March 24, 2025 • 17 mins
Sewer scope inspections can be thwarted by inaccessible clean-outs, requiring plumbers rather than home inspectors to create proper access points. We explore why clean-outs are essential, what prevents inspectors from completing scopes, and who's responsible for ensuring access before home purchases.
• Every home should have at least one clean-out, with additional access points every 100 feet for longer sewer lines
• Clean-outs can become inaccessible when caps fuse to pipes over time, are hidden behind walls, or were never installed
• Home inspectors in Ohio cannot legally pull toilets, cut pipes, or create new access points as these require plumbing licenses
• Sellers should hire plumbers to create proper access before closing if scopes cannot be completed
• Flippers claiming "the sewer works fine" based on minimal worker usage doesn't reflect a family's daily water demands
• State licensing prohibits inspectors from soliciting repair work on properties they've inspected
Remember to always get a sewer scope before purchasing a home to avoid expensive surprises after closing.
To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Two-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out and
how podcast.
This is Jim and of course Ihave with me Laura, the office
goddess.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hello everyone, Hello buddy, how you doing, Hi buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Peachy Keaton, how about you?
Doing great, doing great, great.
So weather's going back andforth lately, so I know you, you
are tired of cold weather I aminsanely sick of cold weather I
don't mind it, but it'd be niceto have some nice weather.
I am working on chicken coop, soif anybody sees me out and
(01:03):
about building chicken coop soour chickens have more room for
themselves, maybe easier to geteggs, because right now they
want to lay their eggs hiddendown below and it's hard to get.
So we're going to fix that withthe new coop.
But I want to talk about thisis not unusual.
(01:26):
It happens to every, as far asI know, pretty much every single
home inspection company thatdoes sewer scopes.
This happens where you getthere and you there's no clean
out that you can get to that.
That could be in order to dothe scope.
There's a couple reasons whythat can happen, but first let's
talk about this or let's listento this.
(01:48):
Let's listen.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
For a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs, from
radon to mold to warranties Fora great home inspection Okay,
such a good jingle, anyway.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The guy who did that did a nice job he did a very
good job.
I don't know if he's the sameguy, was he?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
the one from Australia.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
No no, no, I got him from New Zealand oh, he was from
New Zealand.
I can't tell the differencebetween New Zealand and
Australian accents.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I can tell the difference between Australian
and England, but not between NewZealand and Australian.
I've not heard enough of theNew Zealand, yeah me neither.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So, anyway, but not between New Zealand and
Australia.
And I've not heard enough ofthe New Zealand?
Yeah, me neither.
So anyway, anywho.
We had a sewer scope the otherday.
Yes, we get there and here'show typically how it's supposed
to go.
You go there.
Maybe you do it towards the endof the inspection.
The beginning it really doesn'tmatter.
I like doing it towards the endbecause I ran water.
(03:06):
So hopefully I have nice cleanlines to go through If the house
was vacant for a while andmaybe they had been used.
If there's a clog somewheredown the line or if there's a
low spot, I want to be able tosee that, and you can only see
that really if there's water hasbeen used.
So I do toward the end.
So at some point during theinspection you typically go to
(03:31):
the basement, you open up theclean-out cap.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
So explain what a clean-out cap is for people who
have never done a sewer scope orowned a house.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
If you live in Ohio and you have a basement anywhere
.
If you have a basement,typically you'll have that three
or four inch pipe that's goingvertically from your underneath
the bathroom, typically goingstraight down into the floor.
It can be cast iron, plastic,pvc if it's a newer type home or
(04:02):
it can be cast iron it could beeven copper and then it goes in
the cast iron pipe.
So your clean-out it's just acap, a screw cap that you would
just use a tool, maybe a monkeywrench, to unscrew it, usually
about three-inch, three orfour-inch, so you can stick a
camera into that pipe and thengo down into the sewer line and
(04:28):
then from there you can pushthat camera all the way up to
the street.
