A camera run down the line, with a transmitter on the camera head that marks exactly where the pipe is and how deep.
A sewer camera is a lens on a flexible push cable that feeds down the line from a cleanout or another access point, sending video back in real time. It shows pipe material, the condition of joints, whether roots have gotten in and where, whether a section has sagged into a belly that holds standing water, and whether a joint has shifted out of alignment enough to catch paper and debris. None of that is visible or reliably guessable from the surface, and two lines with the same symptom upstairs can have completely different things wrong underground.
Most camera heads carry a small transmitter, or sonde, that a technician tracks from the surface with a locating wand. That is what turns a video of a pipe into a marked-up yard — it tells you the pipe's path down to the foot and its depth down to the inch at that point, which is the difference between a repair estimate that reflects the real job and one that is padded to cover the unknown. It also flags what else is near the line — irrigation, other utilities, a driveway footing — before anyone breaks ground.
Tell us what the drains are doing and we will match you with a contractor who diagnoses before recommending a repair.
Get Matched With a Sewer ContractorTell us which fixtures are affected and how often — we will follow up to size the visit and get a camera on the line.