Drain camera inspection for drains and sewer lines

It is a video look at the inside of a pipe. A waterproof camera with built-in lights sits at the end of a semi-rigid cable that the plumber pushes down the drain. The picture shows live on a monitor, and a counter tells how far the camera is from the entry point. You learn what is happening in the pipe, and exactly where.

The inspection doesn’t fix anything on its own: it is there to help you make the right call. A drain that keeps clogging may need a simple cleaning, a section repair or a replacement. Without seeing inside, you are guessing. With the camera, you choose the work knowing the cause, and you avoid digging in the wrong place.

To see clearly, you need a clean line. When a drain is coated with grease or full of roots, the picture shows only the build-up and hides the joints and cracks. So the plumber often cleans the line before the inspection, or right after a first camera pass that confirms what is blocking it.

In Montréal, this step is required when the inspection goes with a repair request to the City: the drain must be cleaned and roots removed before filming. The recording must cover the whole sewer up to the public part, clearly show the footage counter, meaning the camera’s progress, and show that the problem is not caused by misuse.

In Montréal, building owners are responsible for maintaining, replacing and repairing the entire sewer connection of their building, up to the municipal sewer under the street. The City takes action only on the part under public property, and under certain conditions: the failure must affect the structure of the pipe, such as a break or a hole, and it must be proven by a video inspection done by a plumbing company that is a CMMTQ member and holds an RBQ licence, at the owner’s expense.

The report filed with the request gives the company’s RBQ licence number, the date, the observations, a sketch of the drain’s position, its dimensions and materials. Requirements vary from one borough to another, and the City keeps the recording, so keep a copy. If water is already coming up in the basement, see our page on sewer backups, and consider a backwater valve for the future.