Or maybe to a septic system, ifyou have that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So a clean-out is basically access to get into the
pipe to do work.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yes, and every house should have a clean-out.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Isn't there also something about?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
every hundred feet there should be a clean out yep,
okay, if say you're in a houseand you're way back away from
the street, off the street, andit's oh, it's a long distance
between your house and the mainsewer line for the city, you
should have an opening, anotherclean out, 100 feet into it
(05:06):
every 100 feet here we wouldneed like nine clean outs 10 we
would need a couple cleaners.
Yes, to go all the way.
If our, if we were in a city,right, we would need several
cleaners all the way down there.
So I thought okay gotcha.
Instead we have one and we'reonly, and the septic tank is
only I don't know 20, 15 yardsmaybe from the house and there's
(05:31):
a clean out, there's a cleanout, right outside, there's
sometimes a clean outsideoutside the house it's totally
fine, but anyway you need theclean out because you may
someday need to get inside thereto unclog the check on things.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You can be relining through that, so you don't have
to dig up your pipes.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yep to reline it.
Do some work.
You need access to it, right?
Sometimes we get to a house andI'm thinking of a house that's
on an, an older house cast ironpipes and they put that brass
cap on it and if the cap hasnever been removed, you're not
(06:15):
going to get it off unless youbreak it.
And a lot of inspectors arelike all right, no, I can't
force that thing open.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, there's a couple reasons for that,
actually.
So the first is actually ourstate licensing that says that
we cannot damage a house.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, we're not supposed to try.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Right, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And we're not plumbers, and that was the
second one.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So that's another part of the state licensing part
.
The state licenses plumbers andhouse plumbers.
You have a specific set ofskills and things that you can
do.
Home inspectors have their ownskills and things that they can
do and they don't mix.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
No, well, correct, now we can.
If we can get that cap off andsay the cap was junk and it
falls apart, we can put a newcap on that.
Right, there's no problem withthat.
This is something that everyhomeowner can and should have
that ability to do.
It's just a pretty simplethings to do that.
(07:16):
But I've had where I started.
I turned a cap and I can see acrack in that cast iron pipe,
like I can just see it.
Now I'm like, oh, it's beencracked and no, I'm not going to
force it because it will makeit worse, so I'm not going to
force it.
So that's one case where wecan't get to it.
If it's cast iron and I'm usingit as a brass, it's a brass cap
(07:40):
that just over the decades,that metal just seems to weld
itself onto the cast iron.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Is that like a chemical process or something it
is?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's kind of crazy Molecules always move.
If you took silver and goldbars and put them right together
and left them there, they willeventually start migrating the
molecules across each other.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
So they would like blend, they would fuse together.
How long does that take?
Because that's cool as heck.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I don't know they would fuse together.
How long does that take?
Because that's cool as heck.
I don't know.
I've never had silver and goldattested.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
It would take a long time, I'm sure.
Okay, so keep my jewelrytogether If I don't take my
jewelry out or my gold andsilver rings go mixed together.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You would not need to worry about that.
I'm talking long time and youprobably have little vibrations
in the jewelry box.
So no, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So what other reasons couldn't we get into a pipe?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, we can't get the cap off Right For whatever
reason or it might damage thepipe or the cap.
All right, kind of hands off.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
And that's a plumber's job, then because
they're going to be the onesthat are going to have to fix
that and take that off andrepair it.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We would prefer a plumber come in and cut the pipe
off, because they're cuttingthe pipe.
They may even change out thatpipe if it's damaged.
They got to replace that pipe.
Some of the home repairs arenot supposed to.
We're not there to do repairs.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
We're not plumbers, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So if it can't come off, get a plumber to do it.
Some people will pull a toiletup.
Okay, when you do that, firstof all it makes a mess, you get
water all over the floor, butyou have to replace the wax ring
.
You got to replace the wax ring.
That is a plumber's job.
Homeowner's not supposed to bethere doing that and I do,
(09:19):
especially from other states.
They used to.
I don't know if they're doingit anymore.
They would go ahead and pullthe toilet and they'd charge the
homeowner an extra $150 to pullthe toilet Right.
It's like all right.
Now you're selling a plumbingservice.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
We can't do that here in Ohio.
So that or there's no actualclean-out.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
We've had that.
Why would that happen?
Like is it just they were builtso long ago?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
no, shitty flippers.
