Your Family’s Trusted Go – To Plumber
Last year, a customer kept getting backups in his basement bathroom. We’d snake it, it’d work for a month, then back up again. Finally, we ran a camera down there and found a belly in the pipe where debris was collecting. Without the camera, we’d still be guessing.
Sewer camera inspections take the guesswork out of drain problems. Instead of digging up your yard hoping to find the problem, we can see exactly what’s happening inside your pipes.
We use a waterproof camera attached to a flexible cable. The camera has lights and records video as we push it through your sewer line. We can see the pipe walls, any obstructions, damage, or issues.
Modern cameras even have locators built in, so once we find a problem, we can go above ground and mark exactly where it is. No more guessing where to dig.
The camera cable can go 200 plus feet, which covers most residential sewer lines from the house to the street.
We usually access your sewer line through a cleanout, that’s the capped pipe sticking out of your foundation or in your yard. If there’s no cleanout, we might go through a vent on the roof or, in rare cases, remove a toilet.
The inspection itself usually takes 30 to 45 minutes. We push the camera through the entire line, noting anything we see. The video is recorded so you can watch it with us and see exactly what we’re talking about.
We’ll explain what we found, where the problems are, and what needs to be done to fix them. No point running a camera if we’re not going to help you understand the results.
Depending on what we find, recommendations might include:
If you’re buying a house, spend the 200 to 300 dollars for a sewer inspection. I’ve seen buyers face 15,000-plus sewer replacements right after moving in because they didn’t check.
Sellers usually won’t pay for sewer problems unless you know about them before closing. Get it checked during your inspection period so you can negotiate or walk away if needed.
Houses built before 1980 especially need checking. Those old clay pipes often have problems by now.
Our clay soil is tough on buried pipes. It moves a lot with moisture changes, stressing pipes at joints and connections. Camera inspections often reveal problems that are just starting. Catching them early can save you money.
A sewer camera inspection costs a couple hundred bucks. Compare that to digging up your yard in the wrong spot or dealing with ongoing backups and damage. It’s money well spent for peace of mind.
Some plumbers include the inspection for free if they do the repair work. We’re pretty flexible on that depending on the situation.
Newer cameras have better resolution and can even measure pipe diameter and distance. Some can do detailed reports automatically. The technology makes diagnosing problems way more accurate than the old days of guessing and hoping.
Need to see what’s going on in your sewer line? My Local Plumber at http://www.mylocalplumber.net offers camera inspection services to diagnose problems accurately.