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Chicago, IL
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Victoria, BC
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 Videocam Sewer System
[#2] Posted: 01/07/2004 - 7:06:38 PM |  |  |
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Hi Kurt,
I recommend it all the time on any home over 50 years old in one particular area of Seattle where I know a lot of the waste lines are vitrified clay.
ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!
Mike
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Crystal Lake, IL
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Videocam Sewer System
[#3] Posted: 01/08/2004 - 5:08:03 PM | | |
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Was in Beverly (nice south Chicago suburb) last week, ground had sunk about 18" around most of the home. Do you think that the broken clay drain tiles were allowing soil to erode into them, causing the ground to sink (duh!). Realtor said I couldn't comment on what I couldn't see. She made BIG mistake there.
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Chicago, IL
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Gaston, Oregon
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Kenmore, WA
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Videocam Sewer System
[#6] Posted: 01/09/2004 - 04:31:57 AM | | |
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Hi Jim,
I see them in Plumbing & Mechanical mag all the time. The cheap ones start at about $2800.
ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!
M.
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Corpus Christi, TX
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Videocam Sewer System
[#7] Posted: 01/09/2004 - 05:26:54 AM | | |
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Most of this area has expansive clay soil condition. I recommend a hydro static test on every house that I do. Some companies use video, but, the more common test is to insert a test ball into the cleanout, then fill the drain system and allow it to stay for 30 minutes. If it holds, ok. If not, there is a leak. If there is a leak, then video equip is used to isolate the problem.
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Chicago, IL
Posts: 9503
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Videocam Sewer System
[#8] Posted: 01/09/2004 - 05:44:48 AM | | |
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They're about $3000 to start; the one you want is around $4400. I thought about getting one, then I ran into union problems because I'm not a union plumber (this is Chicago!). I've been using a couple union shops & handling scheduling for a small fee. I get dirty enough w/out hauling around sewage laden equipment; I don't really want one anymore.
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Kurt in Chicago
"If I smell it, it goes in the report".............Phillip Smith...2012
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Chicago, IL
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Videocam Sewer System
[#9] Posted: 07/01/2005 - 7:54:22 PM | | |
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Jerry...Beverly is within the corporate limits of the city of Chicago. The realtors down there are a bit like the Gold Coast Witches but with cloth coats. Anyway, I recommend a telescopic (is that the right word?) inspection of the sub-surface drainage system in any home built before WWII or if I see suspicious dips in the lawn or humps in the basement slab or deteriorated clay tile drains in the catch basin or I'm not sure what else might jog my memory.
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Kenmore, WA
Posts: 15389
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Videocam Sewer System
[#10] Posted: 07/01/2005 - 7:59:49 PM | | |
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Hi,
Sure you aren't thinking "fiberoptic"?
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Columbus, Mississippi
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Videocam Sewer System
[#11] Posted: 07/01/2005 - 8:46:09 PM | | |
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Originally posted by Jerry Simon
Realtor said I couldn't comment on what I couldn't see. She made BIG mistake there.
Forgive the drift, but I heard back through the grapevine today that I had no business reporting a large, dead tree close to a house I inspected the other day. They just don't get it...that whole "client" thing.
Brian G.
Clients, Not Customers
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Kenmore, WA
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Videocam Sewer System
[#12] Posted: 07/01/2005 - 9:21:06 PM | | |
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No they don't,
They obviously also don't understand that, if the client moves into a home with a dead tree next to it, doesn't do anything to have the tree inspected by an arborist, and declared healthy and not a threat to the home, and it falls on the home, the client is screwed. The insurance company will not pay because the client hasn't exercised due diligence. Who do you suppose the client comes after then?
ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!
Mike
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Sagamore Hills, Ohio
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Gervais, Oregon
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Videocam Sewer System
[#14] Posted: 03/16/2007 - 11:32:16 AM | | |
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I recently picked up a neato cheap 65 foot sewer cam setup in a nice case for $500 distributed by Harbor Freight around these parts and made under the Chicago electric brand.
I even hear it was on sale once for around $300 a while back but I missed out on that.
