Trenchless methods
Sewer pipe lining in Denver
Pipe lining leaves the old sewer in the ground and builds a new one inside it. For the thousands of clay laterals under the pre-1950 neighborhoods of Denver, whose only real defect is the mortar that used to hold the sections together, it is the repair that solves the actual problem without opening a yard or an alley. This page walks through how a liner goes in and what it is and is not good for.
Serving Denver · Denver County
All Sewer and Plumbing Services, LLC
CIPP Verified installer. Camera inspection before any quote; permits and inspections handled. More about All Sewer and Plumbing Services →
Step one: clean the host pipe
A liner is only as good as the wall it bonds to, so a lining job in Denver starts with the jetter. Root masses at the clay joints are cut, the mortar fragments and grit are flushed to the main, and scale in cast iron is chained off until the camera sees bare metal. The inspection that follows logs the material of each section, the position and depth of every branch connection, and any defect that would stop a liner, which means a collapse, a flattened run of Orangeburg or a sag that holds water. If the line passes, the liner is ordered to the measured length and diameter.
Step two: the sleeve and the resin
The liner itself is a flexible tube of needled felt or woven fiberglass with a coating on one side. On the day of the job it is impregnated with a two-part resin, typically polyester or vinyl ester for sanitary sewers and epoxy where bond and low shrinkage matter, and the amount of resin is calculated from the tube's length and thickness so there are no dry spots. The wet tube is then introduced into the lateral through the cleanout. Two methods are common: inversion, in which air or water pressure turns the tube inside out as it travels down the pipe and presses the resin side against the wall; and pull-in-place, in which the tube is winched through and then inflated with a bladder. Which one is used depends on the access and the layout of the line.
Step three: the cure
With the tube inflated against the host, the resin is hardened. Hot water or steam circulated through the tube cures a polyester system in a couple of hours; ultraviolet light drawn through a fiberglass liner cures it faster and is well suited to the short, smaller-diameter laterals common in Denver. During the cure the household water is off, since nothing can flow into the line. Once the resin has set the bladder is removed, the ends are trimmed at the cleanout and at the main, and the branch openings are milled out by a remote cutter. A final camera pass records the finished pipe from end to end.
What the liner does for Denver's pipe
- In mortar-jointed clay under Capitol Hill, Baker, Park Hill and the Highlands, the liner bridges every joint, which is where every root and every leak was. The clay sections stay put as a form.
- In cast iron under a mid-century slab, the liner replaces the rusted-out invert with a smooth floor and stops the scaling that was catching solids.
- In lightly deformed Orangeburg, a liner can be installed if the camera shows the bore is still mostly round; the installer will say when a run is too far gone and should be burst instead.
- Across the alley and under the street, the liner continues to the main without any opening in the pavement, which is where the owner's responsibility and the highest excavation cost both sit.
What it cannot do
A liner follows the shape of the pipe it is cured in. It will not lift a belly, straighten a severe offset, or restore a crushed section, and it cannot enlarge a line that is too small for the building. Those cases belong to bursting or to a targeted dig. The limits are stated plainly at the CIPP reference, which is worth reading before comparing quotes, because an installer who promises a liner for every defect is not reading the video.
Permits, timing and the paperwork that follows
Lining a lateral inside Denver requires the Sewer Use and Drainage Permit issued by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure; a right-of-way permit is added only if the crew must occupy the alley or street, which for a lining job usually means parking the truck. Addresses in Denver County but outside the city are permitted by their own district. The pipe sits below frost and the cure runs on heat or UV, so winter is a normal working season. A single-family lateral is cleaned, lined, cured and reinstated in one day. The owner receives the pre- and post-lining video, the permit sign-off and the warranty, which is the package a buyer's sewer scope inspector expects to see on an older Denver house. the verified installer covering Denver installs liners across the metro area and is listed in the directory at the verified installer directory.
Estimates are free. Call now: (720) 606-6223.
Other trenchless services in Denver
Trenchless Sewer Repair Denver
Repair or replace a failed sewer line with little or no excavation.
Pipe Bursting Denver
A bursting head splits the old pipe while pulling new HDPE pipe in behind it, through two small pits.
Sectional Point Repair Denver
A short liner fixes one bad spot and leaves the rest of a sound line alone.
Sewer Camera Inspection Denver
See what is actually wrong before anyone quotes a fix.
Hydro Jetting Denver
High-pressure water strips roots, grease and scale so the pipe can be inspected and lined.
Sewer Line Repair & Replacement Denver
When a line cannot be lined: spot excavation or trenchless replacement, chosen from the footage.
Questions we hear about sewer pipe lining (cipp)
Does lining reduce the size of my sewer pipe?+
By a small amount, a few millimeters of wall thickness. The finished liner is smooth and seamless, and a four-inch clay lateral that was losing capacity to root masses and rough mortar joints carries more flow after lining than before, not less.
Can cast iron under a slab in a Denver ranch be lined?+
Yes, and it is one of the better uses of the method. The iron is descaled with chains and jetting, the camera confirms the pipe is round, and the liner is installed from a floor drain or cleanout without breaking the slab. The rusted invert is bridged by the new wall.
How are the branch lines reconnected after lining?+
A robotic cutter travels inside the cured liner with a camera and mills out each branch opening where a kitchen, bathroom or floor drain joins the main run. The positions were logged on the first inspection, so the cutter goes to known footage marks. Nothing is dug to find them.
Will the city accept a lined lateral?+
Lined laterals are routine in Denver and are installed under the same Sewer Use and Drainage Permit as any other lateral repair. The post-cure video is the record of the work, and it is what a city inspector or a future buyer's inspector reviews.
How do I get a price?+
Phone (720) 606-6223 or use the form. The installer inspects the lateral by camera, confirms it is a candidate for lining, gives you the footage and a written finding, and quotes from that. Estimates are free; call now.