Nothing gets decided without a camera
Every option below costs a different amount and solves a different problem. Choosing between them from the symptoms alone is guesswork, and the guess is expensive in both directions — a spot repair on a failing line means doing it again, and a replacement on a line needing one repair is thousands wasted.
A camera run establishes the extent of the damage, the pipe's material and condition, whether there are sags, and exactly where the fault sits and how deep.
That last part matters as much as the diagnosis. Knowing a fault is 43 feet out and four feet down is the difference between opening one small section of yard and exploratory digging.
If someone quotes sewer work without showing you the inside of the pipe, ask why. There is more on what an inspection covers in the camera inspection guide.
Spot repair
Open the ground at the fault, cut out the failed section, replace it, backfill. The smallest and cheapest of the four.
It is the right answer when the line is generally sound and the problem is localised — a single cracked section, one offset joint, a length crushed by a vehicle or root.
The question to ask before agreeing to one: why did this section fail? If the answer is a one-off event, a spot repair is genuinely the end of it. If the answer is ground movement or age, the rest of the line is the same age in the same soil, and you may be buying the first of several.
The camera answers that too, which is why it comes first.
Lining, or cured-in-place pipe
A resin-saturated liner is pulled through the existing pipe and cured in place, forming a new pipe inside the old one. No trench along the route — access is through existing cleanouts or one small pit.
It suits a line with widespread minor deterioration that still holds its shape: cracking, root intrusion at joints, general age. It seals joints permanently, which stops roots re-entering — the usual reason root cutting has to be repeated.
The constraints are real. The host pipe must be structurally intact enough to line — a collapse cannot be lined, because there is nothing to line against. It slightly reduces the internal diameter, which is usually irrelevant but not always. And a significant sag stays a sag: lining a low spot gives you a lined low spot that still holds water.
Where it fits, it is considerably less disruptive than replacement, and that matters when the line runs under a driveway or mature trees.
Worth knowing
Lining seals joints, which is what actually stops recurring root problems. Cutting roots removes this year's growth and leaves the entry point open for next year's — which is why the same customers get the same call annually.
Pipe bursting
A trenchless replacement. A bursting head is pulled through the old pipe, fracturing it outward into the surrounding soil while drawing new HDPE pipe in behind it.
It genuinely replaces the line rather than relining it, so it handles collapsed and badly deteriorated pipe that lining cannot. It can also increase the diameter, which is occasionally useful.
It needs an access pit at each end rather than a trench along the whole route, so a lawn, driveway or mature trees survive largely intact.
It is not universal. It needs a reasonably straight run, adequate clearance from other buried utilities, and soil that will accept the displaced fragments. Where those conditions are not met, open trenching is the answer.
Full replacement by trenching
Dig the line up, remove it, lay new pipe, backfill. The most disruptive option and sometimes the only one.
It is the right call when the line has collapsed over a length, when there are multiple severe sags needing the grade re-established, when the route needs changing, or when access rules out the trenchless methods.
It is also, occasionally, the cheapest. On a short, shallow run in open ground, trenching can cost less than lining — trenchless methods are not automatically the economical choice, they are the low-disruption one.
The advantage nobody mentions: it is the only method that lets you correct the fall properly. If the original line was laid with an inadequate or reversed grade — which is what causes sags — only replacement fixes the geometry.
Two things worth checking before you pay for any of it
Where does your responsibility end? Homeowners generally own the lateral from the house to the main, but the boundary varies and occasionally the fault is on the utility's side. The camera locates the fault; knowing the boundary tells you whose bill it is. It is worth establishing before agreeing to work.
What does your insurance say? Standard policies usually exclude sewer line failure, but many insurers offer a service line endorsement cheaply, and some municipalities run protection schemes. If you have one, use it before paying out of pocket.
Also ask what warranty comes with the work and what the restoration includes — whether backfill, resurfacing and landscaping are in the price or extra. That is the most common gap between a sewer quote and the final bill.