The Advantage of Video Sewer Line Inspection

Private outdoor sewer lines are similar to indoor drains in that blockages need to be cleared for pipes to carry wastewater away from the property efficiently.

The difference is that drains are usually accessible from inside the house, requiring little to no demolition. And blockages can be cleared using rudimentary tools like drain snakes or plungers.

The problem becomes a little more complicated when the blockage is located farther down in a primary line that connects directly to the city system. Because plumbers have no way of seeing where the blockage is without digging into the yard, a camera gives us a major advantage.

John’s Plumbing & Pumps, Inc is highly skilled with modern sewer pipe inspection camera equipment and can diagnose your sewer line backup issue within an hour. This advanced technology means you can leave your yard in-tact while determining the cause of the issue.

Sewer line inspection cameras have the benefit of:

Efficiency
Preventing Damage to Landscaping
Providing an Inexpensive Alternative to Trench Digging
Finding and Measuring the Exact Location of the Blockage

How do sewer line cameras pinpoint the exact location of a blockage?

Sewer line cameras come equipped with powerful lights and are attached to the end of a long hose. The hose contains wiring that feeds the recording to monitors that display what the camera sees in real-time.

The camera’s pivoting head allows our plumbers to inspect the walls of the pipes from multiple angles, giving us a more accurate picture of the pipe’s condition overall.

On the screen, we can also see the exact distance from the clean-out (an access pipe that sticks out of the ground – usually found in the yard or basement of the property) to the blockage. We use this measurement to determine where we might need to dig and perform repairs if the blockage cannot be broken up by hydrojetting.

The information we gather through video line inspection helps us avoid the potentially wasteful and costly process of digging up entire lines to pinpoint clogs, breaks, or leaks.

What Causes Sewer Line Backups?

Pipe sections can actually separate if they’ve been infiltrated by a root system.

Sewer line damage from tree or shrub roots is very common, especially in areas like Tacoma where properties have lots of vegetation.

Root systems looking for water will slowly grow into sewer line cracks or connections between pipe sections.

Other causes:

Sometimes, but rarely, there is a blockage in the city sewer system. This will cause all properties in the immediate area to experience drainage issues.
Aging Sewer Pipes
Non-Flushable Items Sent Down the Drain
Incorrectly Installed Plumbing Connections
Burst Pipes

Our camera systems can be pushed through to the other side of a root blockage to determine how long it is and how extensively the pipe has been damaged. Our plumbers then know exactly how many feet of pipe need to be replaced in order to correct the issue.

Again, the benefit of sewer line camera technology is to prevent unnecessary digging. And most importantly, it saves our Tacoma customers thousands in labor costs.