Description

Pipe relining repairs cracked, corroded, blocked, or otherwise damaged pipes so that you don’t have to replace them. A tube filled with epoxy resin serves as the new lining for the old pipe and is installed after an assessment from a qualified pipe relining specialist. The resin expands to fill any cracks or gaps and lets you use the pipe as if it were new.

Because pipe relining doesn’t involve replacing the pipe itself, most jobs can be completed in one day, which makes pipe relining a quick and cost-effective option for an individual or business in need of the service. 

There are various methods used in pipe relining, and we use our 25 years of plumbing experience in the Sydney Metro area and beyond to select the right approach for your needs and ensure the job is done to the highest possible standards. Once relined, your pipe should need no further work for decades to come.

Pipe Relining 

What Pipe Relining Means

Pipe relining is an option you can choose to fix broken pipes without covering the costs and setting aside the time required to replace the pipework entirely. It cuts costs and saves time because the pipes are repaired from the inside, not the outside. That also means there won’t be any digging involved, which is why you’ll often find the term ‘trenchless’ being used to describe pipe relining. 

If the lining of the pipes is fractured, the pipes are corroded, or they keep getting blocked without a particular reason, like root intrusion from trees, then it’s more than likely they’ll benefit from relining. When a pipe gets relined, a new pipe is created within the old pipe. That reduces the size of the new pipe, but it won’t reduce the performance. 

Because it makes the pipe smoother, seals up cracks, and removes any corrosion or blockages, you’ll get a performance boost from having your pipes relined. You’d get a similar boost in performance if you replaced the pipes, but if they’re buried deep within a building, that means excavation and weeks of work, which often isn’t feasible or viable. 

Pipes that can be relined include drainpipes, sewers, and any other pipes. We work with pipes in any setting throughout the Sydney Metro area, including industrial, commercial, and residential pipework. That means we can work inside a home, business, or factory, depending on your needs.

When we reline your pipes, it’s called Cured In-Place Pipelining, or CIPP. It involves the use of a resin which cures over time to create a solid lining inside the old pipe. But it would be no good to insert the resin alone. It needs a mould to solidify within, so we add a tube first that will contain the resin. Typically, the tube will be inserted from an upstream position within the pipe, which is less risky and more likely to succeed. It can be inserted downstream, but this usually isn’t necessary and makes the task more complicated than it needs to be. However, it will depend on the specifics of the pipework you ask us to assess and reline. Once the resin has hardened, the new pipe is successfully formed and ready to use. 

Despite being a complicated process, pipe relining is the least destructive option for repairing cracked, leaky, broken, or otherwise damaged pipes in the Sydney Metro area, and that’s why we offer it as a service to residents and businesses. If you chose a pipe replacement option instead, involving excavation, then it could be very disruptive not just to you but to those around you as well. That’s even more the case in an urban area, where people live closer together. 

It’s also important to mention that pipe relining doesn’t mean you get an inferior service compared to pipe replacement. Once your pipes have been relined, they’ll be resilient against any future problems for decades to come, so you’re not at a disadvantage if your pipes are relined rather than replaced.

Why Reline Your Pipes

If you’re thinking of having your pipes repaired traditionally, or you hadn’t heard of pipe relining before, you might be wondering why you should do it. The answer is simple – it’s cheaper, cleaner, and has the same results as pipe replacement. But there are some added benefits which a specialist will tell you. 

One such benefit is the absence of calcification in relined pipes. Debris won’t adhere to the walls of your pipes because the resin in the lining will prevent it. Pressure within the pipe can increase beyond what the old pipework could tolerate, and the flow rate will be even faster because the walls are smoother. There are also some additional benefits which are covered below.

Easier Landscaping 

If the pipework you intend to have replaced is in an area that’s heavily landscaped, like a garden or similar outdoor space, excavating the land can destroy its appearance. This can take a lot of work to remedy once the pipes have been replaced, and there’s no guarantee the land will look like it did before. 

If you get your pipes relined instead, then you won’t have to worry about this. A process of healing the landscape, which could take years, will be removed from the equation entirely. But you’ll still have pipes that are as good as new. 

Increased Safety  

If the ground is disrupted and made uneven by replacing the pipes, it can become a safety issue for nearby residents or workers. For example, if there are holes, children or pets can fall down them, or people can trip over them. With pipe relining, none of these concerns will be relevant as the work won’t disrupt the ground. 

