When buying real estate – whether as an income property or as your home – comprehensive drain inspections can help you avoid future problems. Drain problems are not always easy to spot and often hard to fix, warns Wilson Management team. The best way to solve them is to prevent them.
These facts are true for all property investments, but they are truer when buying a condo. This is because of the relatively high cost of condos. Also, because the complex plumbing systems found in apartment buildings make drain problems in such properties very hard to deal with.
So, before finalizing that condo purchase, take the additional step of having the drain lines cleaned professionally. This simple step, which costs no more than a few hundred dollars, can end up saving you thousands of dollars and help you avoid wasted time and stress.
Why is cleaning a condo’s drainage system before paying for it a wise business decision? Because before cleaning the drains, a plumber will typically conduct a sewer camera inspection to determine the physical condition of the drainpipes and find any existing problems.
Problems like clogs, leaks, cracks, corrosion, pipe bellies, weak joints, and wrong installations will be revealed during this process. Based on the result of the inspection and the cost of fixing the detected problems, you can decide if you should go ahead with the purchase or walk away.
How professional drain-cleaning works
The most popular drain-cleaning methods used by professional plumbers are sewer rodding and hydro jetting. But before either of these methods is deployed, the drains must be inspected using a method known as sewer camera inspection.
Sewer rodding
This method uses a series of flexible rods, each one around 3 feet long. The rods are threaded to allow them to be joined end to end. By stacking the rods in this manner, they can extend into the deepest corners of the drain line. The sewer rods can be equipped with a grappling hook for grasping the debris inside the drainage pipes.
Sometimes sewer rodding uses a steel cable attached to an electric motor with a metal spinning head at one end. This type of sewer rodding is known as power rodding. To clean a drain line using standard sewer rodding or power rodding, the cable is inserted into the drain via an access point. The rod is then used to manually dislodge the debris inside the pipes.
Hydro jetting
This uses a stream of high-pressure water to blast away the debris inside the drainpipes. The equipment used in the operation comprises a reinforced water hose with a stainless steel nozzle at one end. The other end of the hose is attached to a high-pressure pump, which is connected to a water tank.
To clean the drain, the hose is inserted into the line through an access point. Once in place, the pump pushes water under high pressures of up to 4,000 PSI into the hose. The force of the ejecting water diverts the hose down the drain line. Hydro jetting will remove the most difficult blockages while also cleaning the pipe walls.
Sewer camera inspection
This step is done before cleaning the drain with either hydro jetting or sewer rodding. A waterproof high-resolution camera mounted on a flexible rod is inserted into the drains. The plumber manually guides the camera through the pipes. Because it is flexible, the rod can navigate the bends in the drainage system.
As it threads its way through the pipes, the camera shoots a high-resolution video of the drain line. This is transmitted to an above-ground screen monitored by the plumber operating the camera. Sewer rodding allows close examination of the pipes in a drainage system. It makes it easy to detect and evaluate problems.
Benefits of professional drain-cleaning when buying a condo
A sewer camera inspection will reveal the problems in a condo’s drains. Based on the report, you can decide if those problems are within acceptable limits. Whether you walk away or buy the condo, you will be making an informed decision.
If you decide to buy the condo despite the drainage issues, you can use the information in the inspection report to negotiate a lower price with the seller. The inspection report puts you in a prime position to move the negotiations in your desired direction.
After buying your condo, you will have a clear path for fixing the drain issues because you know the existing problems and the recommended solutions. If there are no drain issues, professional drain-cleaning still ensures optimal drain function for the foreseeable future.
To conclude, there are no downsides to cleaning the drains before buying a condo. If you walk away from the deal because of the drain problems, you will save yourself a lot of money and trouble. If you go ahead to buy the condo, you will be doing it with utmost peace of mind.