SewerOwner

Inspection findings

A homeowner is handed a word — offset, belly, roots — and it usually is accurate. What goes wrong next is that the word starts being treated as a finding about the whole line, at an unstated place, requiring an unstated repair.

Nothing here asks you to upload anything. Work from what you can read off the document or remember from the walkthrough.

What this page cannot establish

  • nothing here grades how serious a finding is
  • where seriousness is recorded, it is what the person who reported it said, attributed to them
  • SewerOwner has not seen your footage, your report, or your pipe, and verifies nothing recorded here
  • a recorded finding does not establish that any repair is necessary
  • a recorded finding does not establish which repair method is appropriate

Nothing is saved yet. Anything you record will be stored in this browser only — SewerOwner does not receive it.

Has an inspection been carried out?

Whether anyone has looked inside the line is the fact everything else rests on.

Inspection state
What did the inspection actually cover?

These answers determine how much weight any finding can carry. Unsure is a real answer and it is worth recording.

Did the camera travel the whole line, from the access point to the connection?

Everything the report says about a section the camera did not reach came from somewhere other than the camera.

Was the line cleaned before the camera went in?

An uncleaned line can hide the pipe wall behind material, and an inspection through material sees the material.

Was the view obscured by standing water at any point?

Whatever sat under standing water was not inspected, whatever the summary says about the line.

Were you shown each finding on the screen or in the recording?

A finding you were shown is one you can ask a second contractor about specifically.

Was the position of any finding marked on the ground?

A marked position ties a finding to a place on your property, which is what makes a scope checkable.

Were you given a written report?

A written report is the thing that still exists in six months, when the conversation is a disagreement.

Were you given the recording, or a copy of it?

Footage you hold can be shown to somebody else. Footage you watched once cannot.

Does the proposed work cover the same place as the findings you were shown?

This is the single question that most often separates a proposal that follows from the evidence from one that does not.

What was reported to you

Add each thing you were told, using the word you were given. Every entry below explains what the term generally describes and — more usefully — what it does not establish on its own.

  • This does not diagnose the cause of anything reported to you.
  • SewerOwner has not seen your footage, your report, or your pipe, and cannot verify any finding recorded here.
  • Nothing here grades how serious a finding is. Where seriousness is recorded, it is recorded as what the person who reported it said, attributed to them.
  • A finding recorded here does not establish that any repair is necessary.
  • A finding recorded here does not establish which repair method is appropriate.
  • Nothing here establishes who is responsible for the line or for the work.

What would change the answer

  • whatever you were told, in whatever form you have it
  • the written report, if you were given one

What to do next

What was found, and how well it was located, is what determines which conversations can be specific.

See which repair conversations this supports

If your situation is different

Related, and why

  • Camera limits

    What footage is strong evidence of, and what people conclude from it anyway.