Commercial buildings put more into their sewer lines and usually have more lines to check. A restaurant sends grease down the kitchen drains, an apartment building has dozens of fixtures on one main, and a strip center may have several tenants sharing a lateral. Camera inspection gives owners and property managers footage they can plan maintenance around instead of reacting to backups.
Typical commercial jobs
- Restaurant lines between the kitchen, the grease interceptor and the main
- Apartment and condo mains before a sale or refinance
- Older office and retail buildings with cast iron under the slab
- Scheduled scopes on lines with a history of stoppages
Larger pipe, different equipment
Commercial mains are often 6 inches or larger and run longer than residential laterals. Some jobs call for crawler cameras that drive themselves down the pipe rather than push cameras. Bring building drawings if you have them, since they show cleanout locations and line routes.
Working around business hours
A scope may need water use on a line to stop for a while. Talk through timing when you call so the visit fits around service hours or tenant schedules in Java Center, NY. Recorded footage and a written log let you share the results with co-owners, tenants or a buyer's lender.
