When the sewer line at your home in Albany appears to be behind the problems in your plumbing, you need to find the cause as soon as possible. Many times, it’s just a clog that a plumber can clear out. But when those plumbing problems keep occurring, you need to see what’s really going on. The easiest way to do that is to have a plumber send a camera down into the sewer line.
What’s Involved in a Sewer Camera Inspection?
A sewer camera is a small camera placed at the end of a cable that’s thin enough to fit into pipes. A plumber sends this down into the sewer line and receives video that shows what the interior of the pipe looks like. The plumber can see if there’s a clog, a tree root or something else preventing water and waste from flowing through the pipe.
It May Help You Avoid Excavation
If you have sewer line issues that don’t respond to the usual treatments, like snaking the line to remove clogs, the only way to know for sure what’s going on is to see inside the pipe. You have two options there. One is to send a camera down, and the other is to excavate the pipe. The camera inspection is going to be a lot easier and much less disruptive. You would need to excavate only if the specific problem inside the pipe calls for it.
It Provides a Picture of What’s Really Happening
Obviously, the symptoms you notice when using your plumbing may point toward a particular cause. But without visual confirmation, you’re really just guessing and then working through a set of likely causes and their treatments until you hit the right one that stops the symptoms. The camera inspection gives you that visual confirmation.
It Lets You See the Entire Interior of the Pipe
Your immediate goal in getting a sewer camera inspection might be to check out a particular issue, such as seeing whether or not a tree root has invaded the pipe under that suspiciously lush patch of lawn. But the camera also lets the plumber see what the rest of the pipe is like. That allows you to address additional problems that you might not have known were there.
For example, say you’re having issues that point to a tree root invading part of the pipe. Part of the lawn over the pipe is extra green, and there’s a tree with fast-growing roots nearby. These two signs spell trouble.
In the above instance, plumbers will send a camera down. In some cases, though, there may be a small pipe belly forming in another part of the pipe. A pipe belly is a section where the pipe has sagged downward, forming what looks a little like a rounded belly. It can trap waste as it tries to flow down the pipe to the city sewer.
However, you likely wouldn’t have known it was there until much later, when all that trapped waste resulted in a clog. But with a sewer camera, plumbers can spot that belly early, allowing for earlier and simpler repairs.
It Helps You Evaluate a Property Purchase
If you don’t already own a home, you might not be concerned about sewer lines. But if you’re planning to buy, you should seriously consider having a sewer camera inspection done before you make an offer.
Many home inspection services can perform sewer camera inspections. However, you may want a plumber to do the inspection anyway. A plumber likely will have a lot more experience with sewer line issues and may be able to spot smaller problems that others could easily miss. And you will want to know the state of the sewer line before you purchase, especially if the house is in an older neighborhood where the pipes may be deteriorating.
Linn Benton Plumbing offers plumbing installation and sewer repair services, along with drain cleaning to keep all the pipes and fixtures in your home working well. If you really want to know what’s going on inside that sewer pipe at your home in Albany, contact Linn Benton Plumbing for a professional sewer camera inspection. We also provide general plumbing services.
