A CCTV drain inspection is a camera pushed through the pipe so you can see what is actually in there. Roots, a crack, a collapsed or bellied section, grease, a foreign object, even what the pipe is made of: the picture shows it, and how far along the line it sits. That is the difference between paying to clear the same drain again and fixing the cause once.
TL;DR
A CCTV drain camera is a small waterproof camera on a cable, fed along the drain while we watch on a screen. It shows the fault, how far along the pipe it sits, and (with a locator) where that maps on the ground and roughly how deep the pipe is. Recurring blockages, buying a house, quoting a reline or a dig, and a sewer overflow are the times it is worth doing. A one-off blockage that clears and stays clear does not need a camera.
What is a CCTV drain inspection?
We access the line at a gully, an inspection opening or a toilet, and feed the camera down the pipe. The head lights the wall as it travels. On the screen you see joints, standing water, damage and whatever is catching the flow.
If the line is blocked solid, we clear enough to get the camera through, then inspect. On an old or suspect line we camera first so we know what a jetter would be going into.
This sits inside our blocked drains work: jetting and a drain machine get flow back; the camera is how we decide whether that is the whole job. On commercial sites the camera is often the first step before quoting drainage that would interrupt a kitchen or a tenancy.
What can the camera find?
Tree roots. Roots enter through a crack or a joint and grow into a mesh that catches paper and waste. Cabling cuts them back. They grow back if the opening is still there.
Cracks and displaced joints. A crack, an open joint or a stepped connection is how roots and soil get in.
Collapsed or bellied sections. A collapse pinches or closes the pipe. A belly is a low dip where the fall has gone, so water and solids sit instead of running through. Both re-block in the same place.
Grease and scale. Fat, soap and food coat the wall and narrow the bore, especially on kitchen and laundry lines.
Foreign objects. Wipes, toys, broken fittings, or a rag left from a previous clear. The camera shows whether a jetter will move it or the object has to be pulled.
Pipe material. Clay, PVC, earthenware, cast iron: the picture usually tells you what you are looking at. That matters for how we cut roots and whether a liner will take.
When is a camera worth it?
Four situations make it worth running the camera, and one does not:
| Situation | Worth a camera? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Same drain blocks every few weeks or months | Yes | Finds the cause instead of clearing the same symptom again |
| Buying a house | Yes | A standard NSW building inspection does not normally check drainage |
| Quoting a reline or a dig | Yes | Shows whether the pipe can be cured or has to come out |
| Sewer overflow, once the mess is stopped | Yes | Checks whether the pipe itself is damaged |
| One-off blockage that clears and stays clear | No | Already resolved, nothing left to find |
The drain keeps blocking. If the same fixture backs up every few weeks or months, another clear is treating the symptom. A camera is how you find the cause. That is the same problem as a drain that keeps blocking in the same spot.
Before you buy a house. A standard building inspection in NSW does not normally check plumbing, drainage or gasfitting (NSW Government, pre-purchase inspection reports). Underground drains do not show up on a walk-through. A camera run before you exchange is how you see cracked clay, root ingress or a belly before they become your bill.
Before relining or digging. We will not quote a reline or a trench off a blocked gully. The camera shows whether the pipe still has a round bore a liner can cure against, or whether a section is gone and has to come out.
After a sewer overflow. Wastewater coming up through a floor waste, a toilet or an outdoor gully is one of the signs Hunter Water lists for a sewer blockage, along with gurgling drains and slow sinks or toilets. They tell you to call a licensed plumber if your sewer shaft is clear. NSW Health treats sewage as infectious. After the overflow is stopped and the area is cleaned, a camera is how you check whether the pipe itself is damaged.
What do you get at the end?
You get the footage to keep. We also note how far along the pipe the fault sits from the access point, in metres. With a locator we can mark the spot on the ground so you can see where a reline or a dig would go, and roughly how deep the pipe is sitting.
That turns “it keeps blocking” into “roots at a joint 6 metres from the gully, pipe still round enough to reline” or “collapsed section under the driveway, that length has to be dug.” The repair is then quoted as a fixed price off the picture.
Relining or digging: how the footage decides
Pipe relining cures a new liner against the old wall, so we do not trench the garden, driveway or paving. It suits a cracked or root-affected pipe that is still in one piece, on a reasonably straight run.
A fully collapsed section, a belly that has lost its fall, or damage right at a junction or under a slab, usually still needs that length excavated and replaced. Relining cannot restore fall to a dipped pipe, and it cannot rebuild a section that has already collapsed.
If the camera shows a sanitary drain that has to be renewed rather than patched, that is closer to the sewer stack we replaced at Bateau Bay than to another jetter clear. Once we have seen the footage, we tell you which one the drain needs.
If you want the line cameraed, request a callback and we will run it and talk you through the picture. More on the blocked drains service, including jetting, root cutting and relining quotes.