“Drain guy walked me through three options from a printed rate card before touching a tool. Picked the middle one. No upsell, no drama, done in an hour.”
Nobody should approve a five figure sewer job on somebody's word. Every Kelvin sewer conversation starts with a camera inspection and a locator: you see the roots, the offset joint, or the belly on screen, with the depth and position marked in chalk on your lawn, and the footage lands on your phone before we discuss money.
Richmond's older neighborhoods run on clay tile laterals laid before the second world war, and the trees that make those streets beautiful are the same ones drilling into the joints. That is not a moral failing of your house; it is a maintenance reality with three or four honest answers at very different prices.
How sewer trouble announces itself
- Backups recurring every few months no matter the clearing
- Multiple fixtures gurgling together, lowest drain first
- Sewage smell in the yard, or one suspiciously lush green stripe
- Soggy ground over the lateral path on dry weeks
- A sunken trench line in the lawn: the soil is telling on a collapsed run
Four honest answers, priced side by side
Maintenance: scheduled cabling or jetting with root treatment holds many intrusions at bay for years at the lowest cost. Spot repair: one bad joint gets excavated and replaced without touching the good pipe. Pipe bursting or lining: trenchless full-length renewal that spares the driveway and the roses. Full replacement: sometimes the right call, and we will say so when it is.
Whatever you choose, the quote is flat, the permit and city tie-in coordination are ours (fictional for this demo), the restoration scope is written down, and trenchless work carries a 25 year materials warranty (illustrative). Doing nothing this year is also sometimes the honest recommendation, and we have made it.
What it costs
| Job | Rate |
|---|---|
| Camera inspection + locateFootage delivered, free with any clearing | $179 |
| Root maintenance programAnnual jet + treatment, scheduled | from $390/yr |
| Spot repair, single jointExcavate, replace, restore | from $2,800 |
| Trenchless replacement, full lateralBurst or line, yard largely spared | from $8,900 or $164/mo |
Illustrative demo pricing. Members take 10 to 20 percent off (plan terms on the membership page).
Fair questions
Whose pipe is it, mine or the city's?
In most of our area the homeowner owns the lateral to the main, including under the sidewalk. The locate maps exactly where your responsibility runs before anyone talks price (general information for this fictional demo).
Is trenchless as durable as replacement?
Modern HDPE bursting and cured liners are rated for 50 years and carry our 25 year warranty (illustrative). The cases where a dig still wins, like a badly back-pitched line, show up on the camera, which is why we scope first.
Can I just keep clearing it every year?
You can, and for light root intrusion the maintenance program is a legitimate long-term answer. The camera tells us which side of the line you are on, and we will give you the honest read.
Reviews
What the neighbors say
4.9 average across 2,384 reviews. Fictional reviews, illustrative of format.
“Booked online at 9:40 pm for a leaking shutoff valve. Dispatcher called at 7:31 the next morning, tech landed in the 8 to 10 window. This is how it should work everywhere.”
“Sump pump died during that week of storms. Emergency line answered on the second ring at 11 pm, pump replaced by 1 am. Yes it cost more at night. They told me exactly how much more before rolling.”
Pick a window. We do the rest.
Two hour arrival windows, a tech you can vet before the doorbell, and the price agreed before work starts.