Service

Sewer repairs

Cracked lines · Root damage · Collapsed pipe · Offset joints · Excavation

The fix depends on what the camera shows.

Sewer lines fail for a handful of reasons: ground movement opening up joints, roots forcing a crack wider, a section sagging so waste sits in it, or old pipe finally giving way. Each has a different repair, and the wrong one is expensive.

How it works

✓ Licensed & insured ✓ 24/7 emergency ✓ Price before we start

Book a sewer inspection

Three quick steps. Every enquiry answered within 12 hours. If it's urgent, call.

Thanks. We've got it, and we'll come back to you within 12 hours. If it's urgent, call Luke on 0423 213 079 or Zach on 0402 273 744.

24/7 Emergency

Sewage overflowing?

Luke0423 213 079 Zach0402 273 744

The short answer

A sewer repair fixes the pipe carrying waste from your house to the point where it connects to Sydney Water's system. Property owners own that pipework up to and including the connection point, and that point can sit beyond the property boundary, so the repair is usually the owner's responsibility rather than Sydney Water's. Repairs range from relining a cracked section from the inside to excavating and replacing a collapsed length. Which one you need is determined by a CCTV camera inspection, not by guesswork, and the difference in cost between them is large.

Signs your sewer line is failing

A blocked drain is an event. A failing sewer is a pattern. These are the signs we look for.

Blockages that keep returning to the same place. The clearest sign of a structural fault rather than something someone flushed.
A smell of sewage outside, particularly after rain. Waste escaping a cracked line into the surrounding soil.
A patch of lawn that is greener, softer or sunken along the line of the drain. Sewage is fertiliser, and a leaking pipe washes soil away beneath the surface.
Rats or a sudden increase in insects. A broken sewer is an entry point and a food source.
Multiple fixtures draining slowly at once, over months rather than days. The line is progressively narrowing.
Cracking in nearby paving, paths or slab. Water escaping underground moves soil, and what is above it settles.
A large established tree within a few metres of the line. Especially over old earthenware pipe. Roots do not cause the first crack, but they widen it relentlessly.

If sewage is currently coming up inside the house, that is an emergency. Stop running water, keep people away from it, and call Luke on 0423 213 079 or Zach on 0402 273 744.

How it works

How we approach a sewer repair

Get the line flowing first

If the sewer is blocked and backing up, that is the immediate problem and it gets dealt with before anything else. Diagnosis is no comfort to a household that cannot use a toilet.

Clean and camera the line

Jetting to clear the build-up, then a camera so we can see the actual condition. This is the step that decides everything after it.

Locate and mark the fault

We measure how far along the fault sits and trace its position and depth from the surface, so if we do dig, we dig once and in the right spot.

Give you the options with real trade-offs

Usually that is relining versus excavate and replace, and sometimes a combination. We explain what each involves, what it does to your driveway or garden, and what it costs.

Do the repair

Relining from the existing access point where the host pipe allows it. Excavation, replacement and proper backfill and compaction where it does not.

Camera it again and reinstate the surface

Final footage so you can see the finished line. Then the surface goes back, whether that is turf, soil, paving or concrete.

What sewer repairs cost

Sewer work has the widest price range of anything we do, from a straightforward repair to a full line replacement under a driveway. What determines where your job sits:

Whether it can be relined or has to be dug. The single biggest fork in the road, and only a camera answers it.
Depth. A shallow line in a garden bed is one job. A deep line on a steep block is another entirely.
What is on top of it. Lawn is easy. Concrete driveway, sandstone paving, a deck, a pool surround or a retaining wall are not, and putting the surface back is often the largest single cost.
Length of the failed section. One joint versus fifteen metres.
Machine access. If an excavator cannot reach the line, the digging is done by hand and that changes the labour significantly. Common on steep or tight blocks.
Whether Sydney Water's assets or a shared line are involved. That brings requirements and process which take time.
Ground conditions. Sandstone on the North Shore, reactive clay through the Hills, and sand and a high water table near the coast all dig differently.

We price the repair we would actually recommend, and where relining and excavation are both genuinely viable we will price both so you can see the difference rather than take our word for it.

Where we work

Sewer repairs across Sydney's north

Not listed? Call Luke → Call Zach →

Questions

Sewer repair questions

You own the wastewater pipes and fittings up to and including the point where they connect to Sydney Water's system. The part that catches people out is that this connection point is not necessarily at your fence. Your private line can extend beyond your boundary, sometimes under the footpath or the road, and it is still yours. Sydney Water maintains the network beyond that point. If we find the fault is on their side, we will tell you clearly, because it changes who pays.

