Sewer line repair and camera inspection in St. Charles, Campton Hills & Kane County

If your basement keeps backing up, the yard has a soggy patch over the line, or the toilet gurgles every time the kitchen sink runs, your sewer line wants attention. I run the camera, show you what’s down there, and tell you exactly what it’ll take to fix it — written estimate before any digging. Sewer line repair, camera inspection, and locate work across St. Charles, Campton Hills, Geneva, Wasco, and the rest of Kane County.

Outside cleanout install on a recent St. Charles job after a main sewer pipe sheared off at the foundation.

Signs you have a sewer line problem

• Multiple drains backing up at the same time, or recurring main-line backups every six to twelve months
• The toilet gurgles when the kitchen sink or laundry runs
• Sewage smell in the basement, around a floor drain, or in the yard
• A soggy or unusually green patch in the lawn over where the line runs
• Water bill higher than it should be (a leaking drain line is rare, but it happens)
• Cracks in foundation slab or basement floor near the line
• A previous plumber said you “have roots” and rodded it more than once

Most of these problems get worse on their own timeline. Knowing what’s actually going on is cheaper than another emergency rod call.

Camera inspection: what I’m looking for

A sewer camera is a self-leveling camera head on a flexible cable that I push down your cleanout and through the line, transmitting video back to a monitor. Footage gets recorded so you can see it with me and so I can mark where the problem sits.

What I’m watching for:

• Root intrusion. The single most common problem in older Kane County laterals. Mature trees within fifteen feet of the line, and any joint old enough to have a small offset, give roots a way in. The mat catches everything going by until the flow drops to nothing.
• Offset joints. Two sections of pipe that have shifted out of alignment, usually from soil settlement. The offset catches solids and creates a partial block that gets worse over time.
• Bellies (low spots). A section of pipe that’s settled below the rest of the run. Water and waste pool there, solids fall out of suspension, and the belly turns into a recurring clog that no amount of rodding will fix.
• Cracks and partial collapse. Common in cast iron after sixty to a hundred years. The pipe wall has thinned, channeled, or fractured. Lining can save some; collapse means dig.
• Pipe material identification. Clay tile (brittle, joint-vulnerable), cast iron (corrosion, channeling), Orangeburg/bituminous (unreliable, often needs full replacement), PVC (newer, usually fine).

The camera also tells me how far the issue sits from your cleanout, which matters for permits, restoration scope, and whether trenchless is even an option.

Repair options, in plain English

There’s no single “sewer line repair.” There are four broad approaches and the camera tells us which one fits your line.

1. Spot repair. Dig down to the bad joint or section, replace just that piece, backfill. Right when the camera shows one specific problem in an otherwise sound line. Smallest job, smallest restoration.
2. Trenchless lining (CIPP). A resin-soaked liner gets pulled through the existing pipe and cured in place. The new pipe-within-a-pipe is smooth, joint-free, and lasts decades. Right when the line is intact but has roots, joint offsets, or a long run of channeling. Saves your landscaping and driveway.
3. Pipe bursting. A bursting head pulls a new pipe through the path of the old one, breaking the old pipe outward as it goes. Right for collapsed lines where lining won’t work but you still want to keep the trench small. Requires access pits at both ends.
4. Open excavation and replacement. Trench down, remove the old line, install new PVC or SDR-35, backfill, restore. The right call when the line has bellies, multiple collapsed sections, or a slope problem that no trenchless approach can fix. Most disruptive, often the cleanest long-term answer for a line that’s been on borrowed time.

What I do, step by step

1. Phone diagnosis. I want to know what symptoms brought you here, the age of the house, and whether you’ve had any sewer work before.
2. Camera inspection. I locate your cleanout (or pull a toilet if there isn’t one accessible), run the camera, and record the footage. We watch it together.
3. Diagnosis and quote. Based on what the camera shows, I write up the recommended repair approach with a flat price. If there’s more than one option that makes sense, you see all of them.
4. Permit and locate. I pull the permit with your village. JULIE (811) gets called for the locate before any digging — required by law and saves a struck gas line.
5. Repair. Spot, line, burst, or replace, the right approach for your line.
6. Inspection and restoration. Village inspector signs off. Backfill, sod, concrete cuts patched. Paperwork goes to you for resale.

What it costs

Sewer work has the widest pricing range of anything I do. The variables: how deep the line is, how long the run is, what material it’s made of, whether the line is under landscaping or under a driveway, what restoration scope is required, and which repair approach the camera tells us to use.

There’s no flat number that fits. A spot repair at a single bad joint is a small job. A full trenchless line of a hundred-foot run under a finished driveway is a larger one. A dig-and-replace under mature trees with multiple village permits is the largest.

What I can promise: a flat price in writing before I dig, and that price is the price. Camera footage stays with you so you can compare quotes if you want a second opinion.

Fastest way to get a quote is to call me at 630-310-4736.

Sewer lines in Kane County

Pre-1940 homes in downtown Geneva, St. Charles, and Batavia often have cast iron drains and clay tile laterals at end of life. Mid-century homes can have Orangeburg laterals, which delaminate and need replacement, not lining. 1980s-and-newer subdivisions are PVC, usually fine except for root intrusion at joints. JULIE (811) gets called before any digging, no exceptions.

If you’ve had a recent rod call that didn’t hold, or a sewer scope flagged something during a real estate transaction, call. The camera takes the guesswork out.