Trenchless sewer repair is a method of fixing or replacing an underground sewer line without digging a long trench across the yard. A plumber works through one or two small access points, usually after a camera inspection, repairing the pipe from the inside or pulling a new one through the old path.
Two methods cover most jobs. Cured-in-place pipe lining (CIPP) pulls a resin-saturated liner into the damaged pipe, then cures it hard to form a new pipe inside the old one, which suits cracks, corrosion and roots at the joints. Pipe bursting pulls a bursting head through the old pipe to break it apart while drawing a new pipe into the same path, which suits a pipe that is crushed or too far gone to line. You can compare cured-in-place pipe lining and the other trenchless methods in more detail.
Because the work goes through small access points, the yard, driveway and landscaping mostly stay intact, and many residential jobs finish in a single day instead of the several days open trenching can take. Cured-in-place liners are engineered to a 50-year design service life, the benchmark the U.S. EPA used when it studied aged liners pulled from municipal sewers.
Trenchless repair is not right for every line. A pipe that has fully collapsed, lost a section, or sagged into a deep belly that holds water usually cannot be lined, because the liner needs a continuous host pipe to form against and cannot restore lost slope. A camera inspection first shows whether the line is a candidate, or whether digging, or a repair to a single section, is the better route.