A plumber has just told you the line from your house to the street is cracked, bellied, or full of roots — and the number that follows has five figures in it. Sewer replacement is one of the most expensive plumbing jobs a homeowner faces, and also one of the hardest to comparison-shop, because three very different methods all claim to be "replacing the line." Here's what each one actually costs and when each one makes sense.
| Method | Cost per foot | Typical total (40–60 ft run) | What happens to your yard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open trench replacement | $50–$150 | $3,000–$8,000 | A trench the full length of the run; lawn, beds, and any pavement over the line come up |
| Pipe bursting (trenchless) | $60–$200 | $3,500–$10,000 | Two access pits; a bursting head pulls new pipe through the old one's path |
| Cured-in-place lining / CIPP (trenchless) | $80–$250 | $4,000–$12,000 | Minimal digging; a resin liner cures inside the existing pipe |
| Camera inspection (before any method) | — | $100–$500, often credited toward the job | None — a camera goes through a cleanout or pulled toilet |
Open trench is the old way and still the benchmark: the crew digs up the failed pipe, lays new PVC or ABS on a properly sloped bed, and backfills. It carries the lowest per-foot price in most markets and it fixes everything — collapsed sections, bad slope, offsets — because the pipe is fully exposed. The true cost hides in restoration: re-sodding, replanting, and especially concrete or paver work can add $1,000–$5,000 on top of the plumbing quote if the line runs under a driveway or patio.
Pipe bursting threads a cable through the old pipe and pulls a cone-shaped head behind it that fractures the old pipe outward while dragging new HDPE pipe into the same path. It handles collapsed pipe that lining can't, allows upsizing the pipe diameter, and leaves only two pits to repair. It needs straight-ish runs and enough clearance from other utilities, and the per-foot price drops a lot on longer runs because the setup cost spreads out.
CIPP lining inverts or pulls a resin-saturated tube into the cleaned existing pipe and cures it into a new pipe-within-a-pipe. It's the least disruptive option and often the fastest — many jobs finish in a day. Its limits matter: the host pipe has to hold its shape well enough to form the liner, so a fully collapsed or severely bellied section isn't a candidate, and the finished inside diameter shrinks by roughly a quarter inch. Lateral connections from inside the house get reopened robotically after curing, which is part of why the per-foot price runs highest.
Length. The run from house to street tap is 30–60 feet on most lots, but setback houses and rural lots can run 100 feet or more. Per-foot pricing means a long lot pays long-lot money — and it's also where trenchless methods start winning, since their setup cost is fixed.
Depth. Lines typically sit 4–8 feet down, deeper in cold climates where the tap is below the frost line. Every extra foot of depth means more digging, more shoring for worker safety, and slower work. A 10-foot-deep line can cost close to double a 4-foot one of the same length.
Trees and roots. Roots are the most common reason older clay and cast-iron lines fail. Big trees near the line raise the quote two ways: root masses slow the work, and in some cities the tree itself is protected, which limits where pits and trenches can go.
Pavement and structures. A line that passes under a driveway, patio, sidewalk, or the street costs more at every step — saw-cutting, removal, disposal, and repaving — and street work usually adds city permits and sometimes a separate tap fee of $500–$2,500.
Pipe material and condition. Orangeburg pipe (a fiber material used into the 1970s) deforms so badly it rules out lining and often bursting. Cast iron with heavy scale needs extensive cleaning before a liner can bond. What the camera finds here decides your method menu, which is why the next section matters more than any price table.
Book a camera inspection and cleaning first. $100–$500 buys a scoped view of the whole run. Any company quoting a full replacement without scoping the line is guessing with your money.
Get the video file, not just a verdict. The recording is yours and it's portable — a second company can quote from it without charging you for a second scope. Ask for footage that shows the full run with a distance counter.
Confirm the failure is really line-wide. A single cracked joint or one root intrusion is often a spot repair at $500–$2,500, not a replacement. Full replacement is the answer for collapsed sections, widespread cracking, or a belly that holds water along the run. Knowing whether you're in spot-repair or replacement territory is worth comparing against the general ranges in our breakdown of what a plumber charges before you commit to either.
Get two quotes on the same method. A trench quote and a trenchless quote aren't comparable numbers — they buy different restoration bills. Price method against method, then compare winners.
Ask what's excluded. Restoration, permits, city tap fees, and interior reconnection work are common exclusions. The low quote is often just the one with the longest exclusion list.
Slow drains in several rooms at once, gurgling toilets when the washer drains, sewage smells in the yard over the line's path, and a strip of lawn that's mysteriously greener than the rest all point at the main line rather than a single fixture. Our guide to a sewer smell in the bathroom helps sort line problems from the simpler trap and vent causes — worth ruling out before you pay for a scope. Recurring backups that a snaking clears for only a few weeks are the strongest signal of all: the snake is trimming roots, not fixing the pipe they grew into.
Standard homeowners policies generally don't pay to replace a worn-out sewer line — gradual deterioration is the homeowner's problem, in the same way homeowners insurance treats water damage from slow leaks differently from sudden bursts. Two exceptions are worth checking. A service line endorsement, often $30–$50 a year, covers the underground lines between street and house, usually with limits around $10,000–$25,000. And some cities run lateral repair programs that share the cost of the public-side portion. Both are five-minute phone calls that can move thousands of dollars.
For a typical 40–60 foot residential run, budget $3,000–$8,000 for open trench, $3,500–$10,000 for pipe bursting, and $4,000–$12,000 for lining — then add restoration for whatever sits on top of the line. The cheapest decision in the whole project is the camera inspection: it tells you whether you need replacement at all, which methods are even possible, and what a fair quote looks like before anyone starts digging.
Open trench replacement typically runs $50–$150 per foot. Trenchless methods cost more per foot — pipe bursting around $60–$200 and cured-in-place lining around $80–$250 — but they avoid most excavation and surface restoration, which is where trench jobs quietly catch up.
Per foot, usually not. Per project, often yes — once you add re-sodding, replanting, and repaving a driveway or patio to the trench quote, trenchless frequently lands lower overall, and it finishes faster. On a clear run under plain lawn with no pavement, open trench is still usually the cheapest total.
Most residential jobs take 1–3 days. Lining is often a single day of work once the line is cleaned. Open trench runs 2–3 days including backfill, plus separate time for any concrete or landscaping restoration afterward.
Usually not when the cause is age, roots, or gradual deterioration. A service line endorsement — typically $30–$50 a year — is the common exception, covering lines between the street and the house up to a set limit. Check your policy before the work, not after.
It depends on the material. Clay pipe commonly lasts 50–60 years, cast iron 75–100, Orangeburg often less than 50, and modern PVC is rated at 100 years or more. A line near the end of its material's lifespan that has already failed once is usually a replacement candidate, not a repair candidate.