I got quoted $9,800 for sewer replacement. Here’s what the camera actually found.

By Golden Strip Sewer & Drain • Simpsonville, SC • July 2025 • 5 min read

A homeowner in Kilgore Farms called us last year. She’d had a slow drain for a few months. She called a plumber — not us — who came out, ran a snake through the line, and then told her she needed a full sewer line replacement. No camera. No footage. No documentation of any kind.

The quote was $9,800.

She was skeptical. Not because she thought the plumber was dishonest, exactly. But because he’d told her what was wrong with her sewer line without ever actually seeing it. She’d watched him pull the snake out. She’d watched him walk back to his truck. And then he’d quoted her nearly ten thousand dollars for a job he hadn’t looked at.

She called us for a second opinion.

What we found

We ran the camera through her cleanout. The inspection took 38 minutes. Here’s what was actually in her lateral:

A loblolly pine root mass at 31 feet — dense but not massive, filling about 45 percent of the pipe cross-section. Behind it, a displaced joint at 33 feet — the entry point the root had used. Two minor offsets further down at 52 and 61 feet that were monitorable but not urgent. The rest of the pipe was clay in reasonable structural condition for its age.

That was it. No collapse. No Orangeburg. No catastrophic failure anywhere in the lateral. A 1993 clay pipe with a root intrusion problem at one joint that had gone unaddressed long enough to become significant.

What the camera changed

Without camera footage, a plumber is making a diagnosis based on symptoms. Slow drains and a dense root mass on the snake can absolutely mean a failing lateral. They can also mean exactly what they meant in this case — a viable pipe with a single problem joint that needed lining, not replacement.

The camera changed the recommendation from “replace the whole thing” to “fix the specific section that’s actually failing.” That’s a $7,850 difference.

She’s right. It’s not how any other repair works. It’s a specific problem in the sewer industry because the pipe is underground and invisible. When a homeowner can’t see the pipe and the plumber doesn’t show them the pipe, the diagnosis is easy to inflate — not necessarily through dishonesty, but through a diagnostic shortcut that costs the homeowner the difference.

When full replacement actually is the right answer

We want to be honest about this: sometimes the camera confirms that full replacement is legitimate. We’ve run inspections where the previous quote for full replacement was completely correct — Orangeburg pipe in advanced delamination, clay laterals with multiple structural collapses, pipes where CIPP isn’t viable because the host pipe can’t support a liner.

In those cases, we tell the homeowner the other contractor was right. The camera footage shows why. And the homeowner can make their decision based on documented evidence rather than a verbal assessment from a plumber who ran a snake and walked back to his truck.

What a second opinion costs

A camera inspection with Golden Strip costs $150 to $300. It takes 30 to 60 minutes. You get the footage and a written report. If the inspection confirms the other contractor’s recommendation, you proceed with full information and confidence. If it finds something different, you have $150 to $300 saved you the difference between a legitimate repair and an inflated one.

That math almost always works in the homeowner’s favor.

We serve Simpsonville, Mauldin, Fountain Inn, Taylors, and Greer. No trip charge. Same-day scheduling available. If you’ve received a sewer repair quote that doesn’t include camera footage, call us before you commit.

Golden Strip Sewer & Drain • Camera inspection before every recommendation. Written estimate before any work. Serving Greenville County since 2005.