Sewer pipe lining guide

Sewer Pipe Lining Cost: Real Jobs, Per-Foot Ranges and What Moves the Number

Lining is priced by the foot, and the foot price depends on what the camera finds. The numbers below come from completed residential jobs written up by installers on this network, each one with the excavation bid the owner received first. That comparison, not the per-foot figure, is the one that matters.

What completed jobs actually cost

The clearest way to price sewer pipe lining is to look at jobs where the owner got a dig-and-replace bid first, then had the line lined instead. Installers on this network publish their completed projects with both numbers, and ten of those residential jobs, 818 feet of pipe in all, with runs from 40 to 172 feet, add up like this: the excavation bids totaled about $200,000; the lining invoices totaled about $117,000; the owners kept roughly $83,000, or 41 percent, in their pockets. The saving on any one job ranged from 28 to 49 percent. A few of them, all in Southern California, show the spread:

San Juan Capistrano, 76 feet of root-cracked clay: $18,000 to excavate, $9,800 lined, done in under six hours while the owner was at work.
Pasadena, 81 feet of clay with a transition liner: $16,000 to dig, $8,200 lined, the largest saving in the set.
Palm Springs, 172 feet: $39,000 to dig, $22,980 lined.
Tustin, 40 feet of two-inch kitchen line: $13,000 to open the slab, $7,800 lined. The shortest run and the highest per-foot price, for the reason explained below.
Los Angeles, 75 feet with offset grinding first: $18,000 to dig, $12,950 lined, the smallest saving, because the offsets had to be ground before the liner could go in.
Burbank condominium, 140 feet burst plus 86 feet lined: two rehabilitated collector lines under mature landscaping, with the board putting the saving against conventional replacement at well over $25,000.

The full table, with per-foot math and the sources, is on the cured-in-place pipe cost page at curedinplacepipe.net. These are installer-reported figures from one region; they are a floor and a shape, not a national price list.

What that works out to per foot

Lined, those jobs ran from about $100 to $195 per foot installed, with a footage-weighted average near $145. The excavation bids ran from about $200 to $325 per foot, averaging around $245. Two things about that spread are worth understanding before you read a quote. First, the shortest job has the highest per-foot price. The crew, the truck, the jetter, the camera and the cutter cost the same to bring to a 40-foot line as to a 170-foot one, so fixed cost per foot falls as the run gets longer. Second, the lined price is the whole job: inspection, cleaning, liner, cure, reinstatement, final video. The replacement price is often not the whole job, as the section on what a replacement bid hides explains.

Commercial and municipal work is priced differently. A building job is bid by the run, with the number of connections and the night or weekend schedule driving it. A municipal main is bid per foot by diameter, with cleaning, bypass pumping, lateral reinstatement and testing as separate pay items, and because the fixed costs spread over thousands of feet the per-foot number is a fraction of the residential one. The commercial pipe lining and municipal pipe lining pages cover how those bids are built.

What moves the price up

Diameter. A six-inch liner uses more felt and more resin than a four-inch one, and a two-inch branch line needs a specialty small-diameter liner that costs more per foot than either.
Depth and access. A lateral with a cleanout at each end is the easy case. One that has to be accessed by pulling a toilet, cutting a small pit, or working from the city manhole costs more.
Pipe condition. Heavy roots, scale that has to be descaled with chains, an offset that has to be ground, or a short collapse that needs a point repair or a burst before the liner can pass all add work ahead of the liner itself.
Branch connections. Every drain that joins the run under the house has to be reinstated with a robotic cutter after the cure. A simple lateral has one or two; a slab with a kitchen, two bathrooms and a laundry has five or six.
Bends and transitions. A four-to-six-inch change or a tight sweep calls for a transition liner or a sectional repair at the change, which is an added item.
Permits and inspection. Most cities require a plumbing permit and an inspection of the finished video; some require the lateral be lined to the main only by a licensed contractor on their list.

What moves it down

A longer run. Fixed costs spread, as above.
Existing cleanouts. No pit, no toilet pull, no concrete to open.
A clean camera report. A pipe that needs only a jetting pass before the liner is the cheapest pipe to line.
Doing the whole line at once. Lining to the main in one mobilization is cheaper than lining the yard now and the street later.
Neighbors on the same block. Installers who can set up once for several houses, or an HOA that lines a shared collector, pay less per foot.

What a replacement bid hides

A dig-and-replace bid for the pipe alone is often not the number you will write the check for. Breaking and replacing a driveway, a sidewalk, a patio, or a city street and the traffic control that goes with it is frequently quoted as "by others" or left for a separate contractor. Landscaping, a fence, an irrigation system and a mature tree in the trench line are the owner's problem. A deep trench needs shoring and a longer crew day. The yard is open for days rather than hours, and the house is without a sewer the entire time. When the lining installer's price looks close to the excavator's, ask what the excavator's price includes after the backfill, and the gap usually opens. The sewer pipe lining pros and cons page covers the cases where a trench is still the right call.

How to compare lining quotes with each other

Two lining quotes for the same pipe should be compared on scope, not on the bottom line. Both should list the footage and diameter, the cleaning method, the number of reinstatements, the liner type and resin (felt and epoxy, or felt and polyester, or fiberglass and UV cure, as the sewer pipe liners page explains), the cure method, who pulls the permit, and the warranty term in writing. A quote that is far lower than the others is usually missing the reinstatements, the permit or the final video, or is for a coating rather than a structural liner. A quote delivered without camera footage is not a quote.

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Cost questions

How much does sewer pipe lining cost per foot?

On completed residential jobs on this network, cured-in-place lining ran from about $100 to $195 per foot installed, with a footage-weighted average near $145. Short runs sit at the top of that range because the crew, truck, cleaning and reinstatement cost the same whether the liner is 40 feet or 170 feet long. Municipal mains are bid separately by diameter and are usually far less per foot because the fixed costs spread over thousands of feet.

Is lining cheaper than replacing the sewer line?

On the jobs compared here it was cheaper every time, by 28 to 49 percent, because the replacement bids ran about $200 to $325 per foot once breaking and restoring concrete, pavement and landscaping were counted. Lining can cost more than a dig on a shallow line in open lawn with nothing above it, which is why the camera and the two quotes come before the decision.

What does a typical residential lining job cost in total?

A 70 to 90 foot house lateral in four-inch clay or cast iron commonly lands between $8,000 and $13,000 lined, including the camera inspection, hydro jetting, the liner and reinstating the connections. Under-slab work with several branches, a deep or long run, or a line that needs descaling or a spot repair first pushes the total higher.

Does homeowners insurance pay for sewer pipe lining?

Usually not. Standard homeowners policies treat the gradual failure of a sewer lateral, roots, scale, cracked joints and collapse from age, as maintenance, which is excluded. Some insurers sell a service-line endorsement that covers the lateral; check the declarations page. Damage inside the house from a backup is a separate question, often covered by a sewer-backup endorsement.

Should I pay a deposit for a lining job?

A deposit toward materials is normal once a written scope based on camera footage has been signed. A large deposit before any camera has been through the pipe is a warning sign, and so is a per-foot price quoted over the phone. The written estimate should list the footage, diameter, cleaning, the number of reinstatements, the liner and resin type, the cure method, the permit and the warranty term.

Why did one contractor quote a liner and another quote a replacement for the same pipe?

Either the two contractors read the camera footage differently, or one of them does not line pipe. A plumber without lining equipment can only sell the repair he can perform. Ask each one to show you the footage and point to the defects that drove the recommendation; a belly, a collapse or a bad offset rules lining out, and a cracked, rooted or scaled pipe that still holds its shape rules it in.