Sewer camera inspection in Falls Church.
A sewer camera inspection in Falls Church is $89 added to a visit or $500 to $1,700 on its own, a step the City’s own sewer page suggests.
- Camera before any dig
- Priced in writing first
- Dedicated plumbing team
Book a sewer camera inspection
On both sides of the City line, the pipe out to the main is yours to look after.
The City of Falls Church looks after about 47 miles of sewer pipe and more than 1,000 manholes, and it relines those mains to keep rain and groundwater out of them. The pipe from your house to that main is another matter. The City says the owner owns the lateral up to the main and keeps it up, and its sewer page adds that much of the water leaking into the system gets in on private property, through owners’ own laterals and drains, sometimes unnoticed. So the same page suggests a television inspection of your lateral.
Age is most of the reason. The typical owner’s house went up in 1957 in West Falls Church, 1958 in Lake Barcroft, 1961 in Pimmit Hills and 1964 inside the City. A lateral from those years has been in the ground sixty or seventy years, every joint in it carrying the weight of the soil and whatever roots have found it.
Pimmit Hills is mostly single-family houses, yet close to a quarter of its homes went up since 2000. Where a newer house stands on an older lot, ask whether the line to the street was replaced with it. Sometimes it was. Sometimes the new plumbing was tied into the old lateral, and nobody at the closing table can say which.
Across the line, Fairfax County’s own sewer diagram draws the owner’s part all the way to the county’s sewer, and marks what goes wrong along it: deterioration, cracks, separated joints, root intrusion and a cleanout left uncapped. The camera finds the first four from inside the pipe. In Bailey’s Crossroads and Seven Corners, where about 8 in 10 homes share a building with other units, the line out of it is usually the association’s or the landlord’s.
What’s under the yards across Falls Church.
Census figures for the owner-occupied homes in each place, and the sewer pipe houses that age usually have.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | The sewer line you usually find |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Falls Church | 1957 | single-family houses, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Clay or cast iron, and Orangeburg on some late 1940s to 60s lines. |
| Bailey’s Crossroads | 1980 | condo and apartment buildings, about 6 in 10 | electricity, about 5 in 10 | Condo buildings: a shared main line, usually the association’s. |
| Idylwood | 1975 | condo and apartment buildings, about 4 in 10 | gas, about 5 in 10 | Condo buildings: a shared main line, usually the association’s. |
| City of Falls Church | 1964 | condo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Condo buildings: a shared main line, usually the association’s. |
| Lake Barcroft | 1958 | single-family houses, about 6 in 10 | gas, about 8 in 10 | Clay or cast iron, and Orangeburg on some late 1940s to 60s lines. |
| Seven Corners | 1972 | condo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 | gas, about 6 in 10 | Condo buildings: a shared main line, usually the association’s. |
| Pimmit Hills | 1961 | single-family houses, about 7 in 10 | gas, about 9 in 10 | Clay or cast iron, and Orangeburg on some late 1940s to 60s lines. |
Falls Church houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
The City of Falls Church
ZIP 22046, plus a few City addresses in 22042 and 22044.
- Median home built1964 Census
- Built before 1980about 6 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 3 in 10 Census
- Most homes arecondo and apartment buildings, about 5 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 7 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 5 in 10 Census
- Houses built from the late 1940s into the early 1970s can drain through Orangeburg, tar paper pipe that a snake tears apart, so the camera goes first.
- Lines from before 1960 are often clay or cast iron, and roots get in at the joints.
The Fairfax County side
22041 to 22044: West Falls Church, Idylwood, Lake Barcroft, Seven Corners and Bailey’s Crossroads.
What a sewer camera inspection costs in Falls Church.
Why we’re at the house decides which price you pay. On its own, the line often has to be cleared before the camera can see anything, and that’s what moves the number.
- Sewer camera inspection, added to a visit$89
- Sewer camera inspection on its own$500 to $1,700
A locator on the camera head marks the spot and its depth on the ground, so if something needs fixing you know where. If the line is fine, nobody talks about digging.
Comfort+ membership is $199 a year for four visits: a dryer vent cleaning, a water heater flush with a sewer camera inspection, a heating maintenance visit and a cooling maintenance visit.
When to put a camera down the line in Falls Church.
You’ve had a backup and want the City’s valve program
The City’s backflow preventer reimbursement asks for proof of an earlier backup, and documentation by a licensed plumber is one of the records it accepts. It also expects you to fix any cracked lateral letting water in. A camera, once the line is cleared, shows whether yours has one.
A house from the 1950s or 60s
Some houses from that era drain through Orangeburg, a tar paper pipe that a drain snake tears apart. If nobody knows what your line is made of, the camera goes down before the snake does.
Water comes up the floor drain
When the washer empties and water rises in the basement floor drain, or a toilet gurgles while a sink runs, the main line isn’t carrying it all away. The camera shows why.
How to pick the best plumber for a sewer camera inspection in Falls Church.
Questions to ask anybody who offers to put a camera down your line, us included.
Will they cap the cleanout properly when they’re done?
Fairfax County counts an uncapped cleanout as an improper connection, since rain can run straight into the sewer through it. The camera usually goes in there, so ask whoever runs it to cap it tight afterward and replace a cracked or missing cap.
Will they show you what the camera finds?
Ask to see it and to keep a copy. “It’s roots” with nothing to show for it is a guess, and a guess is a bad reason to dig up a yard.
Do they line and dig, or only one?
A company that only digs tends to see a dig, and one that only lines tends to see a liner. We do both, so the footage decides, not the truck.
What our customers say.
We had Tyson out for our main line leaking underground, he explained the scope of work for replacement and set great expectations. They had the job done in a very timely manner and I couldn’t ask for more professionalism than he provided!
5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Sewer camera questions from Falls Church.
Who owns the sewer line under my Falls Church yard?
You do, inside the City or out. The City says the owner owns the lateral up to the City’s main and that Public Works takes no responsibility for it. On the Fairfax County side, the owner’s part runs up to and including the connection to the county’s sewer, the stretch under the street too.
Is a television inspection the same thing as a sewer camera inspection?
Yes. It’s the City’s older name for the same job: a camera on a cable, pushed down the line from a cleanout.
How much does a sewer camera inspection cost in Falls Church?
$89 added to a visit we’re already making, $500 to $1,700 booked on its own. The difference is clearing: a visit just for the camera often has to clear the line first.
Should I get a sewer camera inspection before I buy a house?
If the house is older or has big trees out front, yes. A standard home inspection usually doesn’t include one, and in most of Northern Virginia the line from the house toward the street is the owner’s to fix.
More from SwiftPro in Falls Church.
More from SwiftPro in Falls Church
See the line before anybody digs.
Call, or book online and pick a window. You get the price in writing first, and if the camera says the line is fine, that’s what we’ll tell you.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Falls Church and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 997-9757. Book online, read our reviews, or see every town we serve.