A low soil pH (acidic soil) increases rates of deterioration to underground sewer pipes, which causes soil and drinking water contamination. This dangerous situation can be prevented with Nu Flow’s nondestructive technology, which installs a seamless, structural liner inside the original host pipe. The strong, protective liner will not break down due to low soil pH, so it is an effective, long-term solution to rehabilitate underground sewer pipes.

Project: Use the Nu Drain system to rehabilitate a hospital’s underground pipes without causing any destruction.

Customer: The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, founded more than a century ago, is ranked as one of the top general building contractors in the United States.

Site: The San Antonio Behavioral Healthcare Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, is an acute behavioral-care facility with 108 beds. The ranch-style, two-story building was in the midst of a full remodel.

System: The hospital’s sanitary waste system, located 8 feet beneath concrete slab. These cast iron pipes have diameters of 2", 4" and 6".

Problem: The aged hospital was closed during an extensive remodel. When the projects were almost completed, city experts found that the plumbing hadn’t been upgraded along with the rest of the building. A thorough examination found that the soil’s low pH level, creating acidic soil, caused the underground sewer pipes to severely deteriorate and crack. The city said that the hospital could not open until the plumbing’s bad condition had been reversed.

Circumvention: If the contracting company had not chosen Nu Flow’s innovative technology, it would have been stuck with a traditional pipe replacement. This solution would have been ineffective, counter-productive and a nightmare for the customer. In order to reach the failing sewer pipes, the new flooring and original concrete foundation would be dug up and removed. This would be expensive, time-consuming and very disruptive to the other contractors finishing up their projects inside the hospital. Another downside to a traditional repipe is that brand new pipes still have a very short lifespan, so failures would inevitably occur again, in as little as 10 years.

Solution: The customer chose Nu Flow’s nondestructive solution because any other option would have been too time-consuming and disruptive, resulting in a significant delay in the hospital’s reopening. Nu Flow technicians worked in conjunction with several other contracting and construction companies and did not disrupt their projects. Existing access points that were created for construction purposes were utilized to clean and line the existing sewer line.

The Nu Drain system was installed using Nu Flow’s patented Pull-in-Place technology, which put the structural liner into the underground pipes without the need for any destruction. This protective structural liner covers all breaches in pipe and is a long-term solution against future failures, such as pipe deterioration, cracks, low flow or root intrusion.

A traditional pipe replacement would have been ineffective, counter-productive and a nightmare for

the customer. The hospital’s reopening was not delayed thanks to Nu Flow’s nondestructive

Nu Drain system.

Acidic Soil Levels Destroyed Hospital’s Underground Drain Pipes

Where life interacts with infrastructure.

North America: 1-800-834-9597 | International: 1-905-433-5510 info@nuflowtech.com | www.nuflowtech.comp/n 690 v1