The sewer line is the pipe that carries everything from the house to the street, buried in the front yard. In the older boroughs of Bergen County it is often original: clay tile or cast iron laid sixty or eighty years ago. Nobody sees it until it fails, and by then the lawn is dug up and the bill has a comma in it. A camera inspection lets you see it first.
What happens
The plumber opens a cleanout, a capped pipe usually in the basement or just outside the foundation, and feeds a waterproof camera on a flexible cable down the line, watching a screen as it goes. A transmitter in the camera head lets them locate a problem from the surface, and mark its position and depth. You get to watch, and usually a recording.
It takes about an hour. Where there is no cleanout, the camera can go through a roof vent or with the toilet removed, which adds time.
What it finds
- Root intrusion. Tree roots enter at joints, particularly in clay pipe, and grow into a mat that catches everything. The most common finding.
- Cracks and breaks. From ground movement, roots, or age.
- Bellies. A sag in the line where water and solids sit, causing repeated clogs.
- Offset joints. Sections that have shifted, leaving a step for waste to catch on.
- Corrosion and scale in cast iron, narrowing the pipe.
- Collapse. The end of the road for that section.
- Nothing. Which is also worth knowing.
When it is worth doing
- Before buying an older house. Ask for it as part of the inspection, or make the offer contingent on it. The cost is a small fraction of a sewer replacement, and a bad result is a negotiating point.
- Repeated main line clogs. If the line has needed clearing more than once, find out why rather than paying to clear it again.
- Before a driveway, patio or landscaping goes over the line. Replacing a pipe under new paving costs far more.
- After a backup into the house.
- Big trees in the front yard and a house from before 1970.
What it costs
Prices vary, but as a rough guide, a camera inspection on its own runs a few hundred dollars in northern New Jersey, and some plumbers include it with a main line clearing or credit it against repair work. Beware of very cheap offers tied to a hard sell for a replacement. Ask for the recording and, if the verdict is expensive, get a second opinion.
The options after a bad result
- Clearing and cutting roots with a powered auger: cheap, and temporary. Roots return in a year or two.
- Hydro jetting cleans the pipe walls with high-pressure water: more thorough, still temporary if the roots' entry point remains.
- Spot repair. Digging up and replacing one bad section.
- Pipe lining. A resin liner cured inside the existing pipe, which seals cracks and joints without digging up the yard. Not possible for a collapsed or badly bellied pipe.
- Pipe bursting or full replacement. A new pipe pulled through or laid in a trench. The most expensive and the most permanent.
In New Jersey, sewer work requires a permit and inspection, and usually involves the town for the connection at the street. A licensed plumber handles that.
Who pays for what
Generally the homeowner owns and maintains the line from the house to the property line, and often to the connection at the main in the street. Check with your borough; the rules vary.
To book an inspection, find a licensed plumber near your town, and ask specifically whether they have a camera and provide the recording.