Sewer Camera Inspection

Erica’s Plumbing performs sewer camera inspections across Broward and Palm Beach County — for homeowners with a recurring problem, and for buyers and agents who need to know what’s under a property before closing. You get the live footage, a written report, and the defect located and marked on the ground. Licensed Florida plumbing contractor #CFC1427956, woman-owned since 2009. Call 561-260-5763.

Here’s the thing almost nobody under contract knows: a standard home inspection does not scope the sewer.

Your inspector will run the water, watch it go down, and write “drains functional.” That sentence describes a sink. It says nothing about the condition of a pipe buried six feet under a slab that nobody has looked at since 1968.

In this market, that pipe is usually cast iron, its replacement runs well into five figures, and it is completely invisible to every other part of the transaction. A camera inspection is the only way anyone finds out before it’s your problem.

Not all findings are equal. Two of these are dealbreakers. Three of them aren’t.

The first and most useful thing. Cast iron, clay, PVC — you can see it. In Broward and Palm Beach County, a pre-1975 house almost certainly has cast iron under the slab, and knowing its actual remaining condition changes what the house is worth to you.

Severity: context, not a finding. It’s what everything else gets read against.

A low spot where the pipe settled out of slope, so water stands instead of flowing. You’ll see the camera go underwater. South Florida is fill over a high water table, and fill settles.

This is the finding that matters most, because it’s the one no trenchless method fixes. Lining a belly gives you a lined belly.

Severity: high. Excavation is the only fix.

Two sections no longer lined up, or a joint pulled apart. You’ll see a ledge, or daylight where there shouldn’t be any. Usually settling, sometimes root pressure, sometimes somebody drove something heavy over it.

Severity: depends entirely on how bad. A minor offset can often be lined. A major one can’t.

Buildup on the walls, a rough interior, narrowed diameter, the floor of the pipe channeling out. In fifty-year-old cast iron this is expected, and finding it is not a crisis.

The question is how far along. Moderate scale in a 1968 line is a maintenance item. A pipe you can see through the bottom of is not.

Severity: scale of one to ten, and we’ll tell you where on it you are.

Visible, unmistakable, and alarming to look at — which is exactly why it gets over-weighted in negotiations.

Roots are a symptom. They don’t enter a sealed pipe; they find one that’s already leaking. So the real finding isn’t the root ball, it’s the defect that let it in. That’s what we report.

Severity: whatever the defect behind it is.

Longitudinal cracks, missing sections, soil visible in the pipe, or a camera that simply cannot go any further. A collapse is where the inspection ends and the excavation quote begins.

Severity: high, and non-negotiable. This is the other true dealbreaker.

We also locate and mark every finding — position on the ground and depth — so any quote you get is about a specific spot, not a guess.

Scope it during your inspection period. Not after. Once you close, an unknown pipe becomes a known expense with your name on it.

Do it on anything in Broward or Palm Beach County built before 1980, without exception. Do it on a flip, regardless of what’s been done upstairs — new quartz counters tell you nothing about what’s under the slab, and a cosmetic renovation is exactly the situation where nobody looked.

What it buys you is optionality. If the line is sound, you paid a small number to stop worrying about a large one, and that’s a good trade. If it isn’t, you now have three moves the other buyers don’t: renegotiate, ask for a credit, or walk — with footage in your hand instead of a feeling.

The leverage is the video. A seller reading “drains functional” argues. A seller watching their own lateral standing full of water at 42 feet has a very different conversation. That footage is worth many multiples of what the inspection costs, and it’s yours to keep.

One thing we’ll say that others won’t: a finding is not automatically a reason to walk. See below.

We know what you actually need from a plumber during an inspection period, because it isn’t a sales pitch to your client.

We move on your timeline. Inspection periods are short and we schedule around them. Tell us the deadline.

You get a written report and the footage. Not a verbal. Something you can attach to an addendum, hand to the other side, or put in the file. Findings located and marked with position and depth, so a repair quote is about a specific spot rather than a range.

We don’t blow up your deal for sport. This is the part that matters. Scale in a 1968 cast iron line is expected, not alarming, and we’ll say so out loud. We separate what’s normal for the age from what’s actually a problem, and we tell your buyer which is which. A plumber who treats every finding as a five-figure emergency isn’t being thorough — they’re bidding.

We’ll price the repair honestly if there is one, and we’ll tell your client if the answer is cheaper than they fear. Sometimes it’s one bad joint.

We’re licensed and insured — CFC1427956, CGC1519396 — woman-owned since 2009, 4.8 stars across 2,000+ reviews, and we’ve been doing this in Broward and Palm Beach County the whole time.

If you close a lot of pre-1980 inventory, put us in your phone. 561-260-5763.

This costs us work to say, and we’re saying it anyway.

Some plumbers treat a sewer scope as a sales call. Every finding is grave, every line needs replacing, and the quote is ready before the camera is out of the pipe. Buyers panic, agents stop calling that plumber, and everybody loses.

The honest version: scale and roughness in a fifty-year-old cast iron line are normal. That’s what fifty-year-old cast iron looks like. It’s not a crisis, it’s a clock, and knowing where you are on that clock is genuinely useful information for a buyer — it’s a maintenance budget, not an emergency.

What actually changes a deal: a belly, a collapse, a major offset, or deterioration far enough along that the pipe is structurally finished. Those are real, and we’ll be just as direct about them.

Our job is to tell you which one you’re looking at. Not to make every house sound like it’s failing.

Whoever you hire — us or anyone — insist on the raw video and a written report you keep. Not a phone call. Not a verbal at the curb. Not a one-line summary in someone else’s format.

Reasons this matters: you can get a second opinion on footage. You can hand it to the other side of the transaction. You can compare it to a scope five years from now and see whether anything moved. And a written finding with a located distance and depth means any repair quote you get is about a specific spot at a specific place, which makes bids comparable.

A verbal “yeah it looked pretty rough in there” is worth exactly nothing in a negotiation, and it’s unfalsifiable.

If a company won’t hand over the video, ask yourself why.

A gut-renovated 1965 house with a new kitchen, new baths, and new floors tells you nothing at all about the pipe under the slab. In fact it’s often the opposite signal.

Under-slab drain replacement is disruptive, expensive, and completely invisible when it’s done. It doesn’t photograph. It doesn’t help the listing. A flipper optimizing for resale has every incentive to spend that money on quartz and none on cast iron — and if the fixtures drain, nobody in the transaction will ever know.

So the beautiful flip is exactly where a scope earns its money. New tile over an original 1965 lateral is a very common thing to find, and it’s not fraud — it’s just what the incentives produce.

Ask whether the drains were replaced. Ask for the permit. Then scope it anyway.

We’d rather tell you than take the money.

You don’t need a scope for a first-time clog in a single fixture. Hair in a shower trap is hair in a shower trap. Cable it and get on with your day. You probably don’t need one on a 2015 build with PVC and no history — though if you’re buying it and you want the peace of mind, that’s a legitimate reason.

You do need one if the clog is a repeat, if several fixtures are affected at once, if you’re about to spend real money on a repair, if you’re buying anything pre-1980, or if you’ve got roots, a green patch in the lawn, or a soft spot in the yard.

A camera is a decision tool. If there’s no decision to make, it’s just a video of a pipe.