Sewer & camera inspection
See inside the pipe before you pay to fix it
A camera inspection turns a guess into a plan. In fifteen minutes you can see whether the line is root-invaded, sagging, scaled or broken, and that footage decides whether you need a cleaning or a repair.
Straight answer
When is a sewer camera inspection worth paying for?
Get one when a drain clogs more than once a year, before buying a home older than 20 years, after any sewer backup, if you smell sewage in the yard, or before a repiping or drain replacement project. It costs $250 to $500 and it is the only way to know the actual condition of the pipe.
For a real estate transaction in a Valley neighborhood with mature trees, an inspection protects the largest single plumbing expense a house can have. For an owner, it converts a repeating $300 cleaning into a decision about the line itself.
What the inspection covers
- Full lateral traverse from the cleanout to the city main where access allows, with distance markings.
- Root intrusion mapping showing exactly where roots have entered and how much of the pipe they occupy.
- Bellies, offsets and separations, the slope and joint defects that let waste settle and clog repeatedly.
- Scale and corrosion assessment in older cast iron and clay lines, with a sense of remaining service life.
- Cracks and collapses identified by location and depth so a repair quote is based on facts.
- Recorded footage and a written report emailed to you, which also serves as documentation for a home sale.
What we usually find
Common findings in Valley sewer laterals
- Root intrusion at joints in neighborhoods with mature trees and 1970s or 1980s laterals.
- Scale build-up in original cast iron, which narrows the pipe until nothing but water passes.
- Bellies and low spots from soil settlement, where waste sits and solids collect.
- Offset joints from ground movement, which catch debris and paper on every flush.
- Crushed sections under driveways or heavy landscaping, often from construction traffic years earlier.
You watch the screen with us, so the finding and the recommendation arrive together instead of as a claim on an invoice.
See drain cleaning and jetting
Questions
Sewer camera questions
When a drain clogs more than once a year, before buying a home over 20 years old, after a backup, if you smell sewage outside, or before any repiping work. In Valley neighborhoods with mature trees, it is standard before a sale.
Typically $250 to $500 in the Valley, including line locating and recorded footage. If the line needs cleaning first so the camera can see the pipe wall, that is quoted before we begin.
Roots enter through the smallest joint gap, then thicken as they grow and open the joint further while catching debris. In older Valley neighborhoods with mature trees, root intrusion is the most common cause of repeat main line clogs.
You get the footage with depth and location, plus repair options in writing. Depending on severity that may be a spot repair, a section replacement or a full lateral replacement, and some of those can be done trenchless with minimal digging.
Repeat clogs? Look inside the line.
Camera inspection with recorded footage and a written plan for what the pipe actually needs.