Its cheapo but I got the extended warranty on it.
I am not going to make it a practice to look down sewers etc. Theres been a couple of occasions where for curiosities sake I have wanted to look in suspicous dryer vent ducts and the like and once I had a client request to check the internals of the HVAC distribution system for water and debris.
Chris, Oregon
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Staten Island, New York
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Videocam Sewer System
[#15] Posted: 03/16/2007 - 3:27:41 PM | | |
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Great for looking down chimneys too. If it has vcr capabilities you can give a copy to the client.
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Steven Turetsky, UID#16000002314
Comprehensive Home & Building Inspections
www.homeinspectionsnewyork.com
www.eifsinspectionsnewyork.com
Staten Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Long Island, Westchester
"The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action".
Herbert Spencer 1830-1903 |
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State: Arizona
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Videocam Sewer System
[#16] Posted: 06/26/2007 - 2:33:16 PM | | |
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I converted an underwater camera I got for $100 at harbor freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/c...er=91309
Didn't have to do much, I took the weight off of the camera, trimmed the fins off and took the housing apart to modify it so the cable comes out the back. While the camera was out of the waterproof case I adjusted the lens so it focuses at a few inches instead of in the 1 foot range.
I got it because the rotorooter guy wanted $188 to find the problem in my line. It took me about 5 minutes to find the crushed PVC and 2 days to dig it up and fix it. Anyway, after the "conversion" I just taped the cable to an electrical fish tape. Only other thing I have used it for was to verify a break in some underfloor flex duct as no crawl space access was provided. If anybody is interested I can post pics of the modified camera.
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Nashville, TN
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Videocam Sewer System
[#17] Posted: 06/26/2007 - 4:23:34 PM | | |
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Brother Brian G wrote: Forgive the drift, but I heard back through the grapevine today that I had no business reporting a large, dead tree close to a house I inspected the other day. They just don't get it...that whole "client" thing.
I say: Not to sound all smartass, but two things come to mind:
1. Has the world gotten so specialized that we need home inspectors to point out bigass dead trees? In the summertime? When deadness couldn't be more obvious?
2. Does the RE agent think the guy's not going to notice?
Amazed,
WJ
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Chicago, IL
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Videocam Sewer System
[#18] Posted: 06/26/2007 - 4:42:39 PM | | |
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You know, sometimes it has; I get folks that don't see the big dead tree in their yard. And these are tiny little city yards. Always kind of scares and amazes me.
Maybe it's city folks. Shoot, that could be a great gig. Tree inspector.... all I'd have to do would be drive around, and answer a single question;
"Yep, ma'am..... it's daid."
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Kurt in Chicago
"If I smell it, it goes in the report".............Phillip Smith...2012
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Windsor, ON
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Videocam Sewer System
[#19] Posted: 06/26/2007 - 5:15:55 PM | | |
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There is a plumbing company that has equipped all of their trucks with sewer cams. For 89 bucks they'll come and scope the plumbing. These guys often times will show up by the end of the inspection if I call them at the beginning.
Many of our older neighbourhoods have enormous maple trees in the front yards, I always recommend a scope.
-Brad
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Columbus, Mississippi
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Videocam Sewer System
[#20] Posted: 06/26/2007 - 7:42:27 PM | | |
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Originally posted by SonOfSwamp
Has the world gotten so specialized that we need home inspectors to point out bigass dead trees? In the summertime? When deadness couldn't be more obvious?
I think there's more to blame than just specialization, but the answer is often "yes". I'd say that 75% of time when I point out a big dead tree within reach of the house they go "Wow, I didn't even notice that".
Does the RE agent think the guy's not going to notice?
I don't know what they think Walter, but I sure know what they're praying for. Shame on them; good for us. 
Brian G.
Per'fessional Daid Tree Pointer-Outer 
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DeWitt, Mi
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Videocam Sewer System
[#21] Posted: 06/27/2007 - 04:46:13 AM | | |
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Up here is Water Wonderland Michigan - Trees appear to be dead 6 month out of the year. So, I write "That tree out there appears to be dead. Have an arborist look at it asap. IF that tree is dead, it could fall on you and put your eye out!"
