Sewer camera inspection in Fort Belvoir.

Inside the fence, The Villages at Belvoir owns and maintains the plumbing in family housing, so a clogged drain or a suspected sewer issue goes to them as a service request. We handle the off-post houses in ZIP 22060, like the 256 units in Cook Inlet and the older homes on Backlick Road. Those off-post lots fall under Fairfax County rules, where the homeowner owns the entire sewer lateral from the house to the county main, including the stretch under the street.

The ground here is the story. Fairfax County’s soil map puts Cook Inlet on Coastal Plain clay in hydrologic group D, the slowest-draining class, with the water table as little as two feet down. On June 28, 2016, the National Weather Service logged Route 1 flooded and closed at Belvoir Court. After a storm like that, the high water table can shift soil around the pipe. A camera inspection, $89 added to a visit, shows if the line has shifted or cracked before you consider digging.

Cook Inlet’s houses, built between 2002 and 2004, have PVC drains. What comes due at twenty years is the condition of that pipe. In Fairfax County, replacing a sewer lateral takes a county plumbing permit, plus a VDOT permit if it runs under a state road. A camera inspection, $500 to $1,700 on its own, is how you learn the pipe’s condition and where the trouble sits, so you can price the repair correctly.

Accotink is a different century. Fairfax County dates one Backlick Road house to 1900, six to 1925 and six to 1978. Older homes often have cast iron or clay tile drains. Reagan National, 13 miles up the river, averages about 60 freezing nights a year. Cold air can affect pipes in crawlspaces. A camera inspection, $89 with a visit, is the first step to see what’s under the lawn before you talk about replacement.