Trenchless Moling – How We Do It

Have you ever wondered exactly what is meant by the term, trenchless moling? Many of us would immediately think that to repair or replace a water or gas pipe would involve digging a trench from the road to our house or digging a channel from one side of the carriageway to the other. The upheaval, disruption and expected cost fill us with dread and trepidation.

Trenchless moling enables us to replace water and gas pipes quickly and with the minimum of disruption – this is how we do it.

There is of course a need to excavate two pits, the entry pit and the exit pit.

The mole is a steel tube with a hardened steel cone.	The mole is connected to a pneumatic pump.
The distance from start to finish is measured so that we use just enough pipe to complete the job.	We check the direction with a laser so the mole ends up in the exit pit.
The mole is inserted into the entry pit and it is correctly aligned we activate the pneumatic pump.	Our engineers are skilled in controlling the speed and direction of the mole so that it ends up exactly where we want it.
The mole emerges into the exit pit. We reverse the process to extract the mole leaving a borehole ready to accept the new water or gas pipe.	The new pipe is inserted into the borehole.
The process works on a 2-stroke principle. The piston initially strikes the multi-cutter cone, which advances in order to produce the borehole.	©by Tracto-Technik GmbH & Co. KG

When the the new supply pipe is in situ, the one end can be connected to the mains supply and the other end to the consumer unit or inserted through the property wall.

The two pits are filled in and made good. The process is like keyhole surgery for water and gas pipe installation. So less upheaval, less disruption and at a lower cost than excavating a deep trench.

Call us on 01527 889580 or email us at keith@hmswater.co.uk for a professional and efficient response to your enquiry.