CCTV survey: $300–$750
Stands alone and is credited against the works by most operators. Without it nobody can price a liner honestly.
A cracked or root-damaged drain does not have to mean a trench through the garden. A resin liner is cured inside the existing pipe from an access point you already have, sealing every joint along the run, and the surface above is never touched.
A resin-saturated liner is drawn into the existing pipe through an access point, inflated so it presses against the wall, and cured until it hardens. What you are left with is a continuous pipe inside the old one, with no joints along its length and a slightly smaller bore than the original.
Nothing is excavated, and the cured surface is smoother than the clay or concrete it lines, so flow is typically maintained or improved despite the small loss of diameter. On a property where a driveway, mature garden or paving sits over the line, that is the whole argument.
Stanmore’s heritage homes still run much of their original earthenware pipework, which cracks and shifts over the decades and lets blockages take hold.
On a period property the drainage repair is rarely the expensive part. Tessellated verandah tiles, original brick paving, a mature garden or a heritage-listed frontage all cost far more to reinstate than the pipe underneath costs to fix.
That is the argument for trenchless in one sentence. The liner is drawn through an existing opening and cured in place, so the surface above is never disturbed and there is nothing to match, replace or explain to council.
Long runs of old pipework in larger heritage homes gradually collect grease and sediment, narrowing the line until it blocks completely.
For a shop, café or clinic the real cost of a drainage repair is rarely the invoice. It is the days the doors do not open, and an excavation through a floor or a car park is measured in days.
A liner is installed from an existing access point and cures in hours, which is why commercial work is so often scheduled overnight or across a single closed day. The trading interruption is usually the deciding factor, not the price per metre.
An open joint leaks in both directions. On a low-lying block that means stormwater and groundwater entering the sewer through cracks, which is called infiltration, and it quietly overloads a line that would otherwise cope.
Older stormwater pits and downpipes on Stanmore’s established blocks struggle in a downpour, backing up and overflowing when they choke with debris.
It shows up as a system that backs up in wet weather and behaves perfectly in dry. If that is the pattern, sealing the run is the fix, and no amount of clearing will reproduce the result.
People are often surprised that a drain laid before the war is a relining candidate rather than a replacement. Age alone does not decide it. A clay line with a sound barrel and tired joints is close to the best case for a liner.
The cases that genuinely need excavation are different: a collapsed section, a run that has lost its fall, or a pipe crushed out of round. A camera separates those in an hour, and the answer changes the cost by a multiple.
Root intrusion is not automatically a relining job. If the roots are fine and the pipe behind them is sound, a cut and jet with a maintenance interval can be the right call for years.
What moves it to relining is structural: an open joint you can see daylight through, a cracked barrel, or a run that has been cleared repeatedly at shortening intervals. Anyone quoting a liner without showing you the inside of the pipe is guessing, and you should ask for the footage.
Access is set up at an existing inspection opening, the line is jetted and cameraed clean so the liner bonds to pipe rather than to debris, the liner is installed and cured, and the run is cameraed again afterwards.
Most domestic jobs are a single day and the water is off for part of it. You get the before and after footage, and where the work is notifiable the compliance paperwork follows it.
No honest quote for relining exists before someone has looked inside the pipe. The survey establishes the material, the diameter, where the defects are, how far they sit from the access point, and whether the fall is intact.
Ask for the footage. It is your property and the recording is the evidence behind the price. It is also what you will want if the question ever comes up at sale.
Stands alone and is credited against the works by most operators. Without it nobody can price a liner honestly.
The usual Sydney range for domestic sewer. Access and junction reinstatement are normally quoted separately.
One defect in an otherwise sound run. The proportionate answer on stable ground, and the wrong answer on a line with twenty tired joints.
Where the camera shows the same failure repeating along the length. Ends the problem rather than relocating it.
The honest comparison. Cheaper on an open lawn, rarely cheaper under a driveway, paving or a building.
These are market ranges, not our price. Nothing is quoted before the survey, and nothing starts before you agree it. Figures here are indicative of the 2026 Sydney market rather than a quote from us, you get your own number as a fixed price before any work starts.
Leave your details and a licensed plumber will call back to arrange the survey. No quote is given before someone has seen inside the pipe.
Straight answers on price, durability and when to dig instead.
Ring us or leave your details. You will get a time for the inspection, not a price invented over the phone.
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