Tree roots.
The most common finding in Birmingham scopes. Roots can grow into a small crack in 30 days and pack a line like felt within two years.
Birmingham’s sewer scope & hydro‑jetting specialist. Flat $250–$500. Same‑day digital case file.
We send a high-definition camera down your sewer line, hand you a timestamped video report by end of day, and tell you what’s there — without trying to sell you a repair.
Same-day digital file · HD camera, timestamped findings · Flat rate, no repair upsell
Two services. Flat prices. Owner-operated. Birmingham only.
A sewer line is the one part of a Birmingham home almost nobody looks at before money changes hands. The home inspector doesn't scope it. The seller doesn't know what's in it. Your homeowner's insurance won't cover it when it fails. And it almost always fails at the worst possible moment — three weeks after you close, on a Sunday night, in the basement.
This city is built on red clay soil that swells and shifts with every season. We get 55 inches of rain a year. Half the homes in Crestwood, Avondale, Forest Park, Norwood, and Woodlawn still have the original cast iron or clay laterals from before 1970. The trees are older than the pipes. Roots find every crack. Joints separate. Bellies form. Lines collapse.
You can find out what's in your line for $250. Or you can find out the hard way. We document the difference.
The most common finding in Birmingham scopes. Roots can grow into a small crack in 30 days and pack a line like felt within two years.
Most homes built before 1970 in Birmingham still have their original lateral. Cast iron corrodes from the inside out. Clay separates at the joints.
A full sewer line replacement in Birmingham runs $4k on the low end and clears $25k on the high end — depending on depth, length, landscaping, and whether the city owns the section that failed.
Send the camera down before it becomes a five-figure surprise.
Open a caseEvery job ends with a digital case file. Below: stills pulled from actual Birmingham scopes. Names and addresses are off the record. The cameras are not.
Tap roots from a mature white oak finding the smallest gap at the pipe seam. Two more years and the line stops moving water.
The line broke at a joint and the downstream section dropped two inches. Soil shift, classic Birmingham red clay. Water still flows. Solids don't.
Fiber-optic cable visible inside the sewer line, drilled clean through the pipe by the install crew. Homeowner had no idea. The fiber company paid for the repair.
Cast iron from 1962 corroding from the inside. The cracks are still hairline today. By next summer they're a backup. Owner caught it pre-listing — repaired before going to market.
This is what a healthy lateral looks like all the way to the city tap. We'll tell you when there's nothing wrong. Same flat rate. Same case file. No invented problem.
A dense root mass was stopping the camera from passing. The homeowner had hydro jetting performed, which should keep the line flowing for many years.
Six cases. Six families who got the footage before they got the bill.
Call Chris or send the form. Tell us the address, the situation, the closing date if there is one. We confirm the price before we hang up — $250, $350, or $500. No "we'll see when we get there." The price is set.
We arrive on time, in a marked truck, with the HD camera and the jetter on board. Most jobs take 45 minutes to 90 minutes on site. You're welcome to watch the monitor with us. Your agent is welcome too. We narrate what we're seeing as we see it.
By end of day, your inbox has the digital case file: HD video of the entire run, timestamped findings, plain-English notes, and a summary you can hand to a contractor, a seller, or your agent. No waiting a week. No follow-up phone tag.
Three steps. One trip. One flat price. One file in your inbox by 5pm.
Open a caseEvery other plumber in Birmingham wants you to call before they'll quote a sewer scope. There's a reason for that, and it's not in your favor. We publish all four prices, in writing, before you ever pick up the phone. What we quote is what you pay — set before we arrive, not after we open up the line. If the job's bigger than we thought, that's our problem, not yours.
When it fits: Most homes built since 1980 with a visible exterior cleanout in the yard or near the foundation.
What you get: Full HD camera run from the cleanout to the city main. Same-day digital case file with footage, timestamps, and findings.
Open a caseWhen it fits: Older homes with no exterior cleanout — a lot of pre-1970 Birmingham housing stock. We enter through a roof vent stack, an interior cleanout, or by pulling a toilet and resetting it on a fresh wax ring when we're done.
