What is pipe relining and how does it work?
Pipe relining creates a new structural pipe inside your old one without digging it up. After the drain is cleaned and jetted back to bare pipe, a resin-saturated liner is inverted or pulled into the damaged section and cured in place against the old pipe wall. The result is a smooth, jointless pipe within a pipe, sealed against the tree roots that were entering through the old joints. Because everything happens through existing access points, your driveway, patio, landscaping and slab stay exactly where they are. Most residential relining jobs are done in a day.
How do the costs actually compare?
Relining usually wins on total cost once you price what sits above the pipe, not just the pipe itself. As of 2026 our Gold Coast pricing is:
| Option | Price (2026) | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Spot repair (patch liner) | $800 to $1,800 | One isolated defect in an otherwise sound line |
| Pipe relining | $400 to $600 or more per metre installed | Root-bound or cracked runs under concrete, driveways, slabs, gardens |
| Full excavation and replacement | $5,000 to $15,000 plus | Collapsed, back-graded or badly laid pipes |
The per-metre relining price looks high next to the cost of PVC pipe, but replacement quotes are never just pipe. They carry excavation, possibly under concrete or the building slab, then reinstatement of everything that was removed. A $6,000 dig can become $12,000 once a driveway is cut and re-poured. Relining has none of those reinstatement costs, which is why it wins most comparisons under hard surfaces and loses them in open lawn with shallow pipe.
When is relining the right call?
Relining is the right call when the pipe is damaged but still holds its shape, and the damage sits somewhere expensive to reach. The classic Gold Coast case is an earthenware sewer line from the 1960s to 1980s with roots at multiple joints, running under a driveway or slab. Lining that run seals every joint in one pass, which matters because roots that lose one entry point simply use the next. It is also the right call under new landscaping you do not want wrecked, and for single defects where a spot repair at $800 to $1,800 fixes the problem for a fraction of any excavation.
When should you replace instead of reline?
Replace when the host pipe cannot do its half of the job. A liner needs the old pipe to hold it in shape while curing, so a fully collapsed section cannot be lined. A pipe laid with insufficient fall, or one that has developed a significant belly, will still hold water after lining because a liner follows the host pipe's grade exactly. Badly crushed sections and some complex junction arrangements also favour excavation. And in open ground with shallow, accessible pipe, honest maths sometimes says dig, because without reinstatement costs replacement can be the cheaper permanent fix. We tell you which side of the line your job falls on, with the camera footage to back it.
How long does relining last?
Quality cured-in-place liners are engineered as structural pipes with design lives of 50 years, and the technology has been in commercial use since the 1970s. The liner is jointless, so the failure points of the original pipe, the joints, no longer exist. Root re-entry through a properly installed liner is not something we see. As with anything, installation quality decides the outcome, which is why we camera the line before lining and give you the post-installation footage showing the finished pipe.
How do I know a relining quote is honest?
An honest relining quote is built on CCTV footage you have seen, measured in metres you can verify. Before quoting we camera the line, show you the defects, and locate them from the surface, so the quoted length is a measurement rather than a guess. As of 2026 a standalone CCTV inspection is $200 to $350, or a full CCTV, jetting and report package is $500 to $900, and that report is exactly what you want in hand before comparing quotes. Be wary of relining quoted sight unseen, and equally wary of full replacement quoted where a two-metre spot repair would do.
Roots keep coming back? Call Hills Plumbing & Gas on 0472 657 042. We camera the drain, show you the footage, and give you a fixed price for the repair that actually fits the damage. QBCC licence 15243081, 5.0 stars from 27 Google reviews. Full details on our pipe relining service.