Drainage and septic tanks
What can a drain camera show that lifting an inspection cover cannot?
The pipe between the chambers. Lifting a cover shows the chamber: the benching, the water level, maybe a broken channel. A camera, if you instruct one, travels the run and can show cracks, displaced joints, roots or a collapse the cover never revealed. A RICS home survey does not include that camera unless the quote says so.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
The two inspections get confused because both are called a drain survey. The home survey, if it lifts covers at all, is looking at what is in reach. It does not map the pipe under the drive. Approved Document H is about drainage when building work is done. It is not a video of this house. A clear chamber and a broken pipe ten metres away can both be true.
Ask the camera firm where they will start, where they might have to stop, and whether the report uses their own grades. Those grades are not RICS condition ratings. There is no RICS national price for the visit. Do not deduct a new sewer because a cover was dirty.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which covers did you lift, and which pipes did you not see?
- Are you recommending a camera, or have you already done one?
- Is any comment limited to the chamber?
What are the typical next steps?
- Order a camera only if the home survey or the history gives a reason.
- Give the firm the survey sentence and a sketch of the covers.
- Do not read their grades as condition ratings 1, 2 and 3.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
Does a bad smell at a cover prove a collapse?
No. Smell can be a blocked trap or a full chamber. It is a reason to look, not a diagnosis of the pipe.
Will a Level 2 have already filmed the drain?
Not unless that extra was agreed. Assume it was not.