No-dig pipe repair on the Lower North Shore.
Cracked or root-damaged pipe repaired in place in St Ives — a new liner cured inside the old pipe, so an established garden never has to come up.
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St Ives covers 14.39 square kilometres at 171 metres — the largest suburb in the area — bordered by Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, with more bushland boundary than anywhere else Voyager services. On large blocks that means long private runs under established gardens with national park supplying the roots. Volume is what distinguishes it: more old private pipe here than anywhere.
Roots out of Ku-ring-gai Chase into post-war pipe, on runs that are long because the blocks are large. There is more private drainage in St Ives than in any other suburb we cover.
Because putting the garden back costs more than fixing the pipe. This is the part of a drainage repair people do not price until an excavator is already on site.
Established gardens on large post-war blocks, with national park frontage on the boundary constraining excavation in that direction.
A liner goes in through an opening that already exists. Nothing above the pipe has to move.
A large plateau suburb at 171 metres with national park on the boundary and long falls from house to connection on generous blocks.
St Ives sits in the Ku-ring-gai Council, postcode 2075.
Local figures sourced from: Ku-ring-gai Urban Forest Strategy — Ku-ring-gai Council · ABS 2021 Census QuickStats — St Ives (NSW) · St Ives, New South Wales — Wikipedia
Post-war earthenware laid as the area developed, consistently around seventy years old across a very large suburb.
No trench, no spoil, and nothing above the pipe disturbed. The whole job runs through an existing access point.
The line is inspected end to end so the damage is located and measured. Nothing is quoted from the surface.
Roots are cut out and the pipe wall is jetted back to bare material — a liner will not bond to a coated pipe.
A resin-saturated liner is drawn into position through an existing access point and inflated against the host pipe.
The resin hardens in hours rather than days, forming a new pipe inside the old one with no joints for roots to re-enter.
Any branch lines are cut back open robotically, and a final camera pass confirms the result.
Not every damaged pipe should be relined, and we will say so. These are the cases where it genuinely wins here.
Trench cost tracks distance directly.
Root entry recurs unless the joint is sealed.
A failure at one joint says something about the rest.
Relining costs more per metre than excavation. It is usually cheaper overall, and this is why:
| Dig and replace | Relining | |
|---|---|---|
| Excavation | Trench the full length, remove and replace the pipe, backfill | None — the work runs through an existing access point |
| What comes up | Lawn, garden, paving, driveway or slab above the line | Nothing |
| Time on site | Days on a long or deep run | Usually one day for a typical run |
| Reinstatement | Priced separately and often the larger half of the bill | Not applicable |
| Result | New pipe, with joints | A jointless liner inside the host pipe |
| Design life | Depends on material and bedding | 50 years on a correctly installed liner |
The per-metre comparison is the one that misleads. Excavation quotes routinely exclude spoil removal and reinstatement, which is where a dig job gets expensive — and on some properties the reinstatement is simply not possible at any price.
These are typical ranges across the Sydney market — not Voyager’s price list, but a realistic yardstick to judge any quote against, including ours.
| Pipe relining, per lineal metre | $450 – $800 |
| Pipe relining, typical whole job | $4,000 – $10,000 |
| Patch repair, single damaged section | $1,500 – $3,000 |
| Junction reinstatement | $300 – $600 |
| Excavate and replace, per metre | $300 – $600 |
| Driveway reinstatement after a dig job, per sqm | $100 – $200 |
| CCTV drain inspection | $250 – $550 |
| Cutting tree roots from a line | $400 – $1,200 |
Voyager prices by the job, not by the hour, so the number you approve is the number you pay. A camera survey happens before any figure is given — a quote for relining that has not looked down the pipe is a guess.
Most St Ives properties that ring about relining need a camera first. We will tell you straight — including when clearing the line is the whole job.
A correctly installed liner carries a 50-year design life, and it cures in hours rather than days — so the property is back in normal use the same week rather than the same month.
Uniformly aged drainage means a failure at one joint says something about the rest, so sealing the run is usually better value than the metre.
Roots come back through joints. A liner has none.
Voyager covers the whole Lower North Shore. These are the closest to St Ives:
No. That is the whole point of it. The liner is drawn in through an existing access point — usually an inspection opening or shaft already on the property — and cured in place against the old pipe. It means a large established garden is not opened and nothing is excavated towards the national park boundary.
Across the Sydney market, relining runs about $450–$800 per lineal metre, with a typical whole job landing between $4,000 and $10,000 and a single-section patch around $1,500–$3,000. Those are market ranges rather than Voyager’s price list. Scale. On 14.39 square kilometres of large blocks the fault’s position along a long run is the main variable, and locating it accurately is what keeps one excavation from becoming three.
Per metre, no — excavation is cheaper per metre. Overall it usually is. The dig figure rarely includes putting the garden back, and on established planting that is routinely the larger half of the job. On some properties the reinstatement is not possible at any price, which settles it entirely.
A correctly installed liner carries a 50-year design life. It outlasts what it replaced because it has no joints along its length — and joints are where roots get in, where ground movement opens a gap, and where old earthenware fails first. Which means the garden above it is not being opened again in ten years.
A typical residential run is a single day on site, and the resin cures in hours rather than days. The camera survey happens first, either on the same visit or beforehand — nothing about a relining job should be quoted from the surface.
Most can, but not all — and we will say so rather than sell you something that will not work. A pipe that has collapsed completely, or lost so much of its shape that there is nothing left to line against, needs replacing. In St Ives the host pipe is usually a good candidate: roots out of Ku-ring-gai Chase into post-war pipe, on runs that are long because the blocks are large. There is more private drainage in St Ives than in any other suburb we cover.
It has more exposure than most. St Ives is the largest suburb in the area by land with more Ku-ring-gai Chase frontage than anywhere on the North Shore, and post-war drainage now around seventy years old underneath it. More old private pipe and more bushland boundary produces more root intrusion than a denser, newer suburb would.
Through that section, yes. Roots enter at joints and cracks; a liner is continuous and seals them, so the entry point is gone. Roots can still find a different fault further along an old line, which is why the survey covers the whole run rather than only the section that failed.
Camera survey first, a fixed price agreed before the work starts, and no excavation.
Voyager Plumbing · NSW Contractor Licence 476657C
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Page reviewed and updated 20 August 2026
