Sewer scope and camera inspection
The step that turns a guess into a decision — and the footage every repair quote should be based on.
The short answer
A sewer scope sends a camera through the line from a cleanout and records its condition and the distance to every defect. It usually costs about $150 to $500 and takes under an hour. Order one before buying a home built before about 1980, when a clog keeps returning, or before agreeing to any repair bigger than clearing the line.
In this section
When a sewer scope pays for itself
- Buying a home built before about 1980, when clay, cast iron and Orangeburg laterals were common.
- Large trees between the house and the street.
- A clog that returns within months of being cleared.
- Before accepting any quote to repair or replace the line — so the method matches the defect.
- After a repair, to confirm the work — especially a liner.
Always keep the footage
A written summary isn't enough. The recording, with the distance to each finding, is what lets a second contractor quote the same job, lets an insurer or a city programme assess a claim, and lets a later inspection show whether anything has changed. Ask for it before you pay.
Reading the report you get back
A useful sewer scope report gives three things for every finding: what it is, where it is and how serious the inspector thinks it is. Distance from the access point is what lets a contractor price a repair and a locator mark the spot on the ground, so a report without distances is worth asking to have completed.
Terms to expect include roots, belly or sag, offset or separated joint, crack or fracture, scale, channeling, deformation and collapse. If the camera could not reach the main, the report should say where it stopped and why, because everything beyond that point is unknown.
If you are selling, having your own scope done before listing lets you fix problems on your terms, or disclose them with a price attached, rather than negotiating against a buyer's inspection on a deadline.
Who to hire for the inspection
For a purchase or a second opinion, choose someone with no stake in the repair — often a home inspector offering a sewer scope as an add-on. For a line you already know needs clearing, a sewer contractor can clear it and run the camera in one visit. Either way, the recording belongs to you: ask for it, and for the distance to each finding, before you pay.