What does drain relining cost? In the UK, drain relining typically costs £80-£150 per metre in 2026 (MyJobQuote), with PriceYourJob putting most domestic lining at £80-£100 per metre. A localised patch repair runs £150-£300 at market rates. A typical household job covering several metres of damaged clay therefore lands between a few hundred pounds and the low thousands, depending on length, diameter and access. TrueFlow quotes every relining job individually after a camera survey (from £120, or from £220 with jetting), and the exact price is agreed with you before any work starts.
This guide explains what relining actually involves, when it is and is not possible, what the market charges, and what to do when a drain defect turns up in a homebuyer survey.
What drain relining actually is
Drain relining, formally cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining, repairs a damaged drain from the inside. A flexible sleeve soaked in resin is fed into the pipe through a manhole or access point, pressed firmly against the wall with air or water pressure, and left to harden. Once cured, the resin forms a smooth, jointless pipe within the original one, sealing cracks, open joints and root entry points along the whole treated length. The ground above is never opened, which is why the trade calls it trenchless repair.
Where damage is confined to one spot, a structural patch repair does the same job over a short section: a resin-bonded wrap, usually under a metre long, cured in place directly over the defect. A patch uses less material and less time on site than a full liner, so for a single cracked joint it is usually the right call and the cheaper one. Both methods sit within our drainage repairs service alongside re-rounding for the pitch fibre pipes common in post-war Berkshire housing.
When a drain can be lined, and when it cannot
A liner needs something to line. Relining works when the host pipe is still essentially in place and roughly circular, which covers most of what a camera turns up in domestic drains:
- Cracked or fractured pipework that still holds its shape
- Open or displaced joints letting water out and roots in
- Root ingress, once the roots have been cut back to the pipe wall
- Wear and surface erosion in older clay or concrete pipes
- Pitch fibre deformation, after the pipe has been re-rounded
Relining is not an option when a section has fully collapsed, because there is no passage left to feed the sleeve through. It also cannot correct a pipe that has lost its gradient: the liner follows the shape of the host pipe exactly, so a sagging run that holds standing water will still hold standing water afterwards. Severely stepped joints and some very tight bends rule it out too. In those cases the defective section has to be repaired a different way, which is a decision the survey footage makes for you rather than a judgement call.
The relining process from survey to sign-off
A properly run relining job follows five stages, and the first and last both involve a camera.
- CCTV survey. A camera inspection confirms what the defect is, where it sits, how deep the pipe runs and whether lining is viable at all. Nobody should quote for a liner without footage.
- Cleaning. The pipe is jetted at high pressure so the resin bonds to clean pipe wall rather than to grease and silt. Any roots are cut out mechanically first.
- Installation. The resin-impregnated sleeve is winched or inverted into position along the measured length, then inflated against the pipe wall.
- Curing. The resin hardens over one to three hours with ambient cure, quicker with hot water or UV systems. Any connecting branch pipes are then reopened with a cutting tool.
- Re-survey. The camera goes back through to prove the finished liner is sound, and you should receive that footage with your paperwork.
Most domestic liners and patches are completed in a single day, and the drains are usually back in service the same evening.
How long a liner lasts, and what the guarantees mean
Liner materials are tested against the 50-year design life demanded by the WRc (Water Research Centre); national contractor Lanes, for example, cites safety factors that push effective life expectancy towards 100 years. The cured resin does not corrode, and roots cannot re-enter through joints that no longer exist.
Treat those figures for what they are: material design-life claims from manufacturers and industry bodies, not a promise from the firm installing yours. The installer’s workmanship guarantee is a separate thing and always shorter, so ask any contractor two questions: what design life is the liner material rated for, and what does your own guarantee cover in writing? TrueFlow backs its repair work with a 6-month guarantee, is fully insured, and agrees the exact price before work starts.
Drain relining costs in the UK: 2026 market figures
The figures below are UK market ranges drawn from trade price aggregators, not TrueFlow’s price list. TrueFlow has no published relining rate, because sensible lining prices only exist after a camera has measured the job: repairs are quoted individually following a CCTV survey, from £120, or from £220 combined with jetting (standard prices here).
Full relining: £80-£150 per metre. MyJobQuote lists £80-£150 per metre and PriceYourJob £80-£100 per metre for lining existing pipework. At those rates a six-metre residential run works out at roughly £500-£900 of lining, before the survey and any cleaning are added.
Patch repair: £150-£300. MyJobQuote puts a localised structural patch at £150-£300, with PriceYourJob quoting around £200. Where the camera shows one defect rather than a failing length, the patch is the budget-friendly structural fix.
What moves a quote within those ranges: pipe diameter (150mm liners cost more than 100mm), depth and access, how much cleaning and root cutting the pipe needs before lining, how many branch connections must be reopened afterwards, and whether the length justifies a liner or a patch will do. Survey fees sit on top, and are covered in our CCTV survey price guide.
Be wary of any firm quoting a per-metre lining price over the phone without footage. The honest answer before a survey is a range; the exact figure comes after the camera.
Lining or digging: how the decision gets made
The choice is mostly made by the pipe, not the contractor. If the host pipe is intact enough to carry a liner, lining is almost always quicker, cheaper and kinder to whatever sits above the drain. Excavation remains the right answer only when there is nothing left to line or the gradient has failed, and it adds the cost of breaking out and reinstating the surface above the pipe. If a contractor pushes digging for a defect their own footage shows as a lineable crack, get a second opinion before anyone picks up a spade.
Relining for homebuyers
Pre-purchase drain surveys regularly list defects such as fractures, open joints and root ingress, especially on homes built before the 1970s with clay pipework. Finding one on a survey report is not a reason to walk away from a house; most of these defects are lineable, and the market rates above give you a sanity check on any repair estimate attached to the report.
Ask the seller or your surveyor for the actual footage, get a written lining quote against it, and use that figure in price negotiations. A £500-£900 liner is a very different conversation from the worst-case assumptions a vague “drainage defects noted” line invites. Our CCTV survey cost guide covers what a homebuyer survey itself should cost and include.
If a survey has flagged a damaged drain in Bracknell, Wokingham, Reading or anywhere nearby, call TrueFlow on 0808 175 7440, 24/7, 365 days a year. We cover the whole patch, including drainage repairs in Bracknell, and every repair is priced exactly before work begins.
Drain relining FAQs
How much does drain relining cost per metre?
UK market rates for drain relining are £80-£150 per metre in 2026, with most straightforward 100mm domestic liners towards the lower half of that range. Pipe diameter, depth, access and pre-lining cleaning all move the figure. TrueFlow quotes every relining job individually after a CCTV survey, with the exact price agreed before work starts.
How long does a drain liner last?
Manufacturers test CIPP liner materials against the 50-year design life demanded by the WRc, and industry contractors cite effective life expectancies approaching 100 years once safety factors are included. Those are material claims, distinct from the installer’s own workmanship guarantee, which is always shorter. TrueFlow backs its repair work with a 6-month guarantee.
Can every damaged drain be relined?
No. A liner needs a host pipe that is still open and roughly circular, so fully collapsed sections, runs that have lost their gradient and some tight bends cannot be lined and need a different repair. A CCTV survey shows which category your drain falls into before anyone quotes.
Does a liner make the drain narrower?
Only by a few millimetres of wall thickness, and in practice flow usually improves because the cured resin is far smoother than aged clay with open joints. Diameter loss only becomes a design consideration in very small pipes, which is one of the checks made during the pre-lining survey.