The one pipe nobody can see from inside the house.
The sewer lateral runs from your house to the city main, buried the whole way. A standard home inspection can't evaluate it, and in most California cities the homeowner owns it. A camera is the only way to know what's down there before you close.
How it works
I feed a self-levelling camera head into the line through a cleanout and push it toward the city main, watching the interior of the pipe the whole way. A locator tracks the camera head from above ground, so anything I find gets a position and a depth rather than a vague description.
You get a narrated video of the run. I talk through what's on screen as it happens — what the pipe is made of, where the joints are, what's normal for its age and what isn't.
Knowing exactly where it is
Finding a problem is half of it. A locator tracks the camera head from above ground, so a defect gets marked on the surface with a position and a depth rather than being described as somewhere under the front lawn.
That difference is worth real money. A contractor quoting a repair from a marked location and a known depth is quoting a job. A contractor quoting from "there's a break in the lateral" is quoting a search.
- Full run to the main
- Narrated video recording
- Location and depth of findings
- Pipe material identified
- Photos in the written report
- Same-day turnaround
When it's worth doing
Not every property needs one. These are the conditions that make it worth the add-on.
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The house is older than about 1980
Clay and cast iron were standard for decades in this part of Southern California. Both fail, and they fail in ways you can't see from a fixture.
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Mature trees near the line
Roots find joints. A line that drains fine today can be substantially blocked by root mass, and the tree that did it is usually the one everybody likes.
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Slow drains or a history of backups
If a seller mentions the line has been snaked, that's a reason to look rather than a reassurance. Snaking clears a symptom.
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Additions or a remodel
Re-routed plumbing means joints, transitions between materials, and occasionally a section that was never permitted or properly bedded.
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Bellies, offsets and separations
Ground movement pulls joints apart and lets sections settle into low spots that hold water. Neither shows up anywhere inside the house.
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You want it in the negotiation
A documented finding with a location and a video is something you can take to the table during your contingency period. A suspicion isn't.
Signs something may already be wrong
Any one of these on its own is worth a look. Two or three together usually means the line is telling you something.
- Slow drains in more than one fixture
- Gurgling from drains or toilets
- Sewer smell in the yard
- A sunken or soft patch in the lawn
- Grass greener over one strip than the rest
- Rodent or insect activity near the line
- A long run from the house to the street
- Any history of the line being snaked
This isn't part of a standard home inspection. The sewer lateral is buried and outside the scope of a visual inspection, which is exactly why it's the system buyers most often find out about after closing. A lateral replacement is one of the more expensive single repairs a house can hand you, and it lands entirely on the owner.
What's likely under your house
The first thing the camera tells me is what the pipe is made of. That one fact sets expectations for everything else, because each material fails in its own way and on its own schedule.
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Vitrified clay
Standard through the first half of the last century and still common under older Orange County neighborhoods. Durable but brittle, and jointed every few feet. Roots come in at the joints, and ground movement shifts sections out of line.
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Cast iron
Widely used into the 1970s. It corrodes from the inside out — scale narrows the bore, and the bottom of the pipe wears through first, so a line can look sound from one angle and be half gone underneath.
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Orangeburg
Tar-impregnated wood fiber, used roughly from the mid-1940s into the early 1970s. It deforms into an oval and eventually collapses. If it turns up, it is at or past the end of its service life regardless of how the house drains today.
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ABS and PVC
Plastic took over residential work from the 1970s onward, and most homes built since drain through it. It holds up well. When it does fail it is usually at a joint, a transition to older pipe, or a section that settled.
Around here, the postwar tracts through Anaheim, Fullerton and Placentia often sit on clay or cast iron, while the later Yorba Linda and Brea builds are usually plastic. Expansive soil and seismic movement work on every joint in the ground, which is why age of the house matters more in Southern California than it would somewhere with stable soil. A remodel or addition can also mean two materials spliced together, and the transition is frequently the weak point.
What you get
The findings go into the same report as the rest of the inspection, with stills pulled from the run and the narrated video attached. If the line is in good condition, you get that in writing too — which is worth having when you're weighing a property built in 1962 against one built in 2004.
Everything is written in plain language. You shouldn't need a plumber to interpret the report you paid for.
Other services
Add a sewer camera to your inspection
Tell me the age of the property and whether there are trees near the line, and I'll tell you whether I'd run the camera on it if it were mine.