Root intrusion
Where the roots got in, not just that they are there. The joint is the problem and the roots are the symptom.
Home / CCTV Drain Inspection
A CCTV drain inspection in Durban turns a guess into a position, a depth and a recording. If a blockage keeps returning, or somebody has suggested digging, this is the step that comes first.
Tell us why you want one. A recurring blockage, a boundary dispute and a pre-purchase check are surveyed the same way but reported quite differently.
Six things a camera finds that no amount of rodding will ever tell you.
Where the roots got in, not just that they are there. The joint is the problem and the roots are the symptom.
Ground movement pulls sections apart. Visible on camera, invisible from a chamber, and expensive if dug for blindly.
A pipe narrowed to a fraction of its bore. The single most common finding and the most preventable one.
A section that has settled so water no longer runs away. It blocks repeatedly and clearing it never lasts.
Traced from the surface with a sonde and marked on the ground, so any excavation goes in the right place.
A file, not a screen you were shown once. That is the difference between evidence and an anecdote.
There is a category of plumbing problem where the repair is not the difficult part. Somebody else is going to pay for it, or ought to, and the entire question is whether you can demonstrate that. A shared drain between two properties. A section that may sit past your boundary connection. A recurring blockage in a rented house. A body corporate arguing that a run is inside your section rather than common property.
In every one of those situations, a plumber's professional view is worth very little on its own. Not because it is wrong, but because the person being asked to pay has no way to test it and every reason not to accept it. What moves those conversations is a recording, a distance along the run, and a depth, all dated. That converts an assertion into something the other side has to engage with rather than simply decline.
This matters more in eThekwini than it might elsewhere because of the sheer volume of genuine municipal trouble. Reported sewer faults tripled to 2,368 in January 2026 from 850 that December, around 40% of the city's pump stations were reported non-functional in February 2023, and some sewer pipes are 40 to 50 years old with a five to ten year replacement programme against them. eThekwini puts its own attendance at 93% of reported faults inside a day. Those numbers cut both ways for a homeowner: there is a real chance your problem is the network's, and there is a queue of people claiming the same thing.
A report with footage and a located depth goes into that queue differently to a phone call describing a smell. It also protects you in the other direction, which people think about less. If the survey shows the defect is comfortably inside your boundary, you have stopped waiting for a crew that was never coming and can get the thing fixed, which is a worse answer and a much cheaper month.
The rule worth taking from this: any time the answer to a drain problem is somebody else should pay for this, get the camera down before you start the argument. The survey costs a fraction of an excavation and roughly nothing compared to three months of correspondence, and it is the only thing in this trade that reliably ends a dispute rather than extending it.
If any of these apply, the survey is cheaper than the alternative.
The recording is the deliverable. Everything else is how it gets made.
A camera cannot see through standing effluent, so any clearing needed to make the survey possible is priced up front.
The whole length rather than the first interesting thing found, because there is usually more than one.
The sonde is located from the surface and the position marked physically, with the depth written down.
As a file you keep and can send to anybody, dated, rather than something shown to you and then lost.
Cost first, then whether you actually need one, which is a question worth asking honestly.
It is priced as a job rather than as a call-out, because the camera, the operator and the recording are the service you are buying. A domestic survey of a single run is usually a couple of hours including setting up and producing the footage, against the trade's published guidance of R450 to R850 an hour excluding VAT plus the call-out. It is worth comparing that figure against what it costs to excavate a driveway in the wrong place, which is the alternative and is an order of magnitude more.
Four situations justify it easily. A blockage that keeps coming back after being cleared, because something structural is causing it. A dispute about whose drain it is, where you need evidence rather than an assertion. Before buying a property with mature trees and an older drain run. And any time somebody has proposed excavating, because the survey costs a fraction of the dig and tells you exactly where to put it. For a one off blocked toilet it is not worth it, and we will say so.
Recorded footage of the run, a position on the ground for anything found, and a depth. The position matters as much as the footage: a camera with a sonde in its head can be traced from the surface, so the defect can be marked on your paving rather than described vaguely as being somewhere under the lawn. Ask for the recording as a file you keep, not as something you are shown on a screen and then never see again.
That is one of the most common reasons to run one. The survey shows how far along the run a defect sits, and the located depth and distance can be set against where your boundary connection is. If the fault is past that point it is eThekwini's to deal with and you report it rather than pay for it. Given that reported sewer faults in the metro tripled to 2,368 in January 2026 and some pipes are 40 to 50 years old, this is not a hypothetical distinction, and a report with footage attached carries further than one without. The drain unblocking page covers where that boundary sits.
Most often a build up of fats and grease narrowing the pipe, which eThekwini names directly as a problem at its Hillcrest works. After that, root intrusion at a joint in older clay pipework, a displaced or dropped joint where ground has moved, a section that has lost its fall so water stands in it, or debris left behind from building work. The useful part is that these need completely different responses, and without a camera they all present identically as a drain that keeps blocking.
Usually it has to be cleared enough to get the camera through first, because a camera cannot see through standing effluent. The normal sequence is to clear the blockage, then survey the clean pipe to find out what caused it. That order is worth understanding when comparing quotes: a price for a survey does not usually include clearing the drain to make the survey possible, and a price that does should say so.
It is one of the better value checks on an older property, and it is rarely done. A standard home inspection does not put a camera down the drains, so the buyer inherits whatever is in there. On a property with mature trees, an older clay run, or any history of drainage trouble, a survey before transfer either gives you peace of mind or gives you a number to negotiate with. Either outcome is worth more than what it costs.
Dated, recorded footage with a located position and depth is the kind of evidence that gets accepted, which is precisely why it is worth having rather than a plumber's verbal account. A body corporate deciding whether a drain is common property or inside a section, an insurer assessing whether damage was sudden or gradual, and a neighbour disputing a shared run are all situations where a description carries almost no weight and a recording carries a great deal. Ask for it dated and keep it.
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Tell us why you want a survey and what the drain has been doing. If a camera is not worth it for your situation we will tell you that instead.