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No. That’s not Mickey Mouse in your sewer line.
You just never know what you’ll run into during a home inspection. Here’s my latest sewer inspection (scope) result. The audio starts at 10 seconds and ends at around 50 seconds:
As you can hear, the inspector is delighted (“Sweet!”), not because he found rats in the sewer, but because he got some video footage of rats to share in his training sessions. I’m the one chuckling, nervously, in the background.
The buyers, um, did not find much humor in the discovery. In this case, however, the hole was near the city main, past the curb out in the street and will be the city’s repair.
But, here’s the point. I’ve had three sewer scopes done in past few weeks. And all three failed due to bellies (low points that hold water and waste) or separated joints in the pipe that will eventually cause problems. Even on new construction, it’s worth the $100 test fee, even if you don’t find rats.
UPDATE 07/01/2009:
If you thought that was gross, check out this sewer footage from North Carolina (hat tip Mike Rohrig).
Comments
7 Responses to “No. That’s not Mickey Mouse in your sewer line.”
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The tenants are not happy: “Turn that light off, we’re trying to get some sleep here!”
(BTW, I think those are rats, not mice.)
Darn, you get all of the exciting stuff. I just get branches and weeds.
Last year I was part of three sewer scopes. Two failed on 40 year-old homes on the Westside but the 90 year old home on the Eastside was fine. Go figure.
Glad it was the city’s problem in this case.
I used to work for a home services company that did pest control and you’d be surprised how many of these guys make it to the surface through a bowl in your home
have a great day!!
This home has a backflow valve in the line, so hopefully that will keep Mickey and Minnie out. Fingers crossed…
Yea, those are rats. Mickey and Minnie would run for their lives. YUK
_Always_ have those sewer lines scoped! Breaks and slumps are really common. But all kinds of issues can be revealed by them. It’s not at all unknown, for instance, to find that a house which the books say has a sewer connection is actually still on a cesspool, or a house that the books say has its own connection is actually connected to a neighbor’s line.
The $100 is cheap insurance for problems that can go all the way into five figures.
Ron – ok… I used to live in PDX and remember earning a living fixing the sewer pipes in NE Portland old terracotta pipes with coffee cans and cement – I have never been so thankful for a septic system as this video made me… what great advice to spend the money for this inspection and proof that it can be oh so important. Having your Local Agent again prevails – you rock!