Sewer camera inspection

Digging up a front lawn on a hunch is how homeowners spend five figures solving the wrong problem. A camera survey costs a few hundred dollars and turns guesswork into a location, a distance and a picture. It is the cheapest useful thing you can do about a drain that keeps backing up.

What the equipment actually is. A self-levelling camera head on a flexible push rod, with lights, a footage counter on the reel and a recording screen. Better units carry a sonde, a small transmitter in the head that a locator above ground can pick up, so the fault can be marked on your lawn with a flag rather than described as somewhere out front.

Step one: find an access point. The camera goes in through a cleanout, a removed toilet or, less ideally, a floor drain. A house with no accessible cleanout may need one cut in, which is worth doing anyway because it makes every future investigation straightforward.

Step two: clear the line first if it is blocked. A camera cannot see through standing water or a solid obstruction. If the drain is backed up, it is augered or hydro-jetted first, then surveyed. That order matters, because a survey run through a full line produces a video of brown water and no information.

Step three: the run. The head is pushed out toward the street, recording continuously, with the footage counter noted at anything of interest. A good technician narrates: joint at 4 metres, root intrusion at 7, the pipe material changing at 11 where the old clay tile meets the newer connection.

Step four: locating the fault. Where something needs repair, the sonde is switched on and the locator traces it from the surface, giving a position and a depth. This is what lets a contractor quote an excavation accurately instead of pricing in uncertainty.

Step five: the footage and the report. You should leave with the video file and a short written summary naming what was found, at what distance from the access point, and whether it sits on your side of the property line. That recording is the document you use to compare quotes, and it is the reason to insist on getting a copy.

What it finds, and what each finding means. Roots entering at a joint, common wherever there are mature street trees, which can often be cut and jetted rather than dug. Grease and scale narrowing the bore. A belly, where the pipe has sagged into a dip that collects solids and will keep blocking however often it is cleared. An offset joint or a crack, which is structural. A fully collapsed section, which needs open-cut replacement. And the material itself: older Ottawa houses may still have clay tile in short lengths, or in some post-war stock a fibre conduit that deforms with age.

How long it takes. A straightforward survey is 45 to 90 minutes. Add an hour or two if the line has to be cleared first, and add a visit if a cleanout has to be installed before anyone can get a camera in.

What it costs in Ottawa in 2026. Indicative ranges, matching this site's price guide. A sewer camera inspection generally runs $250 to $450, and many contractors credit it against a repair if you proceed with them. Clearing a blocked line first, by cable or hydro-jet, is a separate $200 to $600. What moves the price is access, whether a cleanout exists, the length of the run and whether locating and marking the fault above ground is included.

What makes an Ottawa house different. Two things show up on camera here more than anywhere else. Roots, because the mature silver maples and elms through Westboro, Hintonburg, the Glebe, Alta Vista and Manor Park sit directly over the oldest clay laterals in the city and find every leaking joint. And the ownership boundary, which the footage counter settles: the City of Ottawa maintains the sewer service from the sewer main to the property line, and the owner is responsible from the property line to the house (City of Ottawa, homeowner responsibilities). If the fault is beyond your line, contact the City before authorizing anything, because you may be about to pay for a pipe that is not yours. The same page notes that repairs to private service lines may not be covered by basic homeowner insurance. Deep frost adds a third reason to survey before digging: Ottawa laterals are buried deep, so an unnecessary excavation is an expensive mistake.

Who should do the work. Plumber is one of Ontario's compulsory trades, so drain and sewer work on your private line needs someone holding a valid Certificate of Qualification, a Provisional Certificate or a Registered Training Agreement (Skilled Trades Ontario). You can check a name on the public register. Drain-clearing outfits that are not plumbing contractors can run a camera and clear a blockage, but repairs and alterations to the drainage system are regulated plumbing work.

What to ask before you book. Do I get a copy of the footage. Do you locate and mark the fault above ground, or only report a distance. Is a cleanout needed and is that in the price. Is the inspection credited if I go ahead with the repair. Will you tell me whether the fault is on my side of the property line. Have you contacted the City if it is on theirs. A contractor who will not hand over the video is one to be wary of.

One honest limit. A camera shows the inside surface of a pipe. It does not show wall thickness, what the soil around the pipe is doing, or how much life is left in a line that currently looks acceptable. It answers what and where, which is usually enough to make a decision.