For the majority of homeowners, plumbing issues are the least enjoyable portion of home maintenance. They seriously degrade your residences' livability, they require expensive repairs, and they can quickly get even worse if they're not corrected promptly. Knowing you've got a serious problem in a single of your drainage lines, it is possible to cut right to the heart of the matter using a video inspection service to locate blockages and damage. Here's how the procedure works. - Reliant Plumbing
Advantages Of A video camera Inspection
Before the creation of compact video equipment ideal for use inside residential plumbing lines, looking for a blockage or a broken pipe was ordinarily a time-consuming process requiring a great deal of trial and error. Major breaks would sometimes make themselves known with profuse (and dear!) leaks, but blockages might be much harder to detect. Homeowners would be obliged to dig extremely long sewer trenches, or even multiple trenches, to inspect suspect lines directly.
With a video inspection unit, a plumber can locate line damage and blockages very precisely. This precision translates directly into a repair job that's faster, more effective, and cheaper. You will want to take advantage of a relevant video inspection service if the pipes are difficult to get into. Locating blockages within a drain or sewer line beneath your foundation slab is a perfect example -- you don't want to need to break your slab open over and over again!
Professional-Grade Equipment
Thanks to the rapid pace of technological development, homeowners gain access to some of the same powerful and compact inspection tools that professional plumbers. You must recognize the limitations of cheap equipment, though. Consumer-level plumbing inspection kits seldom offer over few dozen feet of exploration, in addition to their cameras lack many of the features that make professional gear so effective.
When you turn the inspection job up to a professional, the technician who does your inspection make use of a camera set-up capable of snaking through even the longest drain lines. Most suitable rigs have a reach of more than 300 feet. Powerful lighting and self-righting capabilities dramatically increase the picture quality a professional tech gets, too. Above all, professional cameras use a transmitter to help locate blockages (see below). Proper plumbing camera rigs be more expensive than $15,000.
The way the Inspection Process Works
When you call in a video inspection service, the inspection starts right with the affected fixture at your residence. The plumbing lines supplying it are opened in order that the camera rig might be inserted through the trap. The inspection head will slowly be pushed down the line, going as far as your home's main sewage and its connection to the municipal sewer if needed. Good inspectors will endeavor to visualize as much of the system as possible; the camera can often be pushed through soft blockages to consider further damage.
Once pipe damage or a blockage is spotted for the camera's display, the operator will locate it precisely while using built-in transmitter. The camera will be stopped with the proper point as well as the technician will use a locator wand to grab its signal. Lots of is marked with spray paint so that you know precisely where to dig.
Drawbacks Of Finding a Video Camera Inspection
While you probably already know, the primary drawback of a video inspection is its cost. Full system inspections can cost $300 or even more. Even the most modestly-priced services cost about $100. You might also need to be wary of companies that advertise extremely cheap video inspection; their helps may only be available to customers who agree to hiring the company to fix any damage it finds.
One other disadvantage of a video inspection is that you're responsible for the cost regardless of the results. In the event the technician fails to locate your plumbing problem, you're time for square one. The only option is usually the kind of exploratory digging you're hoping to avoid. Fortunately, if you hire a company that has good equipment and well-trained technicians, the odds of failure can be extremely low.
Video plumbing inspection is expensive but it takes a lots of the uncertainty out of fixing major plumbing issues. When you are facing a plumbing condition in your own home, your first step should be to assess the extent from the problem as fully as possible on your own. If it seems certainly going to stem from major damage that will require excavation, calling in a video inspection service is probably advisable. - Reliant Plumbing