Spent $600 on that fancy trenchless pipe repair kit and it was a total waste

I bought the NuFlow CIP system for a restaurant job in Austin thinking it would save us digging up their whole slab. Spent 2 days trying to get the liner to set right in a 4 inch cast iron line and it ended up collapsing anyway. Ended up having to cut the floor open after all which cost way more than just doing it old school. Anyone else have bad luck with those epoxy liner kits for commercial work?

3 comments

3 Comments

michaela161mo ago

That "spent 2 days trying to get the liner to set right" part hits close to home because I see this same pattern everywhere now. Seems like every new product promises to be a shortcut but ends up being twice the work when it fails. It's like people forgot that sometimes the straightforward way is the best way.

betty_reed611mo ago

Bought a similar kit for a small house job last year. The liner just wouldn't seal properly in the 45 degree bend. Did the whole thing by hand in the end with a standard pipe patch kit from the hardware store. Took half the time and cost maybe 40 bucks total. Those high end systems look good on paper but they're just not reliable for tricky spots.

the_robert1mo ago

Why do we keep falling for these miracle pipe repair kits? I fell for it too, spent a weekend wrestling with a similar setup in my own basement and ended up covered in epoxy with nothing to show for it. @betty_reed61 you hit the nail on the head with that standard pipe patch kit story, sometimes the cheap stuff works better because it's simpler. These high end systems feel like they were designed by engineers who never had to clean epoxy out of their hair at midnight. I swear the marketing makes it look so easy, but the reality is you need three hands and perfect conditions for it to work. Been burned too many times by these so called shortcuts, I just dig now and get it over with.