Thought my inspection was good till the sewer line backed up day 2 in Phoenix

Moved into a house near 7th Ave last month. Home inspector said everything looked fine. Second day after closing I flushed the toilet and water came up in the bathtub. Plumber came out and said there was a huge root ball in the main line. Cost me $1,800 to get it cleared and scoped. Inspector never ran water long enough to catch it. Anyone else get burned by a basic inspection that missed the big stuff?

4 comments

4 Comments

caleb_bell56d agoMost Upvoted

Inspectors aren't mind readers on underground pipes nobody can see.

garcia.wren1d ago

wait clay pipe?? i didnt even know they used that stuff

the_drew6d ago

Man that sucks, I feel your pain. Same thing happened to me last year when I bought a house near Cave Creek. Inspector gave it a clean bill of health, but day three I got standing water in the yard from the septic backing up. Cost me $2,200 to dig up the line and find a broken clay pipe that was full of tree roots. I was so pissed cause I paid that guy $400 and he literally just ran the sink for 30 seconds and called it good. Now I tell everyone to hire a separate plumber to do a camera scope before closing, it's like $200 and saves you a nightmare. Those basic inspections are a total crap shoot, they miss all the real expensive stuff hiding underground.

smith.lee6d ago

Yeah you're right, I used to think inspectors caught everything but that changed my mind.