The defect repaired from inside the existing pipe, so the path, the planting and the frontage stay exactly as they are.
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Relining pulls a resin sleeve through the existing pipe and cures it hard. The defect is sealed and the joint that had opened is bridged, and what is left has no entry point for the next root.
The reason it earns its keep on an established property is what sits on top of the pipe. A front path, mature planting, a tiled verandah, a driveway laid before anybody thought about drains. Those things are part of what the house is, and they are not line items that get put back the way they were.
Reinstatement is where excavation quotes get vague. Digging a trench is a known cost. Restoring what was over it to a standard the owner is happy with is not, and it is very frequently the larger number of the two.
So it is worth asking any excavation quote a simple question: what is the reinstatement figure, and what standard is it to. A liner makes that question unnecessary, because nothing on the surface is touched.
Ask what the reinstatement figure is and to what standard. That answer is frequently the whole comparison.
Digging a trench is a known cost. Putting the surface back is not, and it is the part that does not appear clearly in a headline figure.
On this housing the surface over the line is frequently a tessellated path, a verandah, a tiled porch or eighty years of garden, and none of those returns to what it was.
So the honest comparison is liner against pipe plus everything above it.
Paths, planting, verandahs and driveways are part of what the property is. On a Federation house the frontage is a substantial share of what somebody is buying.
Original tessellated tiling and period paths cannot be matched from a warehouse. A replacement section reads as a replacement section permanently.
That is a real cost even though nobody invoices for it, and it is worth deciding how much you care before choosing a method.
A resin-saturated liner is drawn the length of the damaged section, inflated against the existing wall, and cured into a rigid pipe in its own right.
That distinction matters, because it is what allows a liner to carry a design life in decades rather than a guarantee on a repair to one spot.
It is installed through an existing access point, so nothing above the run gets excavated or reinstated.
They do not break sound pipe. They find an opening that has already moved, and lines of this age offer a joint every metre to try.
A cured liner removes every joint along the section it covers, which is the difference between fixing the mechanism and cutting out this season's growth.
That is why a liner carries a design life and a clearing visit carries a schedule.
Because it is not the cause. Roots cannot break into sound pipe, so their presence is evidence of an existing gap rather than of an aggressive tree.
And because removal frequently is not yours to authorise. Protected trees are common, and council consent is a real process rather than a formality.
The repair that addresses the actual cause happens inside the pipe, and it leaves everything above it exactly as it was.
A collapse, because there is no longer a pipe shape to form a liner inside. And a fall problem, because a liner follows the host it is cured against, drop included.
The second is easy to miss. Footage can show a length of pipe in perfectly good condition that has simply settled, and it will keep holding water no matter what is lined into it.
Both are visible on camera in seconds, which is why the survey comes before the quote rather than after.
The liner passes straight over the opening as it goes in, sealing it along with everything else. Once the resin has set, that opening is cut back out from inside the pipe.
It is routine work rather than a complication, and the after footage exists partly to show each one has been reopened cleanly.
If one were left covered, the fixture it serves would stop draining that day. It is the most immediately obvious fault there is, which is reassuring rather than worrying.
Side passages on this housing are frequently too tight for plant, which means excavation becomes hand digging, and hand digging is real money charged by the hour.
It rarely appears in a headline figure and it is always a genuine cost. It is worth getting quoted specifically rather than assumed.
On a narrow-access property it is frequently the line item that decides which method makes sense.
Find out how many metres each is pricing and why. Length is the biggest single variable and it is the one least often stated plainly.
Find out what condition the surface will be in when everybody leaves. A dig quote that finishes at backfill has priced part of a job.
And find out what each thinks is wrong. A liner and an excavation proposed for the same pipe usually mean two different diagnoses, not two approaches to one.
The camera goes down before the work to decide it and again afterwards to confirm it, so both recordings exist whether or not anybody hands them over. Handing them over is a choice, and it is ours.
You get them along with a written account of what was found, what was done, and what we would keep an eye on.
Keep them with the property documents rather than in a folder of invoices. They describe the building, not a transaction.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Deducted from the job if you proceed, and the footage is yours either way.
Where one short length is the whole problem.
Priced on length and access rather than by the hour.
Reopened from inside once the liner has cured.
Where a collapse makes a liner the wrong answer.
Not just the defect. Length and bends decide whether a liner is even the right method here.
A figure built on what the camera showed, with the recording behind it rather than a description of it.
The pipe prepared, the liner installed and cured in place, and any junctions reopened.
So you can see the finished surface yourself, and the garden looks exactly as it did when we arrived.
Get it filmed before anybody breaks ground. It regularly changes both the method and the number.
Call 1300 381 569A resin sleeve is drawn through the pipe you already have and cured hard in place, using the old pipe as a mould. The fault is sealed and the joint that had opened is bridged, leaving a continuous surface with nowhere for a root to get back in.
Because of what sits above the pipe. On an established property the frontage, the path, the planting and sometimes a tiled verandah are part of what the house is. A trench takes all of that out and reinstatement rarely matches. A liner leaves the surface untouched entirely.
The material is rated at around fifty years. More usefully, there is no joint left at the point that failed, so the thing that caused the problem is gone rather than repaired.
By a couple of millimetres, and it rarely matters. The new inner surface is smoother than the original, so flow generally ends up the same or better.
No. A pipe that has collapsed, lost its shape, or dropped out of grade needs that section replaced. The footage shows which of those you have before you commit to a method.
Most residential jobs finish inside a day with the line usable the same afternoon. A long or awkward run can run into a second day.
A patch over a single defect is $1,500 to $2,500. A full section is $4,000 to $9,000 depending on length and access. The camera inspection first is $250 to $450 and comes off the job if you proceed.
Tell us what the camera found, or ask us to put one down first. And tell us what sits above the run, because that is half the comparison.
Sealed from the inside, with everything on the surface left where it is.
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