Plumbing Inspections
A plumbing inspection before you buy or remodel can save you thousands.
Wes inspects residential plumbing systems and provides a written assessment of condition, deficiencies, and recommendations.
Pre-purchase plumbing inspection
Know what you are buying before you close.
A home inspection covers plumbing at a surface level. It does not scope the sewer line, test supply pressure at multiple points, assess water heater condition against age, or identify failing valves that are a year away from a problem. A dedicated plumbing inspection from a master plumber goes deeper.
Wes inspects the supply system, drain system, water heater, gas lines, fixtures, and shutoff valves, provides a written report with photos of deficiencies, and gives you an honest cost-of-repair assessment. That information goes into your negotiation or your post-close repair budget. Schedule a pre-purchase inspection.
Identifying the supply material is the single most useful thing an inspection tells you, because it sets the clock on the whole house. Galvanized steel shows up constantly in Denver and Littleton homes built before the mid sixties, and by now the inside is choked with rust to where a three quarter inch pipe passes water like a garden hose. Copper is usually fine, but the older soft copper in some seventies builds pinholes when the water chemistry is aggressive. Polybutylene, that grey plastic with crimped fittings, went into a stretch of homes from roughly 1978 to 1995 and it fails without warning at the fittings. PEX is what goes in today and it holds up well. Wes tells you which one you have, where he saw it, and what it means for the next ten years.
The water heater gets read the same way. Every tank has a date code in the serial number, and a twelve year old tank on hard Front Range water is not a maintenance item, it is a replacement you should be budgeting. He checks the age, the condition of the connections, whether the temperature and pressure relief valve has a proper discharge line, whether there is a drain pan under it, and whether the anode rod is even accessible. A report that says the heater is nine years old and sitting on a finished floor with no pan is information you can act on before it becomes a claim.
- Supply line material and condition assessment
- Water pressure test at multiple points
- Water heater age and condition assessment
- Drain flow test at every fixture
- Shutoff valve operation check
- Gas line visual inspection
Sewer scope inspection
The drain you cannot see without a camera.
The sewer lateral is one of the largest single repair costs in residential plumbing. Tree root intrusion, pipe sag, offset joints, and deteriorated cast iron or clay pipe can all require expensive repair. A sewer scope camera inspection shows the actual condition of the pipe before a purchase or a remodel that involves breaking the slab near the lateral.
Wes cameras the sewer lateral, records the footage, and provides a written assessment of pipe condition and any deficiencies.
The scope is an add-on for a reason: it is the one finding that can change whether you buy the house. A camera run from the cleanout to the street main tells you the pipe material, whether the line holds grade or has bellied where the soil settled, whether roots have found a joint, and how much of the diameter is left. Clay tile and old cast iron are the usual suspects on the older side of the metro. Out in the newer foothills subdivisions the pipe is fine but the bedding sometimes was not, and you see a sag thirty feet out. None of that is visible from inside the house, and none of it shows up on a standard home inspection report.
You get the footage along with the verdict. That matters if you are negotiating, because a seller’s agent will take a written report with recorded video a lot more seriously than a plumber’s opinion over the phone. If the scope does turn up something, the repair conversation is a separate decision on your timeline, whether that is a spot repair, trenchless sewer repair, or a full replacement. Nobody is going to lean on you at the tailgate to sign for a dig.
- Sewer lateral camera inspection
- Root intrusion assessment
- Pipe condition and material report
- Video recording of inspection
- Written deficiency report
- Repair pricing for findings
Whole-house inspection before a remodel
Know what you are opening into.
A remodel that opens walls sometimes finds surprises: plumbing repaired incorrectly by a previous owner, galvanized supply more corroded than expected, or a drain configuration that does not meet current code. Wes inspects the relevant plumbing systems before a remodel starts so surprises are scoped in advance, not discovered mid-project. See our assessment work.
Shutoffs are where this pays off fastest. Wes exercises every angle stop and every main valve he can reach, because a valve that has not moved in fifteen years frequently will not close, and some of them start weeping the moment you try. Finding that during an inspection is a cheap afternoon. Finding it on demo day, with the water still on and the wall already open, is a different day entirely. The report lists which stops turned, which did not, and which ones he would replace before the remodel starts.
