Evaluate Sewer Video
How to Evaluate a Sewer Video
So you’re not sure that your sewer line is bad and you call a company to get it scoped. They give you a DVD or send you a YouTube link of the video. Now what? Not everyone knows how to evaluate a sewer line video. What are you supposed to look for? Is it broken or just dirty? Should I call someone to come fix it? These questions can be daunting. Apex is here to help! Having reviewed well over 40,000 sewer videos over the years, we want to help you better understand what you’re watching.
What we see here is a low spot in the line, often referred to as a “belly.” Having a little standing water in the line is not always a problem, but as you can see in the video, water that fills the pipe means the line must be replaced and better fortified underneath. Due to the dip in the ground that causes the belly, this particular issue rules out trenchless repair from being a repair option lest the new pipe fall into the same low spot.
This video shows the erosion that can happen in some pipes. It is important to note that water obviously does not float upside down so the top of the pipe is not corroded though it appears that way. Sometimes the camera can be turned upside down, which explains why the giant hole is on the upper left in this video.
This video shows the intrusions of roots into a pipe. This is particularly common in clay pipes that have several pieces joined together to make one pipe. Roots seek water and a way to enter the pipe so they often force their way through the joints and can completely stop up a line.
This picture shows an offset in a pipe. Offsets occur when the seal that holds the pipes together gives way and the force of the ground, tree roots, or other external pressures causes one pipe to fail to line up with the next, leaving a gap like the one in the picture.
