What a Sewer Repair Bid Should Include

Why the paper matters more than the price

Two bids for the same house can differ by half, and the difference is almost never greed. It is scope. One contractor counted the stretch under the sidewalk, the other stopped at the property line. One included the street permit, the other left it to you. One priced the concrete back in, the other priced a pile of dirt. Until both proposals describe the same work, comparing their totals tells you nothing. The checklist below is the list of things that have to match before the dollars mean anything.

The checklist, item by item

Footage and diameter

The length of pipe being repaired or replaced, in feet, and its inside diameter in inches, taken from the camera run and the locate. If the bid says "sewer line" without a length, the contractor either did not measure or does not want you to compare per-foot figures. Length is the single biggest driver of cost for lining and bursting, so a bid that omits it has omitted the thing you most need to check.

Access points

Where the crew gets into the pipe: an existing cleanout, a new cleanout to be installed, a pulled toilet, a roof vent, or an excavated pit, and where each one is. Access decides how much digging happens and where. A bid that assumes a cleanout you do not have will grow once the crew arrives.

Method, and why the alternatives were set aside

Spot repair, full lining, pipe bursting, or open-cut replacement, named plainly, followed by a short reason the other options were not chosen. This paragraph is where a contractor shows their thinking. If the pipe has a belly and the bid proposes lining, the reason had better address the belly. If there is no reason given at all, you are being asked to trust rather than to understand. We have hiring guides for each method: relining, bursting and open-cut.

Pre-work and post-work video

A statement that the existing footage is the basis of the scope, and a commitment to a recorded run after completion, with both files delivered to you. The post-work video is your proof that the liner is bonded, the connections are open and the new pipe has slope. Without it the warranty is a promise with no baseline.

Cleaning

Hydro-jetting or mechanical cleaning before lining or inspection, and who pays if the pipe is worse than the camera could see through the debris. Lining a dirty pipe is how liners fail, so cleaning belongs in the scope rather than in a verbal aside.

Reinstated connections

For a liner, the number of branch lines that will be cut back open after cure, and how. A liner covers every opening in the host pipe, including the one your kitchen drains through. A bid that does not count the branches has not finished the design.

Permits and inspections, named

Not "permits as required," but the actual permit: the plumbing permit from the city building department, the sewer connection permit from the utility, the right-of-way or street-opening permit if the work reaches the public strip. Each one should be listed with who pulls it and whether the fee is in the price. The same goes for inspections: the open-trench inspection, the post-lining video review, the air or water test. If the contractor's position is that no permit is needed, check with the permit office before you accept that, and read our page on licenses and permits.

Utility locate

A line confirming the 811 one-call ticket will be placed before excavation. It is free and it is the law in every state. Its absence from a bid suggests a crew that treats it as optional.

Surface restoration

What gets dug up and what condition it is returned to. Backfill and compaction, topsoil and seed, concrete flatwork, asphalt patch, pavers reset, sprinkler lines repaired. "Rough grade only" is a legitimate scope, but it should say so, because the difference between rough grade and a finished driveway is a second contractor.

Traffic control

If any part of the work is in the street or sidewalk, the bid needs to say who provides cones, plates, flaggers and the traffic plan the city will want attached to the right-of-way permit. On a quiet residential street this may be a single line. On an arterial it can be a meaningful share of the cost.

Who pays for surprises

This is the change-order language, and it is where a low bid becomes a high invoice. The proposal should say what happens if the crew finds a collapsed section the camera could not pass, an unmarked utility, rock, or a connection at the main that is not where the records show. Good language names a unit price for extra footage and a process for approving anything else before it is done. Bad language is "additional work billed at our standard rate."

Warranty terms

The length in years, what is covered (the liner, the pipe, the workmanship, the restoration), what voids it, and whether it transfers to the next owner. A warranty on a product you cannot inspect is only as good as the company issuing it, so the term should be paired with the company's history and license.

Payment schedule

How much at signing, how much at milestones, how much on completion. A deposit that covers materials is normal. A demand for most of the money before the crew arrives is not, and full payment should wait until the post-work video and the final inspection are in your hands.

License and insurance certificate numbers

The state or local license number, the general liability policy and carrier, and the workers' compensation certificate, written on the bid so you can verify each one. A bid without these is not a bid from a contractor; it is a bid from a person.

How to compare bids that do not look alike

Take a sheet of paper and write the checklist items down the left side. Make a column for each bid. Fill in what each proposal actually says about each item, and write "silent" where it says nothing. You will usually find that the cheapest bid has the most blanks.

Next, call each contractor and ask them to fill in their blanks in writing. A good company does this in a day. A company that resists has told you the blanks were intentional.

Then normalize the scopes. If one bid replaces 70 feet and another replaces 45, ask the 45-foot bidder why the last 25 were left out, and ask the 70-foot bidder why they were included. One of them has read the footage more carefully, and that is the one you want, whatever the total says.

Finally, compare apples: the same footage, the same method, the same restoration, the same permits, the same warranty term. At that point the price difference is real, and you can decide what the gap is buying. Often it is a longer warranty or a crew that is on the company payroll. Sometimes it is nothing, and the lower bid wins. The checklist is what lets you know which.

The red flags page covers what it tends to mean when specific items are missing, and the state guides name the permits and boards for where you live.

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