You paid for a sewer scope and received a video, a page of findings, and — often — a repair recommendation with a number attached. The gap between what the footage shows and what the recommendation asks for is where most of the money is lost.
This guide translates the report.
I’ve sat at more than one kitchen table with a homeowner holding a report that recommended full replacement when the video showed nothing worse than a couple of grade-2 root intrusions. A few years back I pulled the camera through a client’s crawl space access myself, after another company had quoted a full dig-up off findings that turned out to be plain maintenance items. Once we cleared the roots and re-scoped, the pipe underneath was sound. That gap between what the footage actually shows and what the recommendation asks for is the whole reason I tell people to read the report line by line before signing anything.
First: the two questions that decide everything
Before any individual finding, sort the report along two axes. Everything else follows.
- Structural or maintenance? Structural means the pipe has lost integrity — offsets, fractures, deformation, collapse, bellies. Maintenance means the pipe is intact but obstructed — roots, grease, scale, debris. Maintenance is hundreds of dollars. Structural is thousands.
- Isolated or continuous? One bad joint at 34 feet is a spot repair. Deteriorated joints every four feet across the whole run is a lining or replacement case. The same defect type produces completely different budgets depending on how many times it appears.
A recommendation to replace the whole line should be supported by continuous structural findings. If the report lists one structural defect, or lists only maintenance findings, and the recommendation is a full replacement, ask the inspector to point at the footage that justifies it. A good inspector will.
The PACP grading scale
The professional standard is NASSCO’s Pipeline Assessment and Certification Program. Not every residential inspector uses it, but the ones who do are giving you a defensible number rather than an adjective.
| Grade | Meaning | What it implies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Minor observation | Note it. Do nothing. |
| 2 | Minor defect | Monitor. Re-scope in a few years. |
| 3 | Moderate defect | Plan for it. Not urgent, but it will not improve. |
| 4 | Significant defect | Failure likely in the near term. Budget now. |
| 5 | Failure has occurred or is imminent | Act. This is the grade that justifies excavation. |
A report full of grade 1s and 2s describes a normal older pipe. A single grade 5 at a known footage is a spot-repair conversation. Grade 4s and 5s repeating along the run is the genuine replacement case.
Finding by finding
Root intrusion
What you see: white or brown filaments entering at a joint, sometimes a full curtain across the bore.
What it means: roots do not drill through sound pipe. They enter where there is already a gap — a failed joint seal, a crack, a bad connection. So roots are simultaneously a maintenance problem (the mass blocks flow) and a marker of an underlying structural defect.
Proportionate response: clear it, then re-scope the clean pipe to see what the roots were hiding. The decision comes from the second scope, not the first. Jetting typically runs $350 to $600 and will need repeating unless the entry point is repaired.
Offset joint
What you see: a visible step where two pipe sections no longer align.
What it means: ground movement, settlement or root pressure has displaced the pipe. Sewage escapes into the soil; soil and roots enter. Offsets do not self-correct and generally worsen.
Proportionate response: a minor offset can be lined. A severe offset reduces the bore too much for a liner to pass and needs excavation at that point. Ask which it is.
Belly (sag)
What you see: the camera goes underwater and stays there for several feet before emerging.
What it means: the pipe has lost its slope over a section and standing water sits there permanently, collecting solids. This is a grade problem, not a blockage.
Proportionate response: the honest answer is that cleaning does not fix a belly and lining does not fix a belly — a liner follows the existing shape. Re-establishing grade means excavating and re-bedding. Beware anyone who proposes to “jet out the belly”: you will be buying that service repeatedly forever. See diagnosing sewer problems.
Crack, fracture, break
What you see: a line in the pipe wall (crack), an opening with displaced pieces (fracture), or missing wall (break).
What it means: a progression, in that order. Cracks admit water and roots; fractures admit soil; breaks are structural failure.
Proportionate response: a crack in otherwise sound pipe is a lining candidate. A break generally is not.
