If you're buying a home in Detroit, Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham, Hazel Park, Pleasant Ridge, Berkley, or anywhere with mature trees and pre-1970s plumbing, a sewer scope inspection is the single best add-on you can get. A standard home inspection looks at the visible plumbing inside your home — fixtures, accessible supply and drain lines, the water heater. It does not look at the buried sewer lateral that carries every drop of waste from your home to the city main. That line is invisible, expensive to repair, and in many Metro Detroit neighborhoods, on borrowed time.
This guide walks you through what a sewer scope is, what it finds, what repairs cost in Metro Detroit, and how to decide whether you need one for your specific home.
A sewer scope is a video inspection performed by feeding a flexible camera attached to a long cable down the home's main sewer cleanout. The camera travels the full length of the lateral — from the house out to the city sewer main at the property line or street — recording video as it goes. The inspector watches a live monitor and records the entire run, then provides you with the video file plus a written report describing what was found and where (with footage distance markers).
The whole inspection takes 45–90 minutes depending on the length of the lateral and what gets found. We perform sewer scopes during the same appointment as the home inspection so it's one trip, one schedule, one report.
Three things make Metro Detroit one of the highest-risk regions in the country for sewer line failures:
Most homes built before 1970 in Detroit, the older Oakland County suburbs, and the inner-ring Macomb communities were plumbed with vitrified clay tile pipe in 2- to 4-foot sections joined with mortar. Clay pipe is durable in the right conditions but brittle, and the joints between sections degrade over time. After 50–80 years, you have a pipe full of small gaps that tree roots find irresistible.
Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham, Pleasant Ridge, and historic Detroit neighborhoods are full of 80- and 100-year-old hardwoods with aggressive root systems. Roots find the tiniest moisture leak in a clay sewer joint and grow inward, eventually creating a root mass that catches solids and causes backups. By the time you notice slow drains or a basement backup, the line may already need replacement.
Michigan's freeze-thaw cycles shift the soil around buried pipes year after year. Clay tile pipe doesn't flex — it cracks. Cast iron, common in 1940s–1960s Detroit homes, corrodes from the inside. Orangeburg pipe (a tar-impregnated cardboard pipe used briefly in the 1950s and 1960s) collapses entirely. All of this happens silently underground until a backup forces the issue.
The most common findings in Metro Detroit sewer scopes:
If your sewer scope reveals problems, repair costs vary enormously based on severity, depth, and access. 2026 ballpark pricing for Metro Detroit:
A $300 sewer scope that catches a problem before closing can save you $20,000 in surprise repairs in the first year. We've seen it many times.
Strong recommend (we'd insist on it):
Probably not necessary:
If a sewer scope finds problems, your options in negotiation:
Sellers in Metro Detroit are increasingly familiar with sewer scope negotiations because so many buyers now request them. A documented finding from a third-party inspector with timestamped video carries enormous weight.
We perform sewer scopes throughout Metro Detroit — Detroit, Royal Oak, Ferndale, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Pleasant Ridge, Berkley, Hazel Park, Huntington Woods, Warren, Sterling Heights, Clinton Township, and the surrounding areas. Same appointment as your home inspection. Full video file delivered with your report. Call (734) 359-7993 to add a sewer scope to your buyer's inspection.