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Trenchless Repair: Lining Against Bursting

In short

Trenchless is not one method: pipe bursting, cured-in-place lining, slip lining and grouting are different jobs with different limits. A liner takes the shape of the pipe it is inverted into, so it suits a run that is aligned and leaking and not one that has dropped or lost its section.

TrenchPoint is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. Every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check, so you can confirm before work begins. We do not perform excavation or repair, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

"Trenchless" is not one method. NASSCO names pipe bursting, cured-in-place pipe, grouting, slip lining, spiral wound pipe and concrete and cementitious sprays among its rehabilitation technologies, and they are not interchangeable.

Lining follows the host pipe

This is the sentence that decides most quotes. A cured-in-place liner is a resin-saturated tube inverted into the existing run and cured in place, taking the shape of what it is inside. Where the host pipe is aligned and simply leaking or root-infiltrated at the joints, that is exactly what you want. Where the host pipe has dropped, gone oval or lost its grade, the liner reproduces the fault.

So a lined belly is still a belly, and a lined length that has parted is still out of line.

Only bursting changes the diameter

Pipe bursting pulls a bursting head through the old run, breaking it outward into the surrounding soil and drawing a new pipe in behind. Because the old pipe is destroyed rather than lined, the new one can be the same size or larger. Every lining method costs you a little internal diameter; bursting is the only one that can give some back.

Which applies to what

Clay, aligned, roots at joints — lining is usually on the table. See where roots get in.
Clay, a length parted or dropped — generally not a lining job.
Bituminized fiber that has gone oval — the section is gone; replacement or bursting. See how to tell if you have it.
Cast iron with lost bore — lining is possible but takes more diameter from a pipe that has already lost some. Ask what you will be left with.
Plastic with a belly — the wrong tool entirely. The section needs re-laying to grade.

The question to ask

Not "can you line it" — almost anything can be lined. Ask what internal diameter you will have afterwards, and whether the fault the survey found is one that lining corrects or one it copies.

Get the run looked at

Tell us your ZIP code and what the drain is doing. We check it against partner coverage and put you through to an independent contractor who works that area. We do not do the work and you are never charged.

Call (866) 857-3202

Before anybody excavates.A camera survey is a different instruction from a repair, and the order matters. Tell us what the drain is doing and we will route you to somebody who covers your area. No charge to you, ever. Anything else the plumbing is doing can be raised on that call too.

Call (866) 857-3202