Understanding the Benefits of a Drain Pipe Camera Inspection

Is your kitchen the heart of your home? It’s the place where you bake cookies, share meals, and have great conversations. Heart of the home sounds like a good description.

What if the real heart of your home wasn’t something you could see or touch?

Your plumber might tell you the heart of any home is its plumbing system. And they can prove it by using a drain pipe camera to show you around your pipes.

Hidden behind walls and buried underground, your pipes give and take 24/7 to keep you and your home happy, clean, and healthy. Sounds like a fitting description for the heart of the home, no?

If you’ve never had a sewer line camera inspection, why not? You know what’s in the fridge and what’s cooking for dinner. Don’t you want to know what’s going on in the other heart of your home?

Today on the blog we’re talking about the benefits of plumbing system inspections done Hollywood style. Take a minute and read how a camera inspection could benefit you.

How Does a Drain Pipe Camera Work?

In the past, if a plumber needed to inspect your drain or sewer line, they dug up the yard. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but pinpointing leaks and other main sewer line issues included some guesswork and, in many cases—digging.

Modern technology and plumbing make a great fit! Today all plumbing teams use video technology to see and record what’s going on down under.

To inspect pipes, plumbers use a sewer video camera connected to a flexible cable. They usually insert the cable into the main sewer line cleanout of your home. Using a monitor, they watch as the camera moves through the plumbing line.

While they don’t get a Hollywood quality video, they do get a real-time view of the plumbing system. It’s a non-invasive way to get a visual of the heart of your home.

Speaking of non-invasive, that’s one of the first benefits of drain pipe cameras we’re discussing today.

No Mess to Clean Up

Plumbers and homeowners love trenchless technology!

Before sewer cameras made their debut, the only way a plumber could get a true picture of the condition of sewer lines was to excavate. If you’ve ever had a plumbing problem that required digging you know about the mess.

Using a camera means the plumber only needs a small entry point. They can insert a camera directly into the main sewer line from several access points.

There’s no evidence left behind and no long, ugly trench for neighbors to complain about. If that sounds overly dramatic, just try digging a trench in your front yard and see how long it takes for the neighbors to drop by and see what’s going on.

Trenchless technology, by the way, isn’t reserved for inspections. The true benefit of trenchless technology is the ability to repair pipes without digging. But that’s a subject for another post.

Help Locating Hidden Leaks

Plumbing cameras make excellent partners to help plumbers locate leaks.

You might think finding a leak isn’t a huge challenge. You follow the water, correct?

While some leaks leave obvious clues, others, especially those hidden behind walls or under your home, aren’t so easy to find. A sewer inspection camera can help your plumbing team pinpoint the location of a leak. And they can do it quickly!

The faster the plumber can find the leak, the better for you. Undetected and untreated plumbing leaks cost money and create serious damage to your home.

Plumbing cameras find other hidden problems too. Continue reading to find out what else plumbers may find during their photography session.

Learn More about Your Pipes

Even if you’re not feeling too curious about the inner workings of your plumbing system, you should consider a camera inspection.

A sewer inspection using a camera lets your plumber get a real-time look at the condition of your plumbing pipes. A camera will show if you have corrosion in any of the piping. It can also reveal weaknesses in the system.

In some cases, a camera inspection can detect whether a collapsed pipe is in your future. That way you can decide whether you should make the repair now, or if you can buy some time.

An inspection sometimes means not-so-good news for the homeowner.

If you already have a cracked pipe or a sewer line collapse, the camera will show the location and the severity of the damage. At this point, you’ll work with your plumber to decide the best options for repairs.

Knowing the condition of your plumbing system today can save you from a plumbing emergency and a costly repair tomorrow.

Evidence for Insurance Purposes

Once your plumber completes the camera inspection, they can provide you with a DVD copy. It’s not something you’ll watch on a Friday evening, but your insurance company may ask for it.

The drain pipe camera offers visual evidence of the condition of your pipes. If you’re submitting a claim to your insurance company, they will want to see the exact condition of the pipes and the location of the problem.

Keep in mind, unless you have sewer line repair coverage (not all policies do), your insurance may not cover you. Usually, homeowner’s insurance only covers the cost of the cleanup if you have a mess resulting from a sewer line blockage.

Whether they cover damages and repairs or not, you’ll have a record of what’s going on in your sewer line.

Buying a Home?

Although most home inspectors don’t do sewer line inspections, you should have a qualified plumber do one as part of the home inspection process when you’re buying a home.

When you look at the cost of a camera inspection vs. the cost of major repairs a few months after moving into your new home, it doesn’t make sense not to have the inspection done.

A simple inspection takes the mystery out of the plumbing system in an already lived-in home. If it finds problems, you have a chance to either negotiate repairs with the seller or back out of the transaction.

A common issue found by plumbing cameras is tree roots which cannot be dealt with in a normal drain cleaning procedure.

They’re the primary culprit behind blocked sewer lines and digging them up isn’t cheap. Don’t let that beautiful old tree in the front yard lure you into not getting a sewer line inspection—you won’t love it so much when its roots cost you thousands of dollars in plumbing repairs.

How Much Does It Cost to Put a Camera Down a Drain?

Sewer video inspections range in price depending on the plumbing company you choose. Not all plumbers don’t use pipe cameras, and some companies will use them by default if a clog is too deep in your plumbing system to detect through other means. On average, drain camera inspections can cost anywhere from $230 to $2,600. Mr. Rooter uses the latest plumbing technologies, and we make sure our technicians have the training needed to use pipe cameras effectively during sewer video inspections. Call Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Austin to describe your situation and schedule an estimate. Our plumbers offer a flat-rate fee for our services, so no matter how long it takes to fix your drainage issue, you won’t be surprised by any hidden costs or charges.

Need to Schedule a Sewer Line Inspection?

By now we’ve convinced you to look at your plumbing system as less of a mystery and more as a huge part of your home. You might not have the same warm and fuzzy feelings for it that you do for your kitchen, but it’s still right there at the heart of your home.

Identifying the benefits of a drain pipe camera inspection is the focus of this post. If you’re experiencing plumbing problems and can’t figure out where they’re coming from, call your plumber!

We can help you figure out what's going on with your pipes. Contact us today and we’ll get you on the schedule for a sewer line inspection.