Trenchless

Trenchless Sewer Repair Explained: Lining vs Pipe Bursting

By Indianapolis Sewer Line Repair · September 5, 2026 · 5 min read

Trenchless is one word for two very different jobs. Cured-in-place pipe lining leaves the old pipe where it is and builds a new one inside it. Pipe bursting destroys the old pipe and drags a new one through the hole. They cost about the same, they both save the yard, and they are not interchangeable. The camera decides.

How lining works

1. The lateral is jetted clean so the wall is bare — roots cut out, scale knocked off, grease gone.
2. A felt or fiberglass liner is measured to the run and saturated with a two-part epoxy resin.
3. The liner is inverted or pulled into the pipe from the cleanout (or from inside the basement if there is no cleanout), then inflated with air or water so it presses against the old pipe wall.
4. It is cured with hot water, steam or a UV light train — one to four hours depending on the resin.
5. A robotic cutter reopens any branch connections (a basement floor drain tee, a second stack) that the liner covered.
6. A camera run confirms the result and you get the video.

The result is a smooth, jointless pipe about a quarter inch smaller in diameter than the original, bonded to the inside of the clay. Roots have no joint to enter. Manufacturers rate the liner at 50 years.

How pipe bursting works

1. A pit is dug at the house end and another at the main, or at a point where the new pipe can be joined to sound pipe.
2. A steel cable is threaded through the old pipe.
3. A hydraulic puller in the exit pit draws a conical bursting head through the old pipe. The head splits the clay or cast iron outward into the surrounding soil.
4. A new HDPE pipe, fused into one continuous length, follows directly behind the head.
5. The new pipe is connected at both ends, inspected, and the pits are backfilled.

The result is a brand-new pipe of the same diameter or one size up, on the same route.

Which one your pipe needs

The one thing neither fixes is grade. A sag stays a sag. Those sections are dug and re-laid, and the rest of the line is lined. Hybrid jobs like that are most of what we do north of 38th Street.

Why Indianapolis went trenchless

The neighborhoods with the oldest clay — Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington, Broad Ripple, Irvington — are also the ones with the biggest trees. Pin oaks, silver maples and sycamores planted between the sidewalk and the curb in the 1920s now have root plates that reach the house. An open trench from the basement wall to the main goes straight through them. The tree survives the cut about half the time.

Lining needs a pit at the cleanout, or nothing at all if we can work from the basement. The tree doesn't notice. That, more than the lawn, is why lining became the default in those neighborhoods. Trenchless pipe lining Indianapolis contractors do under a street tree also avoids the right-of-way permit and the pavement restoration that a dig to the main would need.

What each costs

Lining: $6,000–$15,000 for a typical lateral, priced per foot plus setup, plus $300–$600 per branch reinstated. Bursting: $8,000–$20,000, higher because of the two pits and, usually, a small cut at the main. Both are above open trench per foot and below it as a total job once concrete, pavement or a tree is in the way. The cost page has the numbers next to each other.

Where each one goes wrong

Lining a pipe that wasn't clean. Resin bonds to the pipe wall, not to scale or grease. A rushed jetting job means a liner that delaminates at that spot in year three.

Lining over a belly. The liner follows the pipe, so the sag stays and now it can't be spot-repaired without cutting the liner.

Bursting near other utilities. The head displaces soil outward. A gas or water service within a foot of the old sewer can be damaged. Indiana 811 marks and a careful locate come first, always.

Bursting Orangeburg. Sometimes fine, sometimes the fiber pipe just tears and wraps the head. It depends on how far gone it is.

Permits

Both methods are lateral work, so the Citizens Energy Group bond-and-permit rule that took effect 1 January 2026 applies exactly as it does to a dig. "No trench, no permit" is wrong.

The trenchless service page has the method table for your pipe, and every job starts with a camera inspection — that is where the lining-or-bursting question gets answered.