What Does a Sewer Camera Inspection Reveal? Signs You Need One

How we see inside your sewer line without digging, and when it’s worth doing

A sewer camera inspection puts a waterproof camera on the end of a push cable and runs it through your main sewer line from a cleanout to the street. The video shows exactly what’s in the pipe and what shape the pipe is in: roots, cracks, offset joints, grease, low spots, collapses. A transmitter in the camera head lets us locate any problem from above ground and mark it on the lawn, with the depth.

It’s the difference between knowing what’s wrong and guessing. Before anyone jets a line, lines a pipe, or digs up a yard, this is how you find out whether that’s actually what the pipe needs.

What can a sewer camera see?

• Tree roots coming in at joints, and how much of the pipe they’ve filled.
• Cracks, holes, and broken sections.
• Offset joints, where two sections of clay pipe have shifted out of line.
• Bellies, low spots where the pipe has sagged and holds standing water and sludge.
• Grease and scale buildup narrowing the pipe.
• Foreign objects. Wipes, mostly. Sometimes things you’d never guess.
• What the pipe is made of and where it changes, which matters for how it gets repaired.
• Where the line runs and how deep it is, so a repair can be planned without exploratory digging.

On the North Shore, the usual findings are roots and offset joints in old clay pipe, and scale and rust in old cast iron. Most of the sewer lines under homes here went in before 1980, and the trees over them have had decades to find the joints.

Signs you need a sewer camera inspection

One slow sink is a trap under the sink. These are main line signs:

• Several drains are slow at once, especially on the lowest level.
• The toilet gurgles or bubbles when the washing machine, tub, or dishwasher drains.
• Water comes up the basement floor drain when you run a lot of water upstairs.
• Sewage smell in the basement, or outside near the foundation or over the sewer line.
• A patch of grass over the sewer line that’s greener and lusher than the rest of the yard. That’s sewage leaking out of a break and fertilizing it.
• A soft or sunken spot in the lawn along the line.
• The line has been rodded more than once in the last year or two. If it keeps clogging, something in the pipe is catching debris, and rodding isn’t fixing it.

Why you should camera the sewer before buying a house

A standard home inspection stops at the foundation wall. The inspector runs the faucets and flushes the toilets and that’s it. The sewer lateral, the pipe from the house to the street, is the single most expensive plumbing component in the house and the one nobody looks at. A full replacement can run well into five figures, and a sewer problem found after closing is the buyer’s problem.

A pre-purchase sewer camera inspection takes about an hour and tells you what’s under the yard before you commit. If the line is bad, you negotiate or walk away. If it’s good, you know. For any house built before 1990, or any house with big trees in the parkway or front yard, we’d call it essential.

What happens during the inspection

1. We find the cleanout, the capped access point to the sewer line. It’s usually in the basement floor or wall, or outside near the foundation. If there isn’t one, we can go through a floor drain or pull a toilet.
2. The camera goes in and we push it down the line toward the street, watching the video on a monitor. You’re welcome to watch with us.
3. Wherever we see a problem, we stop. The camera head has a transmitter, and we use a locator above ground to find it, mark the spot on the lawn or driveway, and read the depth.
4. We push all the way to the city main, or as far as the line lets us, then pull back and look again.

You get the recording, a clear description of what’s in the pipe and where, footage markers for each defect, marks on the ground for anything that needs repair, and a straight recommendation.

What the results lead to

The camera tells us which of these the pipe actually needs:

• Nothing. Some lines get cameraed for a home purchase or peace of mind and come back clean.
• Rodding, for a one-time clog in a sound pipe.
• Hydro jetting, for grease, scale, or roots in a pipe that’s structurally fine.
• Spot repair, for one broken section in an otherwise good line.
• Trenchless lining, for a pipe with cracks or leaking joints along its length but no collapse.
• Replacement, for a collapse, a bad belly, or a line pitched back toward the house. Those can’t be lined.

Without the camera, you’re choosing from that list blind. With it, you’re paying for the one you need.

Frequently asked questions

Can a sewer camera find a break under a concrete slab?

Yes. The camera doesn’t care what’s above the pipe, and the locator reads the transmitter through concrete. We mark the exact spot on the slab, so if it has to be opened, it’s a small cut in the right place rather than a trench across the basement.

How long does a sewer camera inspection take?

Usually 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how easy the cleanout is to reach and how long the line is.

Will the camera clear the blockage?

No. It shows what the blockage is so we can pick the right tool: rodding for a clog, jetting for buildup. Often the rodding comes first to get water moving, then the camera to see why it happened.

Do I need a sewer inspection if my house was built after 2000?

Less likely to have a problem, since PVC doesn’t let roots in at joints the way clay does. But PVC lines can be installed with a bad pitch, settle into a belly, or get crushed by construction equipment. If you’re buying the house or seeing main line symptoms, it’s still worth doing.

How far can the camera go?

The cables run 100 to 200 feet, which covers the lateral from the house to the street on almost any residential lot. We can also run it the other direction, up the stack, if the problem is inside the house.

How much does a sewer camera inspection cost?

National guides put it at roughly $125 to $500. It’s a small number next to any sewer repair, and it’s the thing that keeps you from paying for the wrong repair.

Sewer camera inspections on the North Shore

Biagi Plumbing has been inspecting, cleaning, and repairing sewer lines on the North Shore since 1989, in Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Evanston, Glenview, Northbrook, Deerfield, Buffalo Grove, Libertyville, and the surrounding communities.

If your drains are telling you something’s wrong, or you’re about to buy a house with a fifty-year-old sewer line under the lawn, call Biagi Plumbing at (847) 512-8921 for a sewer camera inspection. We’ll show you the footage, mark anything that needs attention, and tell you what the pipe needs, whether that’s nothing at all or a repair we can price on the spot.