I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they wanted to
redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof inspection
camera. Going to cost $45.
I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how stiff
cable is. Anybody do this?

Should accomplish what I need to know.

Greg

On Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:54:00 +0000 (UTC), gregz
wrote:

I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they wanted to
redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof inspection
camera. Going to cost $45.
I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how stiff
cable is. Anybody do this?

Should accomplish what I need to know.

Greg

I hear they take real ****ty pictures......

"gregz" wrote in message
...
I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they wanted to
redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof inspection
camera. Going to cost $45.
I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how stiff
cable is. Anybody do this?

Should accomplish what I need to know.

Greg

The usual thing is to attach them to drain cleaning rods. If you see an
obsruction do not push the camera past it, it may get stuck.

On Sep 29, 4:54*pm, gregz wrote:
I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they wanted to
redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof inspection
camera. Going to cost $45.
I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how stiff
cable is. Anybody do this?

Should accomplish what I need to know.

Greg

20' is not very long. What problem are you trying to diagnose?
What's your situation?

jamesgangnc wrote:
On Sep 29, 4:54 pm, gregz wrote:
I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they wanted to
redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof inspection
camera. Going to cost $45.
I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how stiff
cable is. Anybody do this?

Should accomplish what I need to know.

Greg

20' is not very long. What problem are you trying to diagnose?
What's your situation?

My main concern is which way a drain pipe under the slab is going. I also
want to check for roots. No problems, just want to do things before I put
up walls.

Greg

On 9/30/2011 7:34 PM, gregz wrote:
wrote:
On Sep 29, 4:54 pm, wrote:
I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they wanted to
redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof inspection
camera. Going to cost $45.
I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how stiff
cable is. Anybody do this?

Should accomplish what I need to know.

Greg

20' is not very long. What problem are you trying to diagnose?
What's your situation?

My main concern is which way a drain pipe under the slab is going. I also
want to check for roots. No problems, just want to do things before I put
up walls.

Greg

I am confused by your original post. Presumably you told them you wanted
to map the line location? What did they say the everything was they
wanted to redo?

I was working at a commercial site a few weeks ago and they asked me to
move my car. They said someone was coming to map the sewer line and
check the condition.

He popped a manhole and paid out the camera into the line. He had a hand
held wand and every so often located his device and painted a stripe on
the blacktop. He marked maybe 750' of line and was wrapped up in less
than an hour.

gregz wrote:
I had inquired about getting inspection, but from the get go they
wanted to redo everything. So I decided to order a 20 foot waterproof
inspection camera. Going to cost $45.
I might have to attach to a poly tubbing to push it. Don't know how
stiff cable is. Anybody do this?

You wrote later that you want to use the camera to figure out where the
sewer line goes. I think you may not be able to do that with the camera you
are buying. The reason is that unless you can be completely sure that the
camera stays in the same position as when it goes in, and does not rotate in
any way, you cannot tell from the camera view which way any turns in the
pipe are going. Someone else posted how they trace the sewer line location
and you may end up needed to have that done to find out where the pipe goes.

A few months ago, I did a little homemade sewer camera experiment. It was
fun and interesting to try, and it did tell me that my sewer pipe was okay
on the inside and did not have roots blocking it etc. But, there was one
place where the pipe make a turn about 3 feet out from the front of my
house. From my camera view, I thought it showed that the pipe made a
downward pitch toward the main sewer line in the street. That would have
been good news for me for what I wanted to do. But, when I dug down to the
sewer line out front, I found that the pipe did not turn downward -- it made
a horizontal 45 degree left turn. What I didn't know was that my camera had
rotated by about 90 degrees so the picture I saw may it look like the pipe
was going down when instead it was turning left.

Out of curiosity, could you post which 20-foot camera you are buying for $45
and/or where you are buying it?

Here is the complete information on the homemade sewer camera experiment I
did a few months ago:

I bought a cheap laptop webcam at Office Depot for $13 that includes a
built-in LED light (
http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...gapixel-Night/ )
.. Then I bought a 16-foot USB extension cable at Radio Shack for $35. I
connected the webcam and USB extension cable to my laptop and taped the
camera to a 50-foot flat metal sewer snake that I have and I tried to use
this contraption to view and make a video of my sewer pipe going out to the
street. It "almost" worked, but the built-in "night vision" LED on the
webcam provided nowhere near enough light to really see the inside of the
sewer pipe well enough to be of any use. Then I tried also taping a mini
MagLite LED flashlight ( http://www.maglite.com/AA_Cell_LED.asp ) to end of
the snake for more light along with the webcam.

That worked.

Yes, it was a goofy setup, and yes, it was a bit of a mess playing with all
of this and using it in a sewer pipe. But, it did work, and I did get to
make a videotaped inspection of the inside of my sewer line from inside the
basement out to the street. My section of the sewer pipe is fine. I saved
the video recording of the inspection on my laptop.

Would I recommend anyone else doing the same thing? -- no. If the camera
light really did work, maybe it would be worth trying. But, the camera
light was worthless. Also, with a USB cable going to a laptop, I learned
that the maximum recommended length of a USB extension cable is about 16
feet for the USB port to work correctly. Luckily, 16 feet plus the 4 feet
of cable on the camera was enough for what I needed and to do the experiment
and view my whole sewer line out to the street.

For my next trick, I was thinking of buying a 50-foot sewer line inspection
video camera and light for $250 on eBay ( http://tinyurl.com/sewer-cam ).
They also sell a 100-foot version for $315, but I only have a 50-foot flat
metal sewer snake that can successfully be pushed into a sewer line.

Supposedly, this 50-foot sewer line inspection camera works by just
connecting it directly to a TV or LCD monitor. And, supposedly, the
built-in light on the camera makes it work inside a sewer pipe. I wasn't
sure so I didn't go ahead and buy one and try it, but I sure was tempted.
Hopefully, you'll post back what kind of camera you are buying and how well
it worked.

quote; The reason is that unless you can be
completely sure that the camera stays in the same position as when it
goes in, and does not rotate in any way, you cannot tell from the
camera view which way any turns in the pipe are going.

You can tell the bottom of the sewer either from staining, standing water
or by flowing a little water into the sewer.