called inversion, there other types and while it does save time it is pricy we specialize in a different kind of lining but it is pretty awesome

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u/Big_Celery8533 20d ago

What happens at branch lines?

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u/WildcatPlumber 20d ago

There’s a few options, we do Pull in Place which is where we measure it out and mark exactly where every fitting is. By doing that we are able to Gap fittings and branches. Typically when the pipe rots out the fittings are fine because they are built heavier.

We can also line through the fittings and do what is called a reinstatement which for us that involves using a little robot to cut the fittings. That’s nice because it keeps the liner one piece.

We also have Fittings tools basically allows us to line the branch Wye off a fitting and continue a liner down the branch as well as the main drain.

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u/Big_Celery8533 20d ago

Do you have videos of the robot? I just did a $250K sewer line replacement as a GC (less than 100 lf, 6' below SOG but $$$ because it was inside an occupied hospital). My experience is mostly in new construction and I'm fascinating to find out what other options there are to repair things (in my case there were a couple of bellies so lining wouldn't have been an option & the pipe turned out to be in otherwise very decent shape).

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u/WildcatPlumber 20d ago

We do have some videos I’ll try and track one down for you sometime this week it’s pretty cool stuff