Cast Iron Pipe and Trench-less Pipelining

[Brian12345]

Hello all, new to the forum. Need some opinions. My home is approximately 50 years old and starting to have issues with our cast iron pipes (ie backups). Recently had a plumber (that I trust) sounds like we have an insurance claim that needs to be raised with the insurance company(found a crack in a vent stack).

Two questions:
Has anyone been down this road and did you check out the trenchless pipelining? I can't find any reason not to go this route. company claims 10 year warranty with 50 year life expectancy. Upon further research, municipalities in the US have been using lining for years. in addition this tech has been used in Europe nearly 30 years!

Did anyone have success with their insurance company footing the bill for access? the task seems daunting at minimum to rip up floors/bathrooms/kitchen.

BONUS question:
While we are in there, debating to replacing the existing copper supply lines, with PEX

My plumber is a great guy, and very smart. He's old school and to use his words he likes the 'tried, and trued' methods. I can agree, with him but only so much. His recommendation is digging under the house (I am NOT in favor of digging)

Opinions/thoughts?

many thanks
Brian

 

[Geofd]

well I work for a large university.....we have lined many pipes all because digging would have been impossible it may be out of your price range...so get both prices....lining usually takes about 8 hours I do agree with your plumber...I like copper....but in reality pex is much faster less expensive...I have only used it a couple of times but what I did in pex would have cost me a fortune in copper and in some places impossible …...I had to replace the main drain in my brother inlaws house but it was an un finished basement.. so even thou it was all the piping in the floor we cut it up with a skill saw jack hammer and sledge hammer...the mess/and dust was contained to the basement not a finished area

 

[phishfood]

I have been involved in a couple of these insurance claims/repipes with cast iron down here in FL. The insurance company will usually not pay for replacement without being forced to. In one of the two cases, they finally did pay to replace, in the other, it is still ongoing. I would be prepared to bring in some pros (ie, private adjuster, lawyer, plumber) to help you in dealing with them.

Disclaimer for the next part, I don't have any personal experience with installing pipe lining. All I have to go off of is what I have read about and heard from other plumbers over the years. I wouldn't recommend trying to line the whole drainage system under the house. You will have changes of direction, fittings where pipe branches off, etc. While there are methods to deal with these issues, I don't think that it would be worthwhile to attempt to use all of the bend patch kits & cut in and reinstate all of the branches that it would be necessary to do to give you a completely new piping system.

If there is a single section that has adequate slope on it, without breaks or offset joints in it, that is going under some flooring that you really like and don't want to tear out, that might be a situation where you should consider it.