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Les
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Evergreen Park (Chicago), IL
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Videocam Sewer System
[#22] Posted: 06/27/2007 - 08:03:07 AM | | |
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I'm sort of overwhelmed with documenting all the problems I can see.
I don't recommend a scope unless there are signs of back-up flooding or a heaving basement floor or a sink in the the yard or a clean-out station in the yard or something/anything that says you should have a scope.
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Mike Lamb
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Chicago, IL
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Videocam Sewer System
[#23] Posted: 06/27/2007 - 09:09:51 AM | | |
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True, but isn't a big tree in the parkway, or a 100 year old problem sewer "visible"? I know, I'm stretching definitions, but it's so common, I think we're allowed to point out nasty old stuff and tell folks they oughta have it looked @, even if there's no visible problem.
Heck, half the folks I work for in the City have already had the problem, or know someone who has; it's like common knowledge in lots of neighborhoods.
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Kurt in Chicago
"If I smell it, it goes in the report".............Phillip Smith...2012
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DeWitt, Mi
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Videocam Sewer System
[#24] Posted: 06/27/2007 - 09:14:20 AM | | |
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Hey Mike! I can just see one of your cartoons with an old fart inspector laying on the ground next to a stump with an oak branch sticking out of his head!
Info overload is a common and difficult thing to manage. The astute learned inspector must learn to manage it and work on ways to convey without gushing out all the facts. I often tell buyers to shut me up, if I get carried away - and they do! Written reports are quite different because there is no automatic indicator that tell the writer to "shut up!"
I suspect that a room full of inspectors from TIJ could ramble on for days and even months about brick or shingles. Our client only needs and wants to know if the roof leaks, abt how much time left before replacement and is it as it appears to be.
In the past, I have fired inspectors that couldn't sift the wheat from the chaff and would go on about cracked concrete sidewalks, normal settlement cracks in gypsum, etc..
It really helps to have another inspector ride along and kibitz between jobs.
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Nashville, TN
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Videocam Sewer System
[#25] Posted: 06/27/2007 - 09:51:18 AM | | |
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| Quote: Originally posted by kurt
True, but isn't a big tree in the parkway, or a 100 year old problem sewer "visible"? I know, I'm stretching definitions, but it's so common, I think we're allowed to point out nasty old stuff and tell folks they oughta have it looked @, even if there's no visible problem.
Heck, half the folks I work for in the City have already had the problem, or know someone who has; it's like common knowledge in lots of neighborhoods.
The last few months I was doing everyday HI work, I told all my old-house customers about the hell of clogged sewers. That was because I'd just spent $4K getting the poopy water at my house to go to the treatment plant, instead of my basement.
I didn't exactly tell them to get the pipes scoped. I told them what would happen when the pipes collapsed, and explained that if I were buying an 80+year-old house, I'd sure as heck get my sewer scoped before I closed the deal.
I imagine that in Chicago, $4k won't even get the ditch dug.
WJ
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Kenmore, WA
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Videocam Sewer System
[#26] Posted: 06/27/2007 - 10:40:49 AM | | |
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I routinely recommend folks have sewer lines scoped. Did it last night in fact. A lot of the housing stock in Seattle has the downspout receivers and stairwell drains tied into the basement floor drains and the city sewer. So, when we have unusually heavy rains combined with snow the sewers tend to back up and create geysers in basements.
When I'm looking at a really old home with vitreous clay pipe receivers and basement floor drains in one of those old neighborhoods where there's only a sanitary sewer and no storm sewers, I always recommend they be scoped because I know that most of those old clay or concrete pipes will have collapsed or broken somewhere around the home or between the home and the street.
Yesterday's was easy. They left a cleanout off a line in the basement and there was dried up gorf all over the floor around the floor drain. It was pretty obvious the drain had backed up and someone had been attempting to snake it out. Wish I'd had that damned camera, I probably could have added another service right there and been able to hand them a video tape without having to recommend they hire another guy to come in and scope the line.
ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!
Mike
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