Brisbane Pipe Relining is an ideal solution to repair defective sewerage or stormwater pipe work. Brisbane Pipe relining is used as a way of permanently fixing damaged pipes in difficult to access locations such as under concrete, foundations or in scenarios where replacing the pipes would mean shutting down an entire building or complex such as a high rise residential unit or office tenancy.

In these situations, the down time incurred for replacement could be days or weeks. Meaning these large buildings would be unable to operate during this time and have a large negative economic impact for both tenants and building owners.

Essentially this process is rehabilitating the pipes rather than replacing them. And although this sounds like a temporary repair method, it is in fact a more permanent and stronger fix than just replacing the pipework. Pipe relining has a working life of over 50 years and in most cases will have a longer life expectancy than newly replaced pipes.

The newly ‘relined’ part of the pipe is made up of epoxy resin that is either impregnated with a fabric sock or fibre glass fabric which when cured becomes rock hard and durable. Much stronger than a plastic PVC pipe.

Because this technology and method of repairing pipework isn’t as well known by the general public it is often looked upon with scepticism. However, water utilities, councils and state roads worldwide have been using this method to rehabilitate both sewer and stormwater pipes for decades.

There are several different pipe relining methods that can be used to carry out the repairs and it depends on the access, location and size of the pipes. Some methods include:

• Inversion lining
  – where a complete length of pipe can be rehabilitated under the ground, or only one access point is available
  
  
• Point repair, patch lining
  – where the liner is pulled or pushed into place via one or two access points and repairs a smaller section of the pipe
  
  
• Ambient cured relining
  – where the resin is cured (hard set) by the existing temperature, the time is determined by the current temperature which could be cold in winter (take a long time to set) and hot in summer (set too quickly).
  
  
• Cured in place with heat or steam
  – where hot water, steam or hot air is used to cure (harden the resin) in a quicker time frame
  
  
• UV cured relining
  – where UV light is used to cure (harden the resin) in a controlled time frame