Trenchless sewer repair?

This is the same house with the gawdawful washing machine drain problem a little while back. The pipes were cleaned out solving the washing machine drain problem, but it happened again about a month later. It seems the sewer pipe under the slab has a hole in it somewhere allowing sand and dirt to block it. Busting a hole in the slab or digging underneath are not real good options, so she's looking into the liner systems. Of course they want $150 just to show up, so I'm trying to get some preliminary information.

Anybody here had any experience with these liners? It seems the average cost is around $150 a foot as near as I can tell, is this accurate? How would a 'tee' be handled (there are two bathrooms on the same line that's screwed up)?

I had a liner put in, fortunately I didn't pay for it. Tree roots just over the property line. After nearly 15 years of putting up with random sewer backups (despite digging up and replacing a bad trap), I finally convinced the city to put a camera down the pipe to confirm it was their problem. No problems in the five years since. Sorry I couldn't be of any more help.

At $150 a foot, tearing up floors, renting a jackhammer, trenching it yourself and then calling the plumber doesn't sound too bad.

Back 3 years ago, I would have grabbed the sewer camera from work, located the bad spot, dug it up repaired it. The 150$ a foots great....how many feet are they going to do an effective repair on.

10' = $1500.00 20' = $3000.00

$50 worth of concrete, $40 for the pipe repair, $600 rental/ casual labor. I'd still do it myself.

You can't fix it until you know what the problem is. Best thing is to have someone camera the line and locate the break. Most good cameras have a 512 hertz transmitter built into the head which can be located on the surface. Then one you have seen exactly what the problem is and where, you can decide on a course of action. I expect digging down and repairing it will be the way to go. Most of those problems wind up being a pipe that has settled and come apart at a seam due to improper backfilling. You can't fix that with a liner anyway, and around here that would be a $2000.00 day. You can do a lot of shoveling for that.

Bear is right, you can save a lot doing it yourself. It is probably clay pipe, so if you dig it up, watch you don't cut yourself on it and replace with plastic pipe, sdr26 or 35 is good and a couple mission couplings, backfil and forget it

This stuff is all galvanized steel, the house was built in 1969 and it's split level. The point where it's coming apart is under the slab at the low end of the house, meaning everything else (washing machine, dishwasher, etc) goes through this pipe. It's effectively slowing down everything. At least the two bathrooms flow freely, but this means the break is a fair ways back under the slab. There's a big support wall down there as well. Busting out a piece of the slab and digging a hole might remove much needed foundation support for the middle of the house. I'm a little hesitant to start digging under the slab, the whole side of town over there is on sand. Easy to dig but hell to pack back in so it will properly support the slab.

I had a brain storm or fade this afternoon; the pipe from the far end of the house is in a crawl space so it can be rerouted fairly easily outside and around. That means that only about 6 feet or so of the existing pipe would need to be lined; stick the 'balloon' in, inflate it, let it harden and then cut off only the outside end, leave the other end intact.

What does it cost to take a look with a camera? I hate fixing things, or worse, paying someone to fix them, without knowing what's wrong first. A liner seems like the best bet, but it would still be nice to see what they're really trying to fix with it.

Yeah, that's the first step. Be nice to know exactly what is busted etc.

I have "relined " pipes myself with my excavator. Fish a steel cable through, then use that to fish a heavier steel cable or light chain, then connect a length of black PE waterline as big as will fit through the old one. 160 psi or better. connect the end to the excavator arm and pull. You need someone on the far end guiding it.

not really the best solution actually. Results may vary.