Directional Drilling By Euro Plumbing

Hearing the saying, “Spring has Sprung” conjures images in your mind of yellow daffodils, warmer weather and baby animals on the farms and in the pet stores. Hearing that a spring has sprung under your house leaves you with nothing but nightmares!

Euro Plumbing was asked to come to a home that, unfortunately, had had a natural spring start up under its foundations. Leaving water under and around your foundation can cause numerous problems and requires immediate attention. Not only can stagnant water create health problems and bad musty smells but the pressure of having water between your footers and basement can cause cracks and weaknesses to appear.

Unlike when your planned plumbing system springs a leak, if you have a water table issue or a spring develops under your home, how do you get to the source when you have a large building over the top of it? You can’t just dig a hole or trench around the outside of the building and hope that it will have some effect. This is where you need to call in plumbing specialists who have directional drilling equipment and experience.

Directional drilling allows underground pipes to be laid by using a specialised drilling rig. The path used for installing the pipes is usually a shallow arc shape controlled by a computer program. Directional drilling is used in situations that do not allow for traditional excavation methods or when you do not want large impact to affect the surrounding areas.

You are not restricted to only one option of piping that can be used with the directional drilling rig either. Pipe can be made of PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene iron or steel. One of the many benefits to using directional drilling is that the rig has different types of heads that can be used and this means that the rig is able to operate through a variety of substrates.

The site that Euro Plumbing was called to saw us set up our directional drilling rig out on the road. The home had been built and had been standing for many decades with no issue, however a natural spring had found a weakness in the ground and water had started flooding under the basement putting increasing pressure on the foundations and creating health issues for the owners.

Once the rig was in place, the directions were set so that the head created an arc through the yard and underneath the foundations of the house to the source of the spring. By following the information on DigiTrak^® transmitters, Euro Plumbing was able to read information from the drill head such as pitch, roll, depth, and temperature. Drill stem sections were then inserted into the rig and pushed through the substrate to the source. Once at the source of the water, the stem sections were shackled to a chain and pulled back out to the rig on the roadside. This allowed for a tunnel to be left open in the substrate so that the drainage piping could then be inserted back through the tunnel to the source.

Putting permanent drainage in place allows for the storm water issues to be alleviated.

By the end of the project, Euro Plumbing was able to drain approximately 240cm of water from the basement and under the foundations of the home and install a suitable drainage solution for future water issues. Whereas the owners of this home were quoted around $120k to complete this work, Euro Plumbing were able to provide a fully articulated quote for much less and the work was completed on time and with minimal disruption to the owners or landscape.

So if you find your home suffering from an increased water table, localised flooding from the persistent downpours New Zealand seems to be getting of late or a spring has sprung in an unwanted location, give Euro Plumbing a call and we will provide you with the best solution to remove your unwanted water. No matter if the solution is easy or if it requires our directional drilling services, Euro Plumbing can get you dry and comfortable again.