We recently performed a sewer camera inspection at a home in Pacific Palisades that was destroyed during the fires. The inspection was performed through the sewer cleanout at the front of the property, but unfortunately we didn’t make it very far. The sewer line was completely closed off before we could get beyond the front yard.
We excavated the area where the camera stopped and found a section of ABS pipe connected to the existing clay sewer line. The ABS had been severely damaged by heat—it was distorted and had holes burned through it. Based on what we found, the heat had traveled through the sewer system during the fire and damaged the piping underground.
A camera inspection can tell us much more than whether a sewer is simply clogged. In this case, it helped us locate an underground section of pipe that had suffered significant fire damage and couldn’t have been identified from the surface.
Sometimes the first step in rebuilding is finding out what survived underneath it.