Sewer Inspection Before You Buy a Commercial Property

The scope answers one question a general inspection cannot: what shape is the buried pipe in? A building inspector walks the property and flushes fixtures. They do not see the private sewer between the building and the city main. In Phoenix that pipe belongs to the owner, which means it becomes yours at closing, defects included.

A good commercial scope gives you the pipe material by section, every crack, offset, root intrusion and low spot with a distance from the start, any grease or scale buildup, any sign of a connection that should not be there and a plain statement of what the camera could not reach. That is the content you take into a price conversation.

• Material and age. Cast iron, clay, concrete, PVC and fiber pipe each fail in their own way. Orangeburg is a fiber pipe that needs its own careful look. See Orangeburg on camera.
• Roots. Roots get in at joints and cracks, and they come back. See roots and old clay pipe when buying.
• Bellies and slope. Water standing in the pipe means a sag. The code sets minimum slopes, and Phoenix allows flatter building sewers only with a certified design and a signed owner acceptance. Ask the seller for that certificate if the building has a low slope sewer.
• Offsets and cracks. A joint that has slipped lets soil in and water out. This is where sinkholes and repeat backups begin.
• Wrong connections. Phoenix does not allow storm and sanitary drainage to be combined. A roof drain or yard drain tied to the sewer shows up on camera or in a smoke test, and it is the type of thing that is better found before you own it.
• Cleanouts and access. Missing or buried cleanouts do not just limit the inspection. They are a defect the code treats as a requirement.

A scope turns a vague worry into a scope of work. If the video shows a cracked section 40 feet in, you can have a repair quoted from the same footage, either as a credit, a seller repair or a reason to walk. If the video shows clean, sound pipe, you are buying certainty. Both are useful. Talk to your attorney and lender about how an inspection finding fits your contract and your timelines, because those depend on the agreement.

Pairing the camera with locating is often worth it on a larger site. Marking the path and depth of the lateral on the surface tells you what is built over it, and whether a repair would mean opening a parking lot or going under a slab. See sewer line locating.

Book the scope inside your inspection period, not after. Give us the address, the number of buildings and tenants, and where the cleanouts are if the seller can say. Ask the seller or property manager to approve access and to have the cleanout uncovered. If tenants share one lateral, tell us, because the report should say which tenants the line serves. If the seller can't provide access, treat that as information. For past work, Phoenix permit and inspection records show what was repaired and when.

A brand-new building with a recent final inspection and a fresh warranty may not need one, though a video baseline gives you a record to compare against later. A lease rather than a purchase is a different question, because who owns and maintains the sewer line depends on the lease, so read it first. And if your concern is smell, not pipe condition, a smoke test comes first. See commercial sewer smoke testing.

We run the camera from the cleanout, record the video, deliver a written report and can mark location and depth on the surface. If the line needs work, our sewer repair crew can quote it from the same video. HQ gives free estimates, an upfront price before any work starts and 24/7 emergency service. See also sewer camera inspection and commercial plumbing.