EVERY HOME NEEDS A SEWER SCOPE INSPECTION. HERE IS WHY:

Sewer Scope Inspections, also known locally as Video Plumbing Inspections, are a crucial part of the home inspection process that most home buyers seem to skip out on. Why is that? Is it because it costs a little extra? Is it because they are ill-informed? Is it because they assume that the home has never had a sewer line issue so it gives reason to believe that everything is fine? These are all questions that I don’t know the exact answer to, but I am starting to believe the answer is simply because home buyers don’t know that they need one.

I inspect homes all across Southeast Louisiana from Baton Rouge to Slidell, up to Kentwood, over to Bogalusa, and down to New Orleans. I cover a significant amount of ground in my home inspection endeavors. The only one of these areas where Sewer Scope Inspections are the norm is New Orleans. New Orleans is far ahead of everyone else when it comes to Inspections before buying a house. So why are Sewer Scope Inspections the norm in New Orleans? Well, we can start by simply knowing the fact that New Orleans is a very old city with very old houses……and very old plumbing. The New Orleans area knows the importance of having these plumbing systems checked with a Sewer Scope, and the Real Estate Professionals are great at informing their clients about this service and recommending them to have it done. 

I think most people would agree that a Sewer Scope Inspection is needed on old homes, but what if I told you that sewer line problems are just as common on “newer” homes as they are on “older” homes. Would you believe me? You should.

I have found issues on New Construction homes, 5 year old homes, 15 year old homes, all the way up to 100 year old homes. Don’t think that just because a home has PVC plumbing and the sellers claim to never have had a plumbing issue (that they know of), that you are in the clear and don’t need to get that Sewer Scope Inspection done. 

Sewer line repairs are expensive. It’s plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if the home is 6 months old or 70 years old. Any repair to the plumbing lines in the slab or underground are going to be EXTREMELY expensive. Why would you take the risk of not having these pipes checked out before you buy a house? It blows my mind that people skip this. Out of all the issues we find during a traditional home inspection (some of which are quite costly), a sewer line repair can likely be the most expensive repair a homeowner can face.

Think about this: you buy a house without getting a sewer scope inspection and everything seems fine for the first 5 months you live there. Then all of the sudden, month 6 rolls around and you notice that raw sewage is backing up into your bathtub. Your toilets won’t flush. You smell sewage inside your home. You call a plumber and they come out, stick a camera down your sewer line, and find that tree roots have made their way into your sewer line and have caused your pipe to clog, break, and offset. The only way to fix this is to dig up the sewer line in the area of the problem and replace it. This means your yard gets dug up, anything on top of that sewer line gets dug up (a driveway, a walkway, landscaping, a patio, a deck, etc). Once the sewer line is repaired, all of those items that were dug up have to be replaced. So not only have you paid to have your sewer line repaired, you also have to (in some instances) have to pay to have your driveway or other flatwork replaced. That’s an additional expense that you did not expect. Things can add up rapidly, and for most people, that can hurt your finances pretty quickly. LETS AVOID THAT AT ALL COSTS.

Problems such as the one mentioned above can take years before they actually show a symptom and cause an issue that you are aware of. This is why it is crucial to have that Sewer Line checked with a specialty camera BEFORE you buy the house. Your Sewer Scope Inspection will cost you $225 if booked with your home inspection. The going rate for this service from most plumbing companies in Southeast Louisiana, is anywhere from $275-$400. The reason I can offer it at $225 with a home inspection is because I am already on site doing your home inspection. It doesn’t take me an extra trip to come out there, so I pass those savings along to my clients. So for $225, I can find you a problem that can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000. The benefit to you as the client is that you now know about this sewer line issue (again, that can take a long time to show symptoms) and you can negotiate this in the contract you have on the home. Sometimes you can even have it repaired by the sellers before you buy the house! That is a major WIN!

It does not matter the age of the house. Get a Sewer Scope Inspection. Louisiana is known for having poor soils, and poor soils can cause issues with your sewer line. The soil below the line may not have been properly compacted, causing the soil to settle, which then causes your sewer line to develop a belly that holds water (and can eventually back up). Or even worse, it could cause your sewer line to break or offset at a joint. It’s impossible to find this without scoping the line with a camera.

Let’s just say the cost is the reason you don’t want to add a Sewer Scope to your home inspection. You are already spending $400 or so (give or take) on your home inspection, and you don’t want to add another $225 to that. I get it, times are tough. Every dollar counts. But that exact way of thinking is why you SHOULD spend that extra money and get a sewer scope. $225 extra wouldn’t hurt most peoples finances who are in the market to buy a house. $8,000 on a plumbing repair probably would. DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU.

The best case scenario for the client is that they pay me to scope their sewer line and I come back and say everything is fine. Your sewer line looks great and there are no problems. You can sleep easy at night. And it only cost you a small fee for that peace of mind. THAT IS WELL WORTH IT. And in the case I do find something, that small investment just saved you thousands in repairs. It is a WIN-WIN.

I am not in the business of trying to convince someone to get something done that they don’t need just so I can make a buck. That is not who I am and not how I run my business. I am in the business of helping people and protecting them from buying something that is a money pit. Please believe me when I tell you, YOU NEED A SEWER SCOPE INSPECTION.