Pipe Coating in Austin & San Antonio

Coatings used inside potable water lines are formulated and certified for contact with drinking water, and that is the only kind we would put in a supply line. The material cures into a hard, inert lining that does not flake or leach once set. Curing time matters: the line stays out of service until the coating has fully hardened, and we flush it before returning it to use. It is fair to ask what product is going into your pipes and to see its drinking-water rating, and we will show you. If a supply line is so deteriorated that a lining would be the only thing holding it together, we recommend replacing it instead; a coating is meant to protect pipe, not substitute for it.

Properly applied to sound pipe, a modern epoxy or polyurea lining is a long-term repair measured in decades, not years, and manufacturers back their products accordingly. The two things that shorten its life are poor preparation and lining pipe that should have been replaced. A coating bonded to rust or scale will separate; a coating over a cracked or bellied section will fail where the pipe moves. That is why we clean aggressively and inspect twice, and why we turn down jobs where the pipe is not a candidate. We will tell you the specific product used on your home and the coverage that comes with it before you approve the work.

Sometimes, and it is one of the reasons homeowners ask about it. Lining can seal pinhole leaks and light corrosion in a copper line under the slab without opening the floor, which is attractive when the flooring is tile or stone. It works when the pipe is otherwise intact and the leak is small. It does not work when a line has been rubbed through by slab movement or split by a freeze, because there is not enough pipe left to coat. In practice, we locate the leak first, assess the pipe, and then compare three options: a direct repair at the leak, an overhead reroute, or lining. Each has a price, and we will tell you which one we would pick for your floor.

Usually the coating itself is comparable to or somewhat more than the pipe work in a replacement, and the savings come from everything you do not have to do: no slab cutting, no tile removal, no drywall patching, no landscaping put back. On a run that is easy to reach, replacement is often the cheaper and simpler choice. On a run under a finished floor, behind a tiled shower wall or beneath a mature tree, coating tends to win once the restoration cost is added up. We price both for you, with the restoration work included in the replacement number so the comparison is honest. Financing is available for either option.