Collapse
What you see: the camera cannot proceed and the bore is visibly closed or deformed.
What it means: structural failure. Nothing beyond that point has been inspected.
Proportionate response: excavation at minimum. Note that lining is impossible through a collapse — a liner needs a continuous open path — so any lining quote covering a collapsed section is wrong.
Scale and grease
What you see: narrowing of the bore; rough rusty build-up in cast iron, waxy deposits in any material.
What it means: in cast iron, scale is corrosion product and indicates pipe age and remaining wall thickness. Grease is a use pattern.
Proportionate response: hydro jetting, $350 to $600. Caution: aggressive jetting of heavily corroded cast iron can perforate a wall already thinned by rust. A competent operator adjusts pressure to the material.
Orangeburg / “deformed pipe”
What you see: an oval rather than round bore; a dark fibrous material; blistering.
What it means: Orangeburg is bituminized wood fiber pipe installed roughly 1945–1972. It deforms and delaminates as a matter of course. This is a material finding, not merely a defect finding.
Proportionate response: replacement is genuinely the right answer here, and this is one of the few findings where a full-run recommendation follows directly from the footage. Lining a deformed Orangeburg line is generally not viable.
Footage matters as much as the defect
Every finding should carry a distance. That number does two jobs.
It tells you who pays. A defect at 8 feet is unambiguously in your yard. A defect at 55 feet may be at or beyond the property line, where responsibility depends on your city — some municipalities own everything past the line, others hold the homeowner responsible all the way to the main. That single number can be the difference between a $9,000 bill and a $0 bill. See who is responsible for sewer line repair.
It tells you what the repair costs. A defect at 12 feet under lawn is a modest dig. The same defect at 48 feet under a concrete driveway is a different project entirely — and if you have a sonde locate showing depth, you can price it properly with the cost calculator.
Red flags in a report
- No footage references. “Damage observed throughout” is not a finding. It is an argument.
- No video supplied. You paid for evidence. Insist on the file.
- The camera stopped early and the report does not say so. If the run terminated at 22 feet on a 60-foot lateral, two-thirds of the pipe is uninspected and the report must state that.
- Pipe material not identified. Material drives remaining life. Its absence suggests a quick look, not an inspection.
- A repair price on the inspection document. Diagnosis and sales in one envelope. Get repair pricing from someone else.
- Urgency language without a grade. “Severe”, “critical” and “must be replaced immediately” are adjectives. Grades and footages are facts.
What to do next
- Clean first if there are roots or grease, then re-scope. Many alarming first scopes look ordinary once the pipe is clear.
- Get a sonde locate if any structural defect was found. Path and depth are what repair quotes are actually priced on.
- Take the video to two independent contractors and ask each to quote from the footage. Two quotes that agree on the method are far more informative than one quote that agrees with the inspector.
- Match the method to the finding. Isolated defect in sound pipe: spot repair. Continuous defects, pipe intact: lining. Collapse, belly or Orangeburg: excavation. Compare in repair methods.
My report says 'needs immediate replacement' but only lists roots. Is that right?
Roots alone are a maintenance finding. They do indicate a defect at the entry point, but establishing what that defect is requires clearing the line and re-scoping. A replacement recommendation supported only by root findings has skipped a step.
Should I get a second inspection?
Usually you do not need a second inspection — you need a second opinion on the first one. Send the video to another company and ask what they would recommend from that footage. Most will review it for free or a nominal fee.
What is a 'grade 4' in plain language?
A significant defect that is expected to fail in the near term. It is not an emergency this week, but it is a budget item this year and it will not improve on its own.
The camera could not reach the city main. Does that invalidate the inspection?
It makes it incomplete, not worthless — but the report must state where it stopped and why. Anything beyond that point is unknown, and a clean bill of health cannot honestly be given for pipe that was never seen.
Reviewed August 2026. Grading terminology follows NASSCO PACP conventions; not all residential inspectors use formal grading. See Data Sources.
