The Importance of a Sewer Inspection Before Buying a Home

ByDel Rosario

There are many important decisions to make as you prepare to purchase a home. As you research the neighborhood, check out the floorplan and consider the cost of a prospective property, don’t forget sewer line inspection. Find out why this is an important step and how to inspect them yourself with an affordable utility locator.

Unexpected Clogs

Sewer lines are designed to remove solid and liquid waste from your home. All your sinks, showers and toilets drain into the same system. In some homes, these lines lead to a private septic tank and drain fields. Other homes have a sewer line that connects to the city sewer system.

While you aren’t responsible for a city sewer system, you are responsible for your portion of the sewer line on your property. It’s important to inspect this line, since it can be clogged in a number of ways. Here are some common causes of a clog:

  • Tree roots
  • Damaged pipes
  • Debris in the pipes

Some clogs are easy to clean out using professional plumbing equipment. Others compromise the structure of the pipes and require excavation and costly replacement. You need to know if your property has any sewer line issues and how much it’s going to cost to solve them before you purchase your new home.

How To Inspect Your Sewer Lines

Professional plumbers have a number of ways to inspect your sewer lines, but you can also inspect them yourself with a utility locator. Inspecting your lines not only shows you whether they’re blocked, but also helps you locate these underground lines in case you need to excavate and repair them.

Before paying a professional to inspect the sewer lines using cameras, pick up an affordable location device. These locators use transmitter and locator devices to send and receive a signal.

Feed the transmitter at least 15 feet into your sewer line. It’s best to use a cleanout area to avoid submerging it in your toilet or sink drain line. Once it’s fed into the sewer line, you can use the locator wand to find the buried line in your yard.

These steps can help you find any potential issues around your sewer line. For example, if the line runs near a large tree, then tree roots may be partially blocking the line or may block it in the future. Your sewer line can run under a driveway or walkway, but this can make a damaged pipe or seriously clog far more expensive to fix.

Use these steps to determine the location of the sewer lines. You may wish to work with a local plumber to see if there is any existing blockage, but finding the location of the lines can save you time and money. Inspect this critical area of a home before making an offer, or you may have a major expense hiding in your yard.

Find Your Sewer Lines With a High-Quality Locator

Explore highly rated utility locator devices with Engineer Supply. From location devices to other surveying equipment, Engineer Supply offers you the excellent tools you need to inspect a property before making an investment.