Possibly not, and this is worth knowing because most people have never heard of it. Sydney Water runs a Collapsed Private Services in Public Land Program, under which they may repair a collapsed private wastewater pipe under a public footpath or road as a free service for residential customers. It requires a licensed plumber to confirm that excavating the footpath or road is the only way to fix the fault, and there are eligibility conditions, so check the current terms with Sydney Water directly. What we can do is the camera work and the written confirmation that supports an application. The part to be careful about is timing: eligibility generally depends on the pipe not having been dug up and exposed already, so this needs to be looked into before anyone starts breaking up the footpath, not after.

It depends entirely on your policy and on the cause. Sudden damage is treated differently from gradual deterioration, and tree root damage is specifically excluded by a lot of policies. What we can do is give you the camera footage, photographs, and a written description of the cause and location, which is what an insurer will ask for. Whether they pay is between you and them, and we are not going to tell you what your policy says.

No. A liner needs a host pipe to form against, so a fully collapsed section has to be excavated and replaced. What often happens in practice is a hybrid: we dig one small section to replace the collapsed part, then reline the rest of the run from the inside, which saves most of the excavation.

Legally that can get complicated and it is not a plumbing question. Practically, the damage is on your property and to your pipe, so the repair is generally yours to organise. Camera footage showing where the roots entered is useful evidence if you are going to have that conversation with a neighbour or an insurer, and we can provide it.

Relining is usually a day. Excavation depends on depth, access and what has to be broken out and reinstated, so anywhere from a day to several. We will give you a realistic timeframe up front, including how long your drains will be out of service, because that is the part that affects your household.

Not if we can avoid it. That is exactly the situation relining exists for. Where the pipe has collapsed under a driveway there may be no alternative, and if so we will show you why on camera before anyone starts breaking concrete.

Yes, and we do a lot of it around the escarpment suburbs on the Northern Beaches and the gullied blocks on the North Shore. Steep sites are the strongest argument for relining, because the equipment works from the access point instead of needing a machine down at the pipe.

Where two lengths of pipe have moved out of alignment so there is a step or a gap at the join. Waste catches on the lip, debris builds up, and roots get in through the gap. It is one of the most common faults we see on old clay drainage and it reveals itself immediately on camera.

Why sewer lines fail in Sydney, and what it means for the repair

Almost every sewer repair we do traces back to one of four things, and knowing which one you have tells you most of what you need to know about the fix.

1. The pipe is old clay with joints every metre

Vitrified clay, usually called earthenware, drained most Sydney homes built before the 1980s. It is durable material but it was laid in short lengths, so a normal suburban run has a lot of joints. Every joint is a potential entry point once the ground shifts.

2. The ground moves

Sydney soils are not stable. Reactive clay soils through The Hills swell in wet weather and shrink in dry, and that seasonal movement works away at rigid pipe joints year after year. On the North Shore sandstone sits close to the surface and drains were often laid in shallow trenches cut into rock, which behaves very differently from soil around it. Near the coast on the Northern Beaches sand and a high water table let soil wash away from around a pipe, so it loses support and sags.

3. Roots exploit the opening

A root does not break a sound pipe. It finds an existing gap or hairline crack, gets in, and then thickens, prising the fault wider each season. This is why root damage is progressive and why clearing it without fixing the entry point guarantees a return visit.

4. Something was wrong from the start

Occasionally the camera shows a line that was never laid properly: not enough fall so waste does not move, a sag from poor bedding, or a botched connection from a renovation done decades ago. Relining will faithfully preserve a bad fall, so these are the jobs where replacement is genuinely the better answer.

The repair follows the diagnosis, not the other way round

We would rather spend an hour with a camera than a day with an excavator in the wrong place. Once we know what failed, where it is, how deep, and what is on top of it, the choice between relining and excavation is usually obvious, and you can see the reasoning for yourself on the footage.

Call Luke on 0423 213 079 or Zach on 0402 273 744 for anything urgent. Otherwise the form is answered within 12 hours.

Related services

Pipe reliningA new pipe formed inside the old one. No trench through the driveway, the garden or the paving. CCTV drain inspectionA camera down the line so you can see the crack, the root or the collapse instead of guessing at it. Blocked drainsGurgling toilets, slow showers, water coming up the gully. We find the cause with a camera before we clear it. Jet blastingHigh pressure water that cuts roots and scours the pipe wall clean, rather than punching a hole through the blockage. Stormwater & drainageWater pooling against the house, a yard that will not drain, or stormwater surcharging in heavy rain. Emergency plumberA burst pipe, no water, or sewage backing up. We answer the phone around the clock, every day of the year.

Get the sewer looked at

If blockages keep coming back, a camera inspection is the cheapest thing you can do next. Call for anything urgent, or send the form for an answer within 12 hours.

Luke 0423 213 079 Zach 0402 273 744 admin@bmadvanced.com.au

The Hills, North Shore & Northern Beaches, NSW

We'll call you back

Three quick steps. Every enquiry answered within 12 hours. If it's urgent, use the numbers.

Thanks. We've got it, and we'll come back to you within 12 hours. If it's urgent, call Luke on 0423 213 079 or Zach on 0402 273 744.