That means you’ll have extra peace of mind while the work is in progress and won’t have to worry about taking extra precautions to warn people about the work that’s taking place. 

Added Value 

Once your pipework has been relined, it will give your property a boost in value, whether it’s commercial, residential, or industrial. The net profit you can then make from selling the building will be higher than if you paid for a complete pipe replacement service, so that makes it better to opt for pipe relining instead. 

The labour costs for replacing pipework are also higher than for relining pipework, so that’s another reason it’s more cost-effective to reline pipes than replace them. 

Added Durability 

When you add resin to pipes, it reinforces them, making them more durable. Relining your pipes is like adding a second spray-on pipe inside the existing pipe, which effectively gives your pipe the strength of two pipes. 

Not only that, any weak joints within the pipework are removed so that there are no weak points to worry about after the relining is complete. It also makes your pipes stronger than they would be if they were simply replaced with new ones. 

Increased Speed 

Trenchless pipe repair, otherwise known as pipe relining, is faster than having your pipes replaced, meaning you can have the work done in less time. This reduces costs and the time it takes before you can begin using the pipes as normal again. Another reason the speed of the work is increased is that relining makes it easier to access awkward areas of your pipework system. 

How Does Pipe Relining Work

There are many steps within pipe relining, including the preparation, the work itself, and the aftercare following its completion. We’ll cover those in this section so that you can be fully informed about the specifics of pipe relining. 

Inspection 

Before any work begins, your pipes will need to be inspected thoroughly. That way, our specialists can assess the problems and the extent of the work required to repair the issues. If the problem is root intrusion or a specific breakage or misalignment, then the relining can be applied to those parts exclusively. If it’s something like corrosion throughout the pipe, it will need to be applied more widely. Special equipment will be used to do this. 

Cleaning 

It’s always best to clean the pipes before relining them. That’s because it will remove as much debris as possible, making the relining process easier to initiate and complete. Cleaning begins with traditional approaches where large obstacles are dragged or pushed out of the pipes. This may require robotic tools depending on the pipework and the location of the debris. Once tools have done what they can, jets of water are sprayed through the pipe to clear out smaller particles and smoothen the walls. 

Final Checks Before Relining 

Once the inspections are finished and the initial cleaning has been done, it’s time to look over your pipes again to ensure that nothing has been missed and they’re ready for relining. This is often done with robotic cameras, making it easy for us to get a clear view of the pipework up close. Once the final checks are complete, we’ll be confident to move ahead with the relining. 

Determining The Length 

Once we have all the information we need about your pipes from the final checks, we’ll determine how long the lining needs to be. This will depend on how many pipes need relining, how long those pipes are, and the kind of damage that needs fixing. If it’s extensive damage across an extended length of pipework, then more work will be required. If not, the relining will only need to be applied in specific locations. 

Applying Epoxy Resin

After figuring out the lining length your project requires, we’ll add the tube and resin, saturating the pipe with resin in the areas that require it. After the resin cures, which is the next step, it will serve as your new pipe. In other words, you’re getting a spray-on pipe inside the old pipe, as we mentioned, which explains why so many people choose this option compared to a pipe replacement. Some parts of your pipe may take longer to apply the resin to, like T-sections and joints.

Curing The Resin 

After applying the resin, it’s time to cure it so that it hardens and becomes ready to use. Occasionally, the resin can be left to cure by itself, but we think this is inefficient and makes the process take too long. So we’ll use hot water to ensure it cures rapidly. After that, we apply some UV radiation to ensure the lining is solid. 

Cutting Inspection Pits And Junctions 

One of the final steps is to cut out inspection pits and junctions using robotic cutters. Sometimes we can take out the inspection pits with grinders, but this depends on your specific pipes. This is the last major step in the process, meaning once it’s done, your pipes will be relined. 

Final Checks After Relining 

Just like we’ll check your pipes before we commence the relining process, we’ll also do this afterward so that we can be confident the work has been done correctly and that your pipes work as good as new. After the final checks are completed, you can rest assured your pipes will be functional again, and you’ll be able to speak to our team if any concerns arise. 

Why Choose Us For Pipe Relining 

At Indepth Plumbing, we work nationally across Australia, including in the Sydney Metro area. We’ve offered various plumbing services for more than 25 years, especially in commercial settings. We’ve also worked for some of the largest Strata Management Agencies and Insurance Builders in Australia. 

That gives us the experience to do any plumbing work required of us, including in the niche of pipe relining. There are also other reasons why it’s worth working with us rather than any of our competitors, and we’ll outline those below. 

