The sanitary lateral runs from the house to the city main, buried, under the lawn and quite possibly under the front walk and a mature tree. A standard home inspection cannot assess it — it is not visible and not accessible. A sewer scope pushes a camera the full length of the run and records what is actually there.
What we find
Root intrusion at joints, which is the most common finding in any Ottawa neighbourhood with mature trees. Bellies where the line has settled and now holds water and solids. Offset or separated joints. Cracked and collapsing vitrified clay, which was standard in this city until roughly the 1960s. Cast iron scaled to half its diameter. Improper connections and previous repairs done badly. Occasionally, a lateral that was never properly connected at all.
Why Ottawa specifically
Two reasons. The older core — the Glebe, Old Ottawa South, Westboro, Hintonburg, Sandy Hill, New Edinburgh, Alta Vista — was plumbed with clay tile, which does not fail gracefully. And this city sits on sensitive marine clay that shrinks and swells with moisture, so buried pipes move. Add a hundred-year-old silver maple and you have the full set of conditions for a failed lateral.
You get the video
Not a summary — the actual recorded footage, with distances marked and defects timestamped. If there is a problem, that video is what a plumber quotes from and what you negotiate with.
What is included
- Full-length camera inspection of the sanitary lateral from cleanout to the municipal connection
- Recorded video with distance markers, provided to you in full
- Identification of root intrusion, bellies, offsets, cracks, scaling and prior repairs
- Pipe material and approximate age assessment
- A clear read on whether this is a monitor-it, clean-it, or replace-it situation
Why this matters in Ottawa
If the house was built before 1970 and there is a tree on the lot, scope the sewer. In neighbourhoods like Alta Vista and Old Ottawa East we find something worth knowing about in a large share of the lines we camera, and the cost of finding out afterward is measured in five figures plus a destroyed front yard.