A waterproof camera on a flexible rod travels your sewer line from an access point (usually a cleanout) to the city main, recording video the whole way. A locator above ground marks the exact position and depth of anything the camera finds. The visit typically takes under an hour, and you watch the footage live.
"We would like to scope the line first" is the sentence that separates diagnosis from guesswork. Here is exactly what that looks like when we do it.
Step 1: Find the access point
Most homes have a cleanout — a capped pipe, usually near the foundation or in the yard, that opens directly into the sewer line. If a home does not have one (common in older houses), we talk through the options before touching anything.
Step 2: Run the camera
The camera head is mounted on a flexible push rod with its own lights. It travels the full run of the line — through the house lateral, under the yard, out to the city main — sending video up to a monitor the entire way. You are welcome at the monitor; most customers are surprised how clearly they can see the state of their own pipe.
Step 3: Read what the camera shows
We are looking for a handful of specific things: root intrusion at joints, grease and scale narrowing the pipe, bellies where water pools, offset or separated joints, and any section that is cracked or collapsed. Each has a distinct look on camera, and we point out what we are seeing in plain English as we go — not after, in a quote full of jargon.
Step 4: Locate it from above
The camera head carries a transmitter. When we find a problem, we trace it from the surface with a locator and mark the spot — including how deep the pipe runs there. That is the difference between "your line has a break somewhere" and "the break is here, four feet down." If a repair is ever needed, that mark is why it is one hole instead of three.
Step 5: Get the straight answer
You get the findings, the footage, and a recommendation matched to what the camera actually showed — jetting, milling, lining, a spot repair, or nothing at all. Plenty of scopes end with "the line is in decent shape, do not spend money on it yet." That answer costs us a sale and earns us the next twenty years of your drain work, which is the trade we prefer.
When a scope is worth it
- Any repeating clog or multiple slow drains — the warning signs
- Before agreeing to anyone's repair quote, including ours
- Before buying a home — the pre-purchase scope
- After a major repair, to verify the work (we build this into every job)