The defect sealed from inside the pipe, with the equipment carried in through the side gate rather than a machine brought into the yard.
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The two options for a failed drain get compared as though the difference is the repair itself. On a lot of properties around here the difference is something else entirely: getting the equipment to the work.
Relining gear is carried in. It comes through a normal side gate, on foot, and it sets up at an access point. That is the whole logistical requirement.
Excavation needs plant, and plant has to get to where the pipe runs. On an established property with a rear yard, that can mean a route that does not exist without taking something apart, or it can mean hand excavation instead, which is slow and priced accordingly.
Neither of those appears in a headline excavation figure, and both are real money. So it is worth asking any quote a direct question: how is the machine getting to the pipe, and what happens to what is in its way. The answer is frequently the whole comparison.
Ask how the machine reaches the pipe and what happens to whatever is in the way. That answer is frequently the whole comparison.
A resin-saturated liner is drawn through the existing pipe, inflated against the inside wall and cured in place. What you finish with is a new pipe formed inside the old one, slightly smaller in bore and with no joints along its length.
The old pipe stops being the thing carrying water and becomes the mould it was formed in. Nothing above it gets opened.
It is not a coating or a sleeve pushed into one spot. The cured liner is a structural pipe in its own right, which is why it carries a design life rather than a warranty period on a patch.
Relining gear is carried in through a normal gate. Excavation plant has to be driven in, which means a path wide enough, ground that will take it, and frequently a fence panel or a section of garden that does not survive the week.
On an established property those are very different propositions, and the difference rarely shows up in a headline price. It shows up afterwards, in what has to be put back.
Ask any quote what it assumes about access. A price built on machine access to a property that does not have it is not a price, and on these blocks the difference is frequently thousands rather than hundreds.
Where plant genuinely cannot reach, digging is done by hand. That is the honest alternative and it is real money, charged by the hour because that is what it costs.
It is worth getting that number quoted properly rather than assumed, because on a narrow-access block it is frequently the line item that decides which method makes sense.
Clay lines here were laid in short sections with a joint every metre or so, and every one of those joints is a place where the ground can move a fraction and open a gap. That gap is what roots find.
A cured liner has no joints along the run it covers, so there is nothing left to enter through. The material carries a design life in the region of fifty years.
It also gives a smoother bore than the clay it replaced, so it carries slightly more than the small loss of diameter suggests and gives fat and paper less to catch on.
The trees that make these streets worth living on are the same trees whose roots are in the drain, and on a property with a mature canopy digging a trench along the line means cutting through a root plate to get there.
Relining is the repair that does not ask you to choose. The pipe gets fixed and the tree stays where it is, which on a block with a heritage-scale canopy is frequently the whole argument.
Some of the trees on these streets are protected, and removing or seriously damaging one is a Council matter rather than a decision made in a driveway. That alone rules out trenching along some lines.
A liner needs a host pipe with its shape roughly intact. A length that has lost its form, or a section that has dropped out of grade so water no longer runs downhill through it, has to be replaced.
That is exactly the thing worth establishing early rather than halfway through a job, and it is why the camera comes before the quote rather than after it.
A short open replacement plus a liner over the rest of the run is a common and entirely sensible outcome. It is not an either or, and any quote that presents it that way is selling a method rather than a repair.
Check that both cover the same length of pipe, and ask what each one includes by way of reinstatement. A dig price that stops at backfill is not a finished job on a property with paving, a driveway or a planted bed over the line.
Then ask what the recording shows in both cases. Two quotes that disagree on the method usually disagree on what they think is wrong, and the footage settles that faster than either sales pitch.
Ask both for the length being warranted, and in writing. A liner over ten metres and a dig on two are not competing prices for the same work, and that is the most common way these quotes end up looking further apart than they are.
Before and after, plus a written account of what was found, what was done and what we would keep an eye on. It goes to you whatever it shows.
Worth filing with the property papers. It is the only evidence that the line under your garden has been dealt with, and the next person to look at it will thank you.
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 genuinely 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, and priced with the access included.
So we can tell you where the run goes and, just as usefully, what would have to happen for a machine to reach it.
Liner against excavation, with the access to the work included in the excavation figure rather than left off it.
The gear carried in, the pipe prepared, the liner cured in place and any junctions reopened.
So you can see the finished surface, and the yard looks exactly as it did when we arrived.
Get it filmed and located before anybody quotes machinery. Where the pipe runs decides more than what is wrong with it.
Call 1300 381 569Frequently it is not the pipe repair that separates them, it is getting the machinery to the work. Relining equipment comes in through a normal gate on foot. Excavation needs plant, and on an established property with a rear yard, getting plant to where the pipe is can be a larger exercise than the repair it enables.
Then digging is either hand excavation, which is slow and expensive, or it involves taking something apart to make room. Neither of those appears in a headline excavation figure and both are genuine costs. It is worth asking any excavation quote how the machine is getting to the pipe.
A resin sleeve is drawn through the existing pipe and cured hard in place, using the old pipe as a mould. The defect is sealed, any joint that had opened is bridged, and what is left is continuous with no entry point.
The material is rated at around fifty years, and the repair is continuous, so there is no joint left at the point that failed.
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, and on a property where plant cannot easily reach it, that is a serious job. The footage settles it before you commit.
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 is $250 to $450 and comes off the job if you proceed.
Tell us what the camera found if anybody has looked, and whether a machine could physically get to where the pipe runs. That second answer shapes the comparison.
Sealed from the inside, with nothing driven into the yard to do it.
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