A resin liner cured inside the existing drain, sealing every joint at once. On century-old pipework the honest question is usually not whether, but who picks the date.
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On most housing, relining is a response to a problem. Something failed, here is the fix. That is how it works and there is nothing wrong with it.
On hundred-year-old drainage in a suburb that went up inside a single decade, there is a second, more useful conversation available, and it is about timing rather than about need.
Everybody's original line is the same age. Most of them will need doing eventually. The only real variable is whether that happens on a date you chose or on the night it finally gives up, which will be inconvenient, dearer, and possibly preceded by sewage in the laundry.
We are wary of that argument because it is the kind a dishonest trade abuses, so here is the limit: we will not recommend relining a line the camera shows to be sound. Where it is genuinely near the end, you get the footage and you get to choose.
It is a big enough spend to deserve one, and we hand over the footage specifically so you can get it.
Lines of this era are short lengths with a join roughly every metre. The barrel of the pipe is frequently sound and the connections between the barrels are where a century of ground movement has been working.
So the failure is not usually a pipe that has worn out. It is a series of small openings that have opened at the joints.
That distinction matters, because it decides what kind of repair actually addresses it.
Cured in place, it is continuous along the lined section, so there is nothing left for roots to enter through and nothing left to move.
A point repair fixes the joint that failed and leaves every other joint on the run exactly as it was. On a hundred-year-old line, that is a great many joints.
Which is why point repairs on this housing tend to be followed by another one a metre along.
A suburb built inside one decade has drainage that reaches the end of its life together, so a cluster of failures in a street is genuine information.
That is not a prediction about your property and we will not make one. It is a reason to look rather than wait.
The camera is what turns that general observation into a specific answer about your line.
A planned reline happens on a Saturday you chose, with the work quoted, the access sorted and nobody in a hurry. An emergency one happens on the day the line stops.
The work is the same. The circumstances are not, and neither is the price of the afternoon.
That is the honest argument for looking at an old line before it fails rather than after.
If the camera shows a sound line, there is no recommendation to make and we will say so plainly. Age on its own is not a reason to reline anything.
Plenty of these lines are in good condition and will outlast the people worrying about them.
A recommendation has to point at something on the footage: a crack, a displaced joint, root intrusion, a length holding water. Something you can see.
Resin-impregnated liner in, inflate against the host pipe, let it cure, trim and inspect. The old pipe stops carrying water and becomes the mould the new one was shaped in.
The result is a continuous length with no joints and a smoother bore than the pipe it replaced, at the cost of a few millimetres of diameter.
Nothing gets excavated. It is done from an existing opening, which is the entire reason it is worth talking about.
It restores the pipe. It cannot change the gradient the pipe was laid at, because the liner takes the shape of the host it cures inside, settled sections included.
So a run that films as sound but keeps holding water in one place is a fall problem, and no liner addresses it.
On century-old drainage a settled section is a real possibility rather than a remote one, which is why grade gets checked from the footage.
A liner needs a host holding roughly its original shape to be formed inside. A crushed length has nothing to form against.
A short open repair on that length plus a liner over the remainder is a common and sensible outcome rather than a compromise.
On a bungalow block with a real side passage, that short dig is generally straightforward and machine access is available.
The liner passes over each branch connection on the way in and each is cut back open from inside once the resin has set. Routine, and confirmed on camera.
A missed one stops the branch it serves draining, which is immediately obvious rather than hidden.
On a house where a rear lean-to or a later bathroom was cut into the original line, those junctions get a close look on the before footage too.
You should be able to compare, so both figures come together for the same defect, with the length in metres and what each includes for reinstatement.
On a bungalow block digging is genuinely available in a way it is not on a terrace, so the comparison here is a real one rather than a formality.
If a quote offers only one method, ask what the other would cost.
Quoted at a fixed price off the camera footage. These are indicative 2026 ranges, with excavation priced alongside so the comparison is honest.
Footage handed over. Credited against the reline if you decide to proceed.
One failed joint or a short damaged length, sealed without touching the rest.
Priced on length, diameter and how many bends the run has in it.
The line taken back to clean wall so the liner forms properly against it.
Including a plain statement when the line does not need doing at all.
Always, and the footage is yours whether or not anything comes of it. No line gets recommended for relining unseen.
Including the version where it is sound and there is nothing to do, which happens more than people expect.
Where it does need doing, the work is planned rather than reactive, which is the entire advantage available here.
The finished run recorded end to end so you can see every joint is sealed.
Ask for the footage. If nobody will show you the pipe you are being asked to spend thousands on, that is the end of the conversation.
Call 1300 381 569A resin-soaked liner is drawn through the existing drain, inflated so it presses against the wall along the whole length, then cured until it hardens. The result is a continuous pipe formed inside the old one with no joints along the lined section. On hundred-year-old drainage assembled from short lengths, where there is a join roughly every metre and the joins are what fail, removing all of them at once is the entire repair.
No, and we want to be careful about this, because it is exactly the argument a dishonest trade would abuse. We will not recommend relining a line that a camera shows to be sound. What is different about this suburb is that the housing went up inside one decade, so failure is more predictable than usual. Where the footage shows a line genuinely near the end, there is a real argument about timing. Where it does not, there is no argument at all and we will say so.
Simply that somebody chooses the date, and it is better if it is you. An emergency reline happens on the day the line finally gives up, which will be inconvenient, will cost more, and may involve sewage in a laundry first. A planned one happens on a Saturday you picked. The work is the same. Only the circumstances are different, and on pipework this age with this much evidence about it, choosing is genuinely available in a way it usually is not.
You get it, and you should use it. On any inspection the recording is handed over, and we would encourage you to show it to another licensed plumber if a reline is being discussed. It is a large enough spend to be worth a second opinion, and we hand over the evidence specifically so that you can get one.
Usually, and it is most of what we line here. What rules it out is a section that has genuinely collapsed or been crushed, or one so far gone there is nothing left to press against. The camera settles it before anyone quotes. If lining will not work we say so rather than selling one that fails, and then we talk about the smallest excavation that actually does the job.
A sectional patch is usually a few hours; a full run to the boundary is generally most of a working day, and you get the window in advance. It goes in through existing access points, so the garden and the paths stay where they are. Excavating the same run is days of open ground plus reinstating whatever was over it.
A sectional patch over one failed joint is about $900 to $2,200. A full run to the boundary is usually $3,500 to $7,000, priced on length, diameter and bends. A camera inspection is $250 to $450, credited against the reline if you proceed. We price excavation alongside so the comparison is a real one.
Tell us whether anyone has filmed it, and whether neighbours have had theirs done. We are also happy to review footage and a quote from somebody else and say what we would do.
Quoted off the footage, excavation priced alongside, and a plain answer when the honest recommendation is to do nothing yet.
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