What a Sewer Camera Inspection Actually Shows You

Most people who call us about a slow drain want one thing: for it to drain again. Fair enough, and clearing the clog is almost always step one. But if a drain has been slow more than once, or a toilet keeps backing up no matter how many times it gets snaked, we want to actually see what's happening inside the line before we tell you what's wrong with it. That's what the camera is for.

What the camera actually is

It's a waterproof camera on the end of a flexible cable, small enough to feed through a cleanout or drain opening and travel the length of a pipe. It sends a live picture back to a screen while the technician feeds it through, so we're looking at the actual inside of your line in real time, not guessing from symptoms on the surface.

What it shows that guessing never will

A slow drain can mean half a dozen different things, and most of them look identical from the kitchen sink. The camera tells us which one we're actually dealing with.

• Roots that have found a joint or crack and grown into the pipe, common on older clay and cast iron lines with tree cover nearby
• A joint that's shifted or separated, letting soil or debris into the line at that point
• A bellied section, where part of the pipe has sagged and now holds standing water and waste instead of letting it flow through
• Grease and scale buildup narrowing the inside of the pipe without any structural damage at all
• A fully collapsed section, usually the end result of one of the problems above left long enough

Those five things get fixed in completely different ways, at completely different costs. Root intrusion might just need cutting and jetting. A bellied section usually needs a dig and a section replacement. Scale buildup might clear with hydro-jetting alone and nothing else needs to happen. Without the camera, all five look the same from where you're standing: a drain that won't clear.

Why it's part of the drain cleaning call, not an add-on

We include a free sewer camera inspection with a drain cleaning service call, because clearing a clog without knowing what caused it is only half the job. If the camera shows a structural problem, you know about it before it becomes an emergency instead of finding out the hard way. If it shows nothing but grease and paper buildup, you know the clearing we just did solved the actual problem and you're not paying for anything more.

What we do with what we see

Every inspection gets recorded, so if something needs a follow-up repair, you're not taking our word for it. You've seen the same footage we have. That matters more than it sounds like it should. Nobody wants to authorize digging up part of their yard based on someone telling them there's a problem they can't see for themselves.

Worth doing before a problem shows up, not just after

If your house has mature trees near the yard where the sewer line runs, or you already know the line is clay or cast iron because of the home's age, a camera inspection every few years is worth doing on its own, not just as a reaction to a slow drain. Roots grow slowly and predictably. Catching a root that's just starting to work into a joint means a straightforward cut and clear. Catching it two years later, after it's had time to fill most of the pipe, usually means digging.

It's also useful anytime you're about to do work in the yard near where the line runs, landscaping, a fence post, a new patio, since knowing exactly where the pipe sits and what condition it's in saves you from finding out the hard way with a shovel. We keep the footage and the location on file for a client's property, so if a question comes up two years later, we're not starting from nothing.

If a drain keeps coming back

If you've snaked the same drain more than once in the past year, that's usually the sign it's worth actually looking rather than clearing it again and hoping. Call 832-597-4365 and we'll get a camera down there and show you exactly what's going on.