The diagnosis
The homeowners — Tara and Jamie, a couple in their late 40s who had owned the 1923 Sellwood craftsman for nine years — had been through three rooter calls in 14 months. The most recent rooter tech told them flatly: "You've got root intrusion in a cast-iron line that's a hundred years old. It's at end of life. The next call won't clear the same way."
They called Subterra for a camera inspection in early March. We ran the camera ($295, standard rate) and found root intrusion every 4–6 feet, two offset joints, and one minor belly at the city-tap end. The pipe was original 1923 cast iron — a material with a 70–90 year design life, now at year 101. The decision wasn't whether to replace. It was how.
The decision: trenchless vs. excavation
The front yard had three mature rhododendrons (one of them eight feet across at full bloom) and a 60-year-old Japanese maple directly over the line. The homeowners had inherited the maple from the previous owners' parents who had planted it in the early 1960s. Replacing it was not an option Tara or Jamie wanted to consider.
We did the math both ways:
| Method | Line Cost | Restoration | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open-trench excavation | $11,800 | $8,400 (plants + sod) | $20,200 |
| Trenchless pipe-bursting | $14,200 | $0 (2 pits only) | $14,200 |
| Savings | $6,000 + the maple |
Trenchless was the right call. We scheduled the project for March 18, 2024 — three weeks out, which is our typical trenchless lead time. Permit pulled (Portland BDS RES PERMIT #BR2024-08812). 811 utility locate scheduled for 72 hours prior.
The execution
7:00 AM, March 18. Crew arrived at the property: Marina on the controls, Eli Mendez on the pulling line, Lonnie Cruz running the pit excavation. Final utility locate confirmed. Two access-pit locations marked: one at the cleanout (3 ft from the foundation, NW corner of the front yard), one at the city-tap end (5 ft from the curb, between the rhododendrons).
8:00 AM. Hand-dig access pits. The cleanout pit was 3'×3', 5 ft deep. The city-tap pit was 3'×3', 6 ft deep. We transplanted one of the rhododendrons before digging (the smallest of the three) into a temporary container, which we returned to its original location at end of day.
11:00 AM. Camera confirmed the path was clear of major obstructions. Pulling cable fed through the old 4" cast iron from the cleanout pit to the city-tap pit.
12:30 PM. Pulling head attached at the city-tap end. 38 ft of pre-fused 4" HDPE SDR-17 attached behind the head. Hydraulic pull engaged.
2:15 PM. Pull complete. The cast iron split cleanly through 36 ft of the run; one offset joint at approximately the 24-ft mark required a brief re-feed of the cable, adding about 20 minutes. The new HDPE was fully in place, taut along the original pipe path.
Connections
The cleanout-side connection was a Fernco transition coupling — the standard rubber sleeve with stainless-steel band clamps — joining the new 4" HDPE to the existing 4" cast iron stub that comes out of the house wall.
The city-tap end was a saddle-and-strap connection at the city sewer main, inspected the next morning (March 19) by Portland BDS Inspector M. Tanaka. Pass on the first walk-through. Permit sign-off recorded.
Restoration
Both access pits were backfilled in lifts: 3/4-minus crushed rock to 18 inches above the pipe, then native soil compacted in 6-inch lifts, then a sod patch over the surface. The transplanted rhododendron returned to its original spot. Tara did the final landscape touch-up herself a week later — she wanted to set the sod edges, which she did better than we would have.
The outcome
Camera inspection 30 days post-install (April 18, 2024) showed clean HDPE bore, no roots, no belly, no offset, smooth flow. The HDPE carries a 50-year manufacturer warranty. Both rhododendrons and the Japanese maple were undisturbed. The front yard, three weeks after completion, looked exactly as it had before the project began.
They were in by 8 AM and gone by 6 PM. The maple is fine. The rhododendrons are fine. Three weeks later you can't tell anything happened. Tara + Jamie, homeowners