Q: What is a sewer scope and why is it important when buying a house?
A: A sewer scope is an inspection when you hire us to run a scope, which is a camera on the end of a hose, all the way down the sewer line from the house to the sewer main. It’s very important to do one because you obviously have no idea what is going on in that sewer line until there’s a problem. When buying a house it’s important to inspect that line in almost every scenario especially with older houses in Colorado where you’re responsible for the sewer line out to the main connection at the city tap. But even in newer construction homes, we’ve encountered heavy equipment crushing sewer lines when they’re building the house, or a joint connection might be disconnected just enough to cause a problem over time. For that reason, it’s important to do a sewer scope inspection in almost every scenario.
Q: What are the risks if I don’t do a sewer scope?
The risk of not doing a sewer scope is that you could have a ticking time bomb of a problem that could end up costing you tens of thousands of dollars. We’ve seen instances where sewer lines are deep underneath the city streets and you’re responsible for that repair. And that could end up costing you a significant amount of money. Where you could’ve avoided that entire repair issue if you had just done a sewer scope upfront, which costs somewhere between $120.
