Sewer Pipe Lining (CIPP) in Taft

Taft is an oil town, and it looks like one. The city and its unincorporated neighbors Ford City, South Taft and Taft Heights sprang up on the Westside hills between the 1910s and the 1950s to house the workers of the Midway-Sunset field, and the housing stock is still largely that era: small frame bungalows, company-style cottages and modest postwar ranch houses on compact lots along Center Street, Kern Street and the grid south toward the Sunset Railroad right-of-way. Very little has been built since, which means the sewer laterals under most of the town are approaching or past a century old.

The ground is unlike the valley floor a few miles east. Westside soils are dry, rocky and poorly consolidated, with little clay to hold a pipe bed stable, and the region has experienced slow, uneven settlement from more than a hundred years of oil production. Summers are as hot as anywhere in Kern County. Trenching in that ground is slow, and open cuts in loose rocky soil need shoring and never backfill cleanly. Trenchless repair, which rebuilds or replaces the lateral from a cleanout and a small pit or two, keeps excavation to a minimum and produces a continuous pipe that tolerates ground movement far better than mortared clay.

Housing eras and pipe conditions in Taft

The 1910s through 1940s houses were plumbed with vitrified clay laterals in short sections joined with mortar or tar, with cast iron under the house. Some were connected to the original town sewer when it was built and some were converted from cesspools later, so lateral routes can be unpredictable. The late 1940s and 1950s brought Orangeburg fiber pipe to a share of the postwar blocks; it flattens and blisters with age and is nearly always a replacement candidate. Raised foundations are typical, which keeps under-house plumbing accessible.

The defining feature of Taft laterals is movement. Camera crews routinely find sheared joints, sections that have dropped relative to their neighbors, and runs where the grade has flattened or reversed. Add dense roots from pepper trees, tamarisk, mulberry and eucalyptus that have no other water in a dry town, and the result is a line that backs up repeatedly despite regular snaking. Newer homes and the commercial buildings along Highway 33 use ABS and larger clay or cast iron and have their own, usually milder, issues.

Matching the method to shifting ground

Hydro jetting first, to clear roots and debris, then a recorded camera inspection that pays particular attention to grade, since a lateral that looks intact can still be draining uphill in places.

• CIPP lining fits clay with opened joints, roots and modest offsets. The cured liner is continuous and slightly flexible, which suits ground that keeps moving. For the details, how cured-in-place pipe restores old sewer lines explains the process.
• Pipe bursting fits Orangeburg, collapsed clay and lines with reversed grade, since the new HDPE can be pulled in at a corrected slope between pits. Rocky soil needs evaluation first because boulders can deflect the bursting head.
• Sectional point repair fits a single sheared joint on an otherwise serviceable line.
• Spin-cast lining fits larger cast iron and clay serving oil-field yards, equipment shops and the older commercial blocks downtown.

Severe offsets and bellies cannot be lined over; they have to be corrected by excavation or replaced by bursting, and an honest installer will show you those spots on the video first.

Permits, locating and responsibility

Inside Taft city limits, the City of Taft issues the plumbing permit and an encroachment permit for work in the right-of-way, and the city operates the sewer. Ford City, South Taft, Taft Heights and the oil-lease housing beyond are unincorporated and permitted through Kern County Public Works, with sewer service through a local district in some areas and septic in others. DigAlert 811 must be notified before any pit is dug, and on the Westside that locate is especially important because abandoned and active oil-field lines run under and around residential blocks. The owner is responsible for the lateral to the connection at the main. There is no point-of-sale sewer inspection ordinance in Taft, but a recorded inspection is prudent for any sale given the ground conditions. The job follows the full trenchless job sequence explained from permit through final camera verification.

What the estimate visit covers

The technician locates the cleanout, runs and records the camera with attention to grade, and reviews the footage with you before writing a scope that names the method, access points, downtime and permit responsibility. Taft is at the western edge of the Southern California regions covered by trenchless service that regional crews maintain, so confirm the contractor works the Westside regularly and understands the rocky soil and the subsidence. If the line is sound, a cleaning and a copy of the recording is the right answer.

Sewer Pipe Lining (CIPP) in Taft

How cured-in-place lining works

A felt or fiberglass tube is saturated with resin, pulled or inverted into the cleaned host pipe, pressed against the wall with air or water, and cured with hot water, steam or UV light. When it hardens you have a new, jointless pipe inside the old one. The liner takes up a small amount of diameter, but its smooth wall flows better than corroded cast iron or offset clay. Lateral liners are typically rated for a 50-year service life.

What has to happen first

A camera inspection to map the line and every branch connection, hydro jetting to strip roots and scale so the resin bonds to clean pipe, and measurement so the liner is cut to length. After the cure, branch connections are reopened from inside with a robotic cutter and the line is filmed again.

When lining is the right fix

• Root intrusion at joints, longitudinal cracks, small offsets, pinholes or channeling in cast iron — on a pipe that is still round and holding grade.
• Lines under slabs, driveways, mature landscaping or streets, where the cost of a trench is mostly the cost of restoring what is above it.
• Coastal and high-water-table lots where an open trench means dewatering and shoring.

When it is not

Collapsed pipe, bellies that hold standing water, and lines that were undersized to begin with. A liner follows the host pipe's shape, so a bad shape stays bad. Those lines get pipe bursting or a spot replacement. Under-slab cast iron with several tight bends usually gets a spray-applied liner rather than felt.

Questions worth asking

What resin system and cure method will be used, what the liner's rated life is, whether the branch connections were counted, who pulls the permit, and whether you will receive the before-and-after video. A contractor who does this every week answers all five without hesitation.

ZIP codes served in Taft

Sewer Pipe Lining (CIPP) is available throughout Taft, including ZIP codes 93268.

More trenchless services in Taft

Questions we hear in Taft