Sewer inspection report from plumber and his office are vastly different

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In due diligence I paid a plumbing company to camera the sewer main. The pipes consist of clay pipe, cast iron and pvc. Seller says he has to clean out tree roots about once every 6 months. I have an alta survey showing the main line on a map. Park is about 55 years old.

Initially the 2 plumbers that did the job said everything looked great except for 1 section of 20 feet with root intrusion and other issues and recommended we replace 20 feet but the rest was fine. I asked for a quote to replace the 20 feet and they said they would. They marked the pipe as 1 foot to 2.5 feet buried.

I called their office when they did not provide a quote and the main office was suddenly backpedaling and claimed they needed another inspection because there could be up to 80 or 100 feet to replace and it may be buried 6 feet underground and there are sections where it sags and the whole pipe could be bad. This was no where close to the initial result so I started to book another inspection and then realized the back office owner may be making stuff up. I am inclined to believe the 2 plumbers who did the initial inspection.

I showed the seller the plumbing video who shared it with his own plumber and supposedly got a recommendation to replace anywhere from 20-30 feet.

  1. Do you think the main office is trying to bilk me for money?
  2. If a sewer pipe has small sections where it sags, but the water is still flowing fine, do you need to replace that section?

Thanks. I have the video on youtube if anyone is an expert at sewer videos.

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It sounds like the 2 plumbers are saying what the park owner is saying about the sewer lines. You may want to consider getting a second opinion. If the park owner is willing to replace that section of the line, let him. If not, I’d just move forward and hire a plumber to clean the line every 6 months or invest in an auger and do it myself.

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Worked at an apartment complex for many years. We had a root problem in a sewer line that we cut out ourselves with a sewer machine. We then figured out quickly the issue was caused by a tree fairly close to the sewer line. We found the root that was causing the problem, dug the dirt out around the root and cut it with a chain saw. Never had a problem again.

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Get another plumber for a quote. They are notoriously the worst trade to deal with.

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