Professionalism 

We bring a serious and attentive approach to our work and strive to demand perfection from every employee on every job. That means we won’t put up with work that isn’t 100% up to the high standards we expect. Alongside this, we also ensure we maintain our integrity and act in honest ways at all times. 

That isn’t simply something we have as a mission statement or as our company culture – it’s something we instil into and expect from all of our employees. Each one knows the importance of bringing professionalism into every aspect of the work they do. 

Simplicity 

Working with a company should be straightforward, without any complications. You’re paying us for our time and skill, and that should be precisely what you get, without any unnecessary delays or difficulties on our part. Part of how we ensure simplicity in our work is by using Simpro, our online booking platform. It allows us to provide you with a quote and for you to book work quickly and easily. 

We also provide itemised accounts, detailed reports, and job sheets from the point we quote you right through to the completion of the job so that we’re as transparent as possible.

Skills

All of our team members are highly skilled in the appropriate areas for the job you require, so they’ll be competent and knowledgeable when you’re dealing with them and apply their skills properly throughout your project. Also, we continually train our staff so that they have the latest qualifications and understand the cutting-edge technology used in pipe relining and other plumbing services. 

Compliance 

To ensure that all of our work meets legal obligations, we conduct an Occupational Health and Safety and Risk Assessment so that we’re aware of any potential issues with the work we’re about to undertake for you. We never cut corners on this and will complete one for every job that we take on. We’re also audited to ensure we complete these assessments carefully, and our workers all have SWMS statements in place. 

Quality 

Our owner, Michael Santamaria, will personally oversee every job to ensure that it’s completed according to the highest standards. We also ensure that you have a clear and detailed understanding of the work we’ll undertake so that you know what to expect from working with us. 

Products 

The pipe relining resin we use will be watermarked and will meet AS3500 standards. We’ll also ensure that the manufacturer we purchase the resin from is a reputable company known for providing high-quality resin that’s been used successfully on pipe relining jobs in the past. 

Our Pipe Relining Services

If you choose to work with us, there are a range of pipe relining services that we can provide to you. We’ll give you specific details relating to your project when you contact us for a quote, and our specialists will know more when they inspect your pipework, which is one of the first steps in our process. 

The services we offer for pipe relining in the Sydney Metro area and beyond will cover many pipework problems. Broken sewer pipes and dislocated pipes are both covered. We also cover pipes that contain multiple bends and pipes that are more up to 100m in length. In terms of pipe thickness, we can reline any pipe up to 300mm. We can also deal with pipe junctions and reducers, plus downpipe drains. 

These are not the only pipe relining services we’ll provide for you, but these cover the most common ones you’ll be interested in, and further details can be provided on request. If you have a particular question about whether our services will be right for you, you can look at our FAQs in the section below. If your question is not covered there, you can contact us and ask us directly. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will pipe relining last? 

If you have us reline your pipes, then you’ll usually find they last for half a century. The reason for that is they don’t corrode over time, as the pipe has a layer of resin protecting and sealing its inner walls, plus the adhesive we use is as durable as possible to ensure the longevity of your relined pipe. 

Can tree roots re-enter relined pipes? 

No, the new layer of resin that will cover the inside of your old pipes will resist any invasion from tree roots or other plant roots. It will have the strength to repel them, plus the resin will have sealed any previous cracks or breaks. 

What are the common signs of blocked drains? 

If you suspect that your drains are blocked and need unblocking in preparation for pipe relining, it helps to know the signs. These include smelly drains that don’t improve even after running lots of water down them, drains that take a long time to drain compared to how they used to, and gurgling sounds emerging from the drains. We’ll unblock your drains before any pipe relining begins, so this won’t be a problem. 

What is the cost of pipe relining? 

If you opt for our pipe relining service, we’ll provide you with a specific quote relating to your particular project. Variables that will determine the cost include the number of junctions your pipe has, the size and length of the pipes, and how easy it is to access those pipes. We’ll determine this by inspecting your pipework before giving you a final quote so that we can be as precise as possible. 

Is pipe relining right for me? 

If you’re unsure whether pipe relining is the solution you need, then you can simply get in touch with us for a chat about your situation. We’ll tell you everything we can over the phone, and if we need to, we’ll arrange a visit so that we can inspect your pipes. 

Hire Us For Pipe Relining 

If you’d like to get your pipes relined as soon as possible, then contact us today on 02 8004 8957 – this line is open 24/7.