What you get: Same camera, same footage, same case file. Extra access work, priced flat.
Open a caseWhen it fits: Recurring backups. Slow drains. Buildup that snaking won't solve. Maintenance for a line you already know has scaling or root growth.
What you get: 4,000-PSI water cuts roots, scale, and grease off the pipe wall — not just a hole through the clog. Lines clear by hydro-jetting stay clear three times longer than lines that were snaked. First hour included. $100/hour after that.
Open a caseWhen it fits: When you want the line cleaned and documented in one trip. Also: when you don't yet know if your pipes are strong enough to be jetted. We scope first, every time. If the line can't take the pressure, we don't run it.
What you get: Pre-jet scope, full hydro-jetting service, post-jet scope to confirm the result, complete case file with before-and-after footage. One visit. One price. First hour of jetting included. $100/hour after that.
Open a caseEvery job: HD camera, timestamped findings, same-day digital case file, and a phone call from Chris if there's anything that needs talking through.
We don't sell the repair work. If your line needs replaced or spot-fixed, we'll tell you, send you the footage, and step aside. You can take our file to any contractor in Birmingham — the camera doesn't lie regardless of who's looking at it.
Your inspector noted "recommend sewer scope." You've got a closing date in eight days and three quotes in your inbox, none of them under $400, none of them with a number you can plan around. We'll be there this week. Flat $250. Footage in your inbox by 5pm. Take it into negotiation Friday morning.
Open a case before closeYou need a vendor who shows up on time, prices clean, and doesn't scare your buyer out of the deal with bad bedside manner or a $9,000 sky-quote. We're owner-operated. Chris answers the phone. The price is published. The report is same-day. Your client doesn't get sold anything they don't need. Add us to your vendor list.
Refer a clientYou've snaked the same line two or three times. It clears for a few weeks, then it doesn't. The plumber shrugs, charges you again, and disappears until the next one. Stop guessing. We'll send the camera down, show you exactly what's happening on the pipe wall, and jet it clean if your line can take the pressure. One trip. One file. One actual answer.
Send the camera down
Chris Brown has been cleaning drains for 30 years. He started sewer scoping and jetting in 2021 because no one was putting eyes on the cause of the stoppages and he wanted to make sure the lines were clear. Plenty of plumbers will scope a line when you ask. None of them treat it as the entire job. Most use the camera as a way to find work they can sell you afterward. That's the conflict of interest the rest of the category lives inside, and it's the one we built this company to leave.
Chris runs every scope. Every job. He owns the truck. His name is on the invoice. He doesn't dispatch a technician on commission, doesn't carry a tablet that quotes you a sewer line replacement before he's pulled the camera out, and doesn't have a corporate target to hit. The whole business is two services and one operator. That's by design.
Birmingham is the entire service area on purpose. Chris grew up here. He knows which neighborhoods still have cast iron in the ground and which ones the city has actually re-laid. He knows what 50 years of red clay does to a pipe joint. He knows how the Avondale main sits relative to the Forest Park main and which streets have heavy root canopy on the lateral side. Local in a way that matters.
"I scope it. I jet it. I tell you what's there. If you need it replaced, I'll point you to someone honest. That's the whole job."
— Chris Brown
We work the Birmingham metro and nothing outside it. The expertise compounds when you stop crossing county lines.
Avondale, Birmingham proper, Crestwood, Five Points South, Forest Park, Gardendale, Helena, Homewood, Hoover, Hueytown, Mountain Brook, Norwood, Pelham, Trussville, Vestavia Hills, Woodlawn — and most points within 25 miles of downtown Birmingham.
Closing on a house just outside the line? Call Chris anyway. We make case-by-case exceptions for closings on a clock.
$250 flat. HD footage. Case file in your inbox by end of day.
Tell us where, when, and what you're worried about. Chris reviews every form and replies within the business day.
Already a customer? Pick the channel that's easiest. Same flat rate, same case file — paid your way.
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