Trenchless methods
Sewer pipe lining (CIPP) in Atlanta
Soak a tube in resin, pull it into a cleaned sewer line, cure it hard, and you have a jointless new pipe designed to last fifty years. Most trenchless sewer repairs in Atlanta are done this way, and this page explains exactly how it is done.
Serving Atlanta · Fulton County
Fletch Barney Trenchless, LLC
CIPP Verified installer. Camera inspection before any quote; permits and inspections handled. More about Fletch Barney Trenchless →
The idea behind CIPP
Cured-in-place pipe builds a replacement sewer inside the failing one while leaving the old pipe where it is. A felt or woven fiberglass tube is soaked in thermosetting resin, placed inside the cleaned host pipe, pressed against its wall with air or water, and cured with heat or ultraviolet light until it is a rigid structural pipe of its own. The old clay, cast iron or Orangeburg stays in the ground as a form. The liner has no joints from end to end, which in Atlanta means no place for oak and magnolia roots to enter and no gap for groundwater to seep through when the red clay is saturated after a wet winter.
Which lines can be lined
The liner takes the shape of the pipe it is cured in, so the host pipe has to be round enough and continuous enough to shape it. That includes most of what is under older Fulton County neighborhoods: terracotta with open or root-filled joints, cast iron with a corroded bottom and heavy scale, Orangeburg that is blistered but still round, PVC with a leaking joint or a short crack. It does not include a collapsed section, a belly that has dropped out of grade, Orangeburg flattened to an oval or a pipe too small for the building; those are addressed with a sectional repair first, or replaced by pipe bursting. The camera inspection makes the call, and the comparison at the CIPP reference explains the dividing line.
Installation, in order
The crew records the line with a camera and locates each defect by footage and depth. The pipe is hydro jetted until the wall is bare and a second camera pass confirms it. The liner is measured to the run, cut, and wet out with resin, either on site or in a facility and delivered chilled. Working from the cleanout, or from one small access hole where there is no cleanout, the crew inverts the tube with air pressure or winches it into place with a calibration hose. Pressure holds it against the wall while hot water, steam or a UV light train cures the resin. Once hard, the ends are trimmed, a robotic cutter reopens the branch connections, and a closing camera run documents the finished pipe. On most houses the whole sequence fits inside a single day. the verified CIPP installer for Atlanta installs liners this way across metro Atlanta and north Georgia.
What changes once the liner is in
The finished liner is a continuous, smooth-walled pipe bonded to the inside of the old one. It seals every joint and crack, which stops both root intrusion and infiltration, the second of which matters to the utilities in the oldest in-town areas working under a federal consent decree on sewer overflows. It restores structural strength to a cast iron line that had rusted thin and to a clay line that had cracked. It improves flow by replacing a rough, scaled bore with a slick one. And because nothing was excavated, there is no trench in red clay to settle later and crack the driveway or the slab above it, and no granite to break.
Cure methods and materials
Three cure methods are in common use for laterals. Hot water circulation is the oldest and most forgiving; steam is faster and uses less water; UV light cures a fiberglass liner impregnated with light-reactive resin faster than either and allows the crew to inspect the liner before curing it. Felt liners with polyester or epoxy resin are the standard for sanitary laterals; fiberglass liners are stiffer and thinner for the same strength. Epoxy is specified where the waste is hot or chemically aggressive, as in some commercial kitchens. The contractor should tell you which liner and resin is going in and why, and the specification belongs in the proposal.
After the liner is in
You should receive the pre- and post-lining recordings, a written finding that lists what was found and what was installed, the permit record from the city or county, and a warranty on the liner. If any part of the work reached the sidewalk or street, the right-of-way permit closes out with the pavement restored. Keep the package with the house documents; it is what a buyer, an inspector or a lender will ask to see. The installers at the verified installer directory are listed because they provide it on every job.
Estimates are free. Call now: (877) 959-0155.
Other trenchless services in Atlanta
Trenchless Sewer Repair Atlanta
Repair or replace a failed sewer line with little or no excavation.
Pipe Bursting Atlanta
A bursting head splits the old pipe while pulling new HDPE pipe in behind it, through two small pits.
Sectional Point Repair Atlanta
A short liner fixes one bad spot and leaves the rest of a sound line alone.
Sewer Camera Inspection Atlanta
See what is actually wrong before anyone quotes a fix.
Hydro Jetting Atlanta
High-pressure water strips roots, grease and scale so the pipe can be inspected and lined.
Sewer Line Repair & Replacement Atlanta
When a line cannot be lined: spot excavation or trenchless replacement, chosen from the footage.
Questions we hear about sewer pipe lining (cipp)
Does a liner make my sewer line smaller?+
The wall of a cured lateral liner is a fraction of an inch thick, so the bore shrinks slightly in diameter. Because the new surface is smooth and the old pipe was rough with scale, joints and root hairs, the lined pipe carries as much or more flow than before. On a badly scaled cast iron line the capacity gain is large.
How long will a cured-in-place liner last?+
Lateral liners are engineered for a fifty-year design life and come with a written warranty from the installer. The resin does not corrode, roots cannot enter a jointless pipe, and the liner moves with the host pipe as the clay swells and shrinks rather than cracking at a joint the way the original did.
Does Georgia summer heat or winter cold affect the install?+
Only at the margins. Resin cure is heat-driven and controlled by the crew, so the ambient temperature changes the handling time of the wet-out liner more than the result. Summer heat means the liner is kept cool until it is in the pipe; a cold morning lengthens the cure slightly. Work goes on year-round in Fulton County.
Can a liner go through bends and under the slab?+
Yes. Flexible liners negotiate the sweeps and forty-five degree fittings common in a lateral, and lining under a slab from a cleanout or a pulled toilet is routine. A robotic cutter working inside the new pipe reopens any branch the liner covered. Very tight ninety-degree turns in small-diameter drains are evaluated case by case on camera.
How do I get a quote?+
Phone us or use the form. The camera goes in first, you get the video and a written finding, and the quote spells out the liner, its length and the footage it rests on. Estimates are free; call now.