New City Trenchless runs a self-leveling CCTV crawler and a locating sonde through Rockland County sewer laterals, turning a mystery backup into a named defect with a distance, a depth and a repair price. Every method decision we make, lining versus pipe bursting versus a sectional point repair, starts with what this camera shows, which is why the inspection comes first on every job and why you get the footage when it is done.
How the Camera Gets Down the Line
Access is through an existing cleanout where the house has one, ideally a two-way cleanout that lets the head travel toward the house and toward the street from the same opening. Older Rockland homes without an outside cleanout are inspected through a pulled house trap or a roof vent. A push camera handles the typical 4-inch residential lateral; a motorized crawler takes over in 6-inch and larger commercial lines. The self-leveling head keeps the picture upright and the footage counter records the distance to everything it passes, from the first wye fitting to the lateral tap connection at the sewer main.
What Defects Look Like on Screen
Root intrusion
Fine roots read as a pale curtain across the picture; a mature mat fills the bore like a scouring pad. Roots almost always enter at the joints of vitrified clay pipe, so the camera also counts how many joints are compromised, which decides cleaning versus lining.
Bellied pipe
The lens dips underwater and surfaces again. The length of submerged footage measures the belly, and standing water at the same counter mark on a return visit confirms the pipe slope is gone rather than the line just being wet.
Deformed Orangeburg
The round bore goes egg-shaped and the walls look blistered or wrinkled. Bituminized fiber pipe fails by losing its shape, and once the camera shows ovality, cleaning buys months, not years.
Scale and channeling in cast iron
Scale buildup narrows the bore with a rough, rusty ring. Channeling shows as a worn trough along the bottom of the pipe, the wall thinning where sixty years of flow has run.
What $250 to $500 Buys
A sewer camera inspection in New City runs $250 to $500, and we often credit it against repair work when the line needs more than cleaning. Compare that with the old alternative, exploratory digging, and it is the cheapest decision on the whole job. Grease blockage, infiltration at a joint, an offset joint, a full collapse: each one shows on screen before anyone quotes a number.
From Screen Distance to a Mark on the Lawn
The camera head carries a locating sonde. A receiver at the surface reads its signal and converts a defect at 43 feet on the counter into a paint mark on the grass with a depth written beside it. That locate is what keeps a quote honest: a sectional point repair is only cheaper than a full lining if the failure really is confined to one spot, and the sonde proves where the spot is and how deep an access pit would need to be.
The Handover: Your Footage, Your Defect Log
You keep the full recording, along with a written defect log that lists each observation against its footage distance, in the spirit of the NASSCO PACP coding municipal inspectors use on sewer mains. That file has uses beyond our quote: it supports an insurance claim, anchors a seller credit on a house purchase, answers a sewer lateral easement question, and lets you get a second opinion without paying for a second camera. In postwar Rockland County housing the lens almost always comes back with one of three materials on screen, clay, cast iron or Orangeburg, and the log records which one is under your lawn, because the material decides the repair as much as the defect does.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a sewer camera inspection cost in New City?
$250 to $500, and we often credit it against repair work if the line needs lining, bursting or a spot repair. The price covers the full lateral from cleanout to the sewer main tap, the sonde locate, and the recording.
Do I get to keep the video?
Yes. The full recording is yours, with a defect log noting the distance to each problem. It is your evidence for an insurance claim, a seller negotiation or a second opinion, whether or not we do the repair.
Can the camera get through a blocked line?
Only up to the blockage. If the line is fully closed we clear it first with an auger or hydro jetter, then inspect. A camera pushed into standing sewage sees nothing useful.
How do you know how deep the pipe is?
The camera head carries a locating sonde. A receiver at the surface reads its signal and gives position and depth, so a defect at 43 feet on screen becomes a paint mark on the lawn with a depth figure beside it.