An inspection is a snapshot, not a service plan. It tells you the condition of the system on the day he walked it, in writing, so you can make a decision with real numbers instead of a hunch. What you do with it afterward is up to you: fix the urgent items, budget the rest, or hand the report to the seller. If you want the system kept in shape on an ongoing basis rather than assessed once, that is preventative maintenance, and it is a different service with a different rhythm.
Written report, honest assessment
Plumbing inspections that give you real information.
Wes writes up what he finds, with photos, repair pricing for each deficiency, and a priority ranking of what needs immediate attention versus what can wait. You get actionable information, not a verbal summary.
The report is the product here. Wes is a master plumber and a licensed general contractor, so when he writes down what a finding costs to correct, that number comes from someone who would actually be doing the work. He is also not going to invent problems to sell repairs. If the house is in good shape, the report says the house is in good shape, and that is worth knowing too. Plenty of buyers have used one of these to walk away from a deal, and plenty of others have used it to stop worrying and close. Ask about scheduling and tell us your closing date.
Call (303) 883-9075 to schedule an inspection. Littleton based, covering the Denver metro, the Front Range and the mountain towns.
How a call goes
Straight answer, fair price.
You call, we listen.
Tell us what is happening.
We look and diagnose.
No work quoted before the cause is confirmed.
Straight quote.
You know the cost before we start.
We do the work.
Tested before we leave.
Done right.
One master plumber and licensed GC, one point of contact.
Straight answers
Questions about plumbing inspections.
How is this different from the home inspection I already ordered?
A home inspector looks at a lot of systems at a surface level and is generally not a licensed plumber. He will run a faucet and check under a sink. He will not scope your sewer, read the date code on your water heater, test static pressure at more than one point, or tell you that the grey pipe in your crawlspace is polybutylene. Those are the findings that carry real money.
Do you scope the sewer line as part of it?
It is an add-on, and on any house older than about 1990 it is the one we recommend most. The camera runs from the cleanout toward the street main and shows pipe material, root intrusion, offsets and bellies. You get the recorded footage along with the write-up so you have something to hand your agent or your seller.
How long does the inspection take and do I need to be there?
Two to three hours for a whole house with the sewer scope, less without it. You do not have to be present, though most people want to be for the last twenty minutes when Wes walks the findings. Access matters more than attendance: crawlspace hatch open, mechanical room clear, and the cleanout findable.
What exactly is in the written report?
Photos of every deficiency, the location, what it is, what it will take to correct, and a priority ranking separating what needs attention now from what can wait a few years. Sewer footage attaches if you had the scope done. It is written to be readable by a buyer, a seller’s agent or another contractor, without a plumbing background.
Can I use the report to negotiate on a house?
That is what most buyers use it for. A written document from a master plumber with photos and correction pricing carries weight in an inspection objection that a verbal opinion does not. Wes writes findings straight, without inflating anything, which is exactly why the numbers hold up when the other side pushes back on them.
What is the single most common problem you find in older homes here?
Corroded galvanized supply, and the pressure complaints that come with it. Second is a water heater past its useful life sitting somewhere a failure would do damage. Third is a main shutoff valve that no longer closes. All three are common in the pre-1970 stock across Denver, Littleton, Lakewood and Wheat Ridge.
Should I get an inspection before a remodel too, or only before buying?
Yes, and it is underused. Knowing what is behind the wall before you sign a remodel contract keeps the change orders down. If the supply is failing or the drain configuration is not to current code, you want that in the scope on day one rather than discovered on day nine with the room already torn apart.
If you find something, am I obligated to have you fix it?
No. The inspection stands on its own and the report is yours to take anywhere. Wes quotes the corrections because people ask, not because it is a condition. If you want him to do the work, he can, and being both a master plumber and a licensed GC means the finish repairs stay on one ticket. If you do not, the report is still complete.
Need a plumbing inspection?
Call Wes. Written report with photos, honest repair pricing, no sales pressure.