Hiring a Sewer Contractor for Your Home

Who to call first

Three different parties can show up at a house with a sewer problem, and which one you call first changes the bill. If one fixture is slow, that is a drain cleaner or a plumber, and a cable through the trap will probably settle it. If several drains slow at once, or the lowest one backs up when something upstairs runs, the trouble is in the building drain or the lateral, and the plumber's cable is a diagnostic tool at best. If sewage is surfacing at the curb, in the street or at a neighbor's cleanout, call the sewer utility before anyone else, because the blockage may be in the public main, the repair is theirs, and it costs you nothing.

Between the plumber and the utility sits the sewer contractor: a company whose business is the pipe between the foundation and the main. Some plumbing firms do this work well and carry the equipment for it. Many do not, and will either subcontract it or recommend the one method they own a kit for. The distinction you want is not the name on the truck but whether the company runs cameras and locators as a matter of routine and can show you jobs like yours. The hiring guide covers the questions that sort one from the other.

The camera, and who keeps the recording

No homeowner should authorize lateral work on the strength of a cable that came back with roots on it. Roots tell you a joint is open; they do not tell you how many, where, how deep, or whether the pipe has lost its slope. Insist on a recorded inspection of the entire run, with the operator pausing at each defect and a locator marking the spot and depth on the lawn or the driveway. Then ask for the file. A contractor who shoots video and keeps it has given you a diagnosis you cannot check, cannot show a second bidder and cannot hand to the city. Treat a refusal as a reason to stop. The camera page explains what a competent inspection looks like and why the price should not exist until it is done.

Whose pipe it is

Before any scope is written, find out where your responsibility ends. In most of the country a homeowner owns the lateral from the house to the tap on the main, including the length under the sidewalk and the street. Some cities take over at the property line or the curb; a few run programs that share the cost of the public portion. The rule is local, it changes at city limits, and it decides whether the bid in front of you covers thirty feet of pipe or ninety. Your state guide describes the common arrangements, and the sewer utility will tell you the rule for your address in one call. Ask also who repairs the tap itself if the connection at the main is the problem; in many systems that is the utility's work even where the lateral is yours.

The license and the permit

Which license a sewer contractor needs depends on the state. Some require a plumbing license for anything connected to a building drain. Others classify lateral work under a utility, underground or excavation contractor license. A handful have no state license for the trade at all and leave it to counties and cities. Whatever the rule where you live, look the number up yourself on the issuing board's register and check that it is active, that it is in the company's name and that the classification matches the work. The license and permit guide explains the categories; your state page names the board.

Nearly every jurisdiction requires a permit for any lateral repair, and most require an inspection before the trench is backfilled or a video of the finished liner. Work in the sidewalk or street takes a second permit from the public-works or engineering office. The contractor should pull these, and the permit number should appear on the paperwork. A contractor who tells you the permit is optional is either unfamiliar with your city or planning to skip the inspection that protects you.

How many bids, and how to compare them

Three bids is the usual advice and it holds here, with one adjustment: every bidder should work from the same footage. If the first contractor shot the video and you have the file, the others can bid from it and confirm with their own camera if they want to. Bids built on shared evidence can be compared; three separate guesses cannot. When they arrive, line them up against the list of what a bid should include: footage, diameter, depth, method, access points, permits, inspections, restoration of surfaces, warranty terms and the reasons the other methods were set aside. A lump sum with none of that is not low; it is incomplete.

Two honest bids can recommend different methods. A line that still holds its shape can be lined or burst or dug, and each has a case. What should not differ is the diagnosis. If one contractor sees a belly and another does not, somebody is wrong, and the footage settles it.

What the warranty should say

A sewer warranty is only as good as its text. Read for the term, whether it covers labor and materials or materials alone, what it excludes, who honors it if the company changes hands, and whether it transfers to a buyer. Watch for exclusions that swallow the coverage: ground movement, roots, "pre-existing conditions" or any defect not shown on the pre-work video are common ways to promise ten years and deliver none. A warranty on a repair whose end points were never recorded on camera is hard to enforce, which is another reason to own the footage.

Insurance claims

Standard homeowner policies usually exclude the lateral itself, but many carriers sell a service-line endorsement that covers it, and some cover the resulting interior damage even when they exclude the pipe. Call your agent before the work starts. An adjuster will want the inspection video, a written scope and an itemized invoice, which is the same paperwork a careful hire produces anyway. Do not let a contractor "handle the insurance" by padding the scope; that is fraud with your name on the claim.

Buying or selling a house

A sewer scope is now a normal part of inspecting any house more than a few decades old, and a growing list of cities requires a lateral inspection, and sometimes a repair, before the sale closes. If you are buying, order the scope and keep the video; it is the cheapest due diligence on the property. If the scope finds defects, a repair credit at closing is usually cleaner than a seller-chosen repair, because you then hire the contractor and own the warranty. If you are selling, a repair you have already done, with the permit sign-off and the post-work video in hand, removes the argument before it starts. In cities with a point-of-sale ordinance, confirm which inspections the city accepts and who must perform them; a report from the wrong party may have to be redone.

Condos, townhomes and shared lines

In a condominium or townhome community the pipe under your unit may be yours, the association's or shared with the neighbors, and the governing documents decide which. Before hiring anyone, read the declaration and ask the management company for the maintenance responsibility chart. If the line is a common element, the association hires the contractor and its insurance applies, and work you authorize on your own may not be reimbursed. If it is yours, the association may still require approval, a certificate of insurance from the contractor and a licensed trade; many do. The camera should run from the unit to the junction with the common main, so the footage shows where one party's responsibility becomes another's.

In order

1. Rule out a single-fixture clog and a public-main blockage.
2. Get a recorded camera inspection of the full lateral and keep the file.
3. Confirm where your pipe ends and which office issues the permit.
4. Verify each bidder's license on the register and ask for the insurance certificate.
5. Collect bids built from the same footage and compare them item by item.
6. Read the warranty, sign a scope that names the permit, and keep the post-work video.

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