Sewer camera inspection in Houston

What the camera shows

A sewer camera inspection Houston homeowners book is a 1-inch waterproof camera on a stiff push cable, fed through the cleanout or a pulled toilet, with a screen at our end and a recording you keep. Over 60 to 100 feet of lateral it shows:

• Root intrusion — fine hair roots at a joint, or a mass that fills the pipe
• Offset joints — the step where one pipe section has dropped or shifted against the next
• Bellies — standing water where the pipe has sagged; the camera goes underwater and comes back out
• Channel rot in cast iron — a rough, flat pipe floor, then holes
• Cracks and breaks — longitudinal cracks in PVC, shattered hubs in cast iron
• Grease, scale and debris — a line that needs jetting, not surgery
• Collapse — the point the camera cannot pass

The camera head carries a transmitter. Once we find the problem, a locator on the surface pinpoints it and reads its depth, and we mark it with paint. That mark is what turns a vague "somewhere in the yard" into a 4-by-6-foot dig instead of a trench.

What it costs

Typical ranges, not a quote. See the pricing page for what comes after the camera.

Hydrostatic testing for Houston slab homes

This is the inspection that is specific to our market. A hydrostatic test plugs the sewer line at the cleanout, fills the drain system up to slab level, and watches the water level for 15–20 minutes. If it drops, the drains under the slab are leaking into the clay. Foundation companies ask for it after leveling a house, because leveling moves the slab and cast iron joints that were barely holding let go. Buyers ask for it on any 1950s–70s home in Meyerland, Bellaire, Oak Forest or Sharpstown. Some foundation warranties require a passed test to stay valid.

If the test fails, we isolate — testing one section at a time by plugging branch lines — until we know which run under the slab is leaking, then camera that run. That is the difference between "there is a leak under the house" and "the leak is at the hub under the hall bath." The first sentence gets you a $20,000 quote; the second gets you a $6,000 tunnel. The under-slab page covers what happens next.

Before you buy a house

Houston has no point-of-sale sewer inspection requirement. Texas asks the seller to disclose known defects, and a seller who has been snaking the line every spring may honestly not know why. A general home inspector runs water and watches drains; they do not put a camera down the lateral. On any home built before 1980, or any home with a big tree between the house and the street, a camera inspection during the option period is the cheapest $400 you will spend on the purchase. Sewer inspection before buying a house in Houston goes through how to use the report in negotiation.

When jetting is the answer

Half the inspections we do end with the camera showing a sound pipe and a lot of grease, scale or roots. That is a hydro jetting job — 3,000–4,000 psi water scouring the pipe back to the wall — for $350–$900, and no digging. We jet, camera again, and if the pipe is clean and intact, you are done for years. Anyone who quotes a replacement from a camera pass through a dirty pipe is quoting what they cannot see.

What you get

The recording, a one-page report with the footage marked by distance from the cleanout, the location and depth of anything we found, and a written price for the fix if one is needed. A contractor who runs a camera and will not give you the video is asking you to trust a description of something you paid to see. What a camera inspection shows and what it costs walks through the common findings and how to read the report.