Sewer work is the most expensive plumbing most homeowners buy and the easiest to oversell, because the pipe is underground. A camera is what makes it verifiable.
A camera on a flexible rod is fed into the line through a cleanout — usually outside near the house, sometimes through a removed toilet if there is no accessible cleanout. The operator watches a monitor as it travels. Most equipment includes a transmitter so the camera head's position and depth can be located from above ground, which is how a problem gets marked on your lawn rather than described vaguely as 'out there somewhere'.
Roots entering at joints or cracks. A belly — a sagged section holding standing water, which you can see on the monitor because the camera goes underwater. Cracks, offset joints where sections have pulled apart, and collapsed sections. Grease and scale narrowing the bore. It also distinguishes between problems: roots and grease are maintenance, a belly and a collapse are structural, and they justify very different spending.
This is the part worth insisting on. Ask to watch the monitor live, and ask for a copy of the footage with the depth and distance readings visible. A contractor confident in the diagnosis will have no difficulty with that. One who will not show you what the camera saw is asking you to buy a repair you cannot verify, on the one job where verification matters most.
Before buying a house, particularly one over about thirty years old or with mature trees near the line — this is the single most useful inspection most buyers skip. After repeated main line backups. Before committing to any significant sewer repair. And after a line has been cleared, because roots and grease routinely hide a crack that only becomes visible once the pipe is clean.
Usually not. The line generally has to be cleared first, which is why clearing and inspection are often quoted together.
It makes access straightforward. Without one, access may mean pulling a toilet, which adds labour. If your house lacks a cleanout, installing one is worth pricing — it makes every future service call cheaper.
Far less than the repairs it informs. Be cautious about a free inspection that arrives bundled with a quote for major work — the incentive there runs the wrong way.
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