I'll be honest, it's usuallybad the ones I've seen that
don't have a clean out.
There was a clean on that pipe.
The pipe had issues, so theythey just took the pipe out and
replaced it with one and theydid not put a clean-out into it.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I've also seen clean-outs like under tile
floors or behind plasterboard.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, we've seen them where they put the clean-out
behind a finished wall.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Right and we can't get to it?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, we can't get to it.
I remember the one they built alittle finished wall around it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It was a little workout room.
It was it was.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It looked good it looked good and they had to take
the top off so we could thenget access from above.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh and you still were doing juggles and you still had
to maneuvering something thatwas your yoga for the day, baby,
I don't want to go through theday.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But we could get that .
But still you need, you wantaccess to your clean-out Because
, first of all, plumbers chargeyou I don't know how much per
hour quite a bit.
You don't want to pay them timeto get access to you.
To create the access, so itcould be the cap.
Here's how we can do it.
(10:59):
With a sewer scope, there's noclean-out.
The cap is stuck or damaged, orthe pipe is damaged no access
to that clean out and onedoesn't exist.
I think I may have saidsomething twice there.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
But either way, with any of those, the seller should
have a plumber come in andcreate that access, that section
, whatever, and you shouldalways request that prior to
buying the house, because onceyou buy the house and sign on
that dotted line, you justbought that septic line issue
(11:36):
well, and my my favorite littlenot really.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
But somebody flips the house like, oh, the sewer
line is fine because all myworkers use the bathroom while
they're here working.
I'm like all right you gotlet's say you had three guys at
once.
I've never really seen flippershire a whole massive crew to
take care of stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
A lot of them doing it themselves because they're
you know it's morecost-effective.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
But three or four guys just peeing in the toilet
is not the same as a family offour.
It's not the same as a familyof four taking showers, doing
laundry, cooking, cleaning andusing the bathroom.
It's not the same amount ofwater flow.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And I'll be.
You know how many guys actuallygo in and use the restroom?
Or do they use a bush behindthe garage?
I mean, let's be realistic.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I don't know that percentage, but if you're
working on the garage I'm sureit's pretty bloody freaking hot
If there's a fence around you.
I'm like, yeah, the temptationwould be there.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So you're lessening even more the number Just
because my crew used it whilethey're working on my, it's more
the number Just because my crewused it while they're working.
It's not the same.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
It's not the same.
It is not the same.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That thing could be 95,.
That pipe could be 95% blocked,but since they're only there
six hours a day, in fact, sixhours a day, rarely using it.
As soon as your family fourmoves in, you're doing laundry,
cooking, cleaning taking twohours, two weeks.
(13:20):
There's a chance that I said95% block, that 5% water flow is
not going to be enough to takecare of all the water you're
using.
You're going to have a backup.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So always get scoped.
Is there anything else aboutthis?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
It is not the home inspector's responsibility.
The client needs to talk totheir agent.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Did some agent think it was the home inspector's job?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yes, some agent thought it was the home
inspector's job, so I just wantto make sure To do what.
To actually pull the toilet,put in a clean out.
I'm not sure I got kind ofconfused in that email, so I
just want to make sure I'm veryclear about this for everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Who is either new or really doesn't understand it
doesn't want to be involved inthe thing I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So home inspection companies to a man cannot put in
new clean outs.
We cannot take off stuff that'sbeen welded.
We can't pull a toilet.
We can't do any of that becausethat falls under a plumbing
license and most home inspectorsdo not have a plumbing license.
(14:32):
Now there may be one out therethat has a plumbing license, I
don't know.
I haven't pulled the listrecently to see if there's any
cross-matching between plumbersand home inspectors here in Ohio
.
That's the only one.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
If there is a guy here in Ohio that has a plumbing
license and does homeinspections, that's a pretty
thin line, because you as a homeinspector are not supposed to
do repair work on the house youinspected For at least a year.
For at least a year, it's afine line.
A home inspector did theinspection and the client
(15:06):
randomly finds his plumbingcompany through internet search
and one of his employees comesand does it.
He doesn't know what they weredoing.
That inspection, I mean therepair work I see nothing.
He didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
He wasn't soliciting which I think is was the concern
because, yeah, it used to bethat a lot of home inspectors
had side gigs.
They were, you know, theyworked in, they worked in
construction, they worked inremodeling, they worked in
whatever and so they kind ofused home inspections as a way
to funnel that sideline to theirother business, to make double
(15:43):
money off of a client, which youcannot do under the state
licensing law at all.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You should not Nope, oh no, if you get caught, you
will lose your license.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
You should not Nope, oh no.
If you get caught, you willlose your license.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
And you should, and you should.
It's not to drum up businessfor yourself, right, it's to do
a good job for the client.
If you had a family member thatowned a business that does
repair work, I don't seeanything wrong with them, but
you just let them know hey, thisis a family member of mine, and
I think that's full disclosure.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Nothing wrong with that, yeah, and that's the
client's choice then to makethat phone call, and you know.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, just like real estate agents, they can sell
property.
They can own property and sellit and still get that commission
.
As long as everybody knowsthat's what they're doing, right
?
That's full disclosure.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
So nothing doing right.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That's full disclosure so there's nothing
wrong with that.
A lot of real estate agents doinvestments very similar to that
.
So yeah, and they flip houses,yes, so so, yeah, good idea to
get them done, not theinspector's job to make a clean
out or to replace the pipe orpull the toilet.
Here in Ohio, if you are a homebuyer and you're listening to
(16:57):
this and your agent says, well,well, the home inspector will
pull the toilet, no no, no, no,no, no, no.
That is not aware, or they'reusing a home inspector that
doesn't follow the rules.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Either way.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Steps out of his role as an inspector, so all right.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Thank you everybodycom.
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H, andclick on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
Welcome to the Standing Out in Ohio podcast,
where we discuss topics,upcoming events, news and
predictions with real estateprofessionals and entrepreneurs.
Listen and learn what makestheir companies and themselves
stand out and gain advantagesover the competition and gain
market share.
Subscribe for the latest newsand discussion on what it takes
(00:23):
to stand out from the crowd.
Now here's your host, jim.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Standing Out and
how podcast.
This is Jim and of course Ihave with me Laura, the office
goddess.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hello everyone, Hello buddy, how you doing, Hi buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Peachy Keaton, how about you?
Doing great, doing great, great.
So weather's going back andforth lately, so I know you, you
are tired of cold weather I aminsanely sick of cold weather I
don't mind it, but it'd be niceto have some nice weather.
I am working on chicken coop, soif anybody sees me out and
(01:03):
about building chicken coop soour chickens have more room for
themselves, maybe easier to geteggs, because right now they
want to lay their eggs hiddendown below and it's hard to get.
So we're going to fix that withthe new coop.
But I want to talk about thisis not unusual.
(01:26):
It happens to every, as far asI know, pretty much every single
home inspection company thatdoes sewer scopes.
This happens where you getthere and you there's no clean
out that you can get to that.
That could be in order to dothe scope.
There's a couple reasons whythat can happen, but first let's
talk about this or let's listento this.
(01:48):
Let's listen.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
Habitation investigation is the way to go
For a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed homeinspectors for your needs, from
radon to mold to warranties Fora great home inspection Okay,
such a good jingle, anyway.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The guy who did that did a nice job he did a very
good job.
I don't know if he's the sameguy, was he?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
the one from Australia.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
No no, no, I got him from New Zealand oh, he was from
New Zealand.
I can't tell the differencebetween New Zealand and
Australian accents.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I can tell the difference between Australian
and England, but not between NewZealand and Australian.
I've not heard enough of theNew Zealand, yeah me neither.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So, anyway, but not between New Zealand and
Australia.
And I've not heard enough ofthe New Zealand?
Yeah, me neither.
So anyway, anywho.
We had a sewer scope the otherday.
Yes, we get there and here'show typically how it's supposed
to go.
You go there.
Maybe you do it towards the endof the inspection.
The beginning it really doesn'tmatter.
I like doing it towards the endbecause I ran water.
(03:06):
So hopefully I have nice cleanlines to go through If the house
was vacant for a while andmaybe they had been used.
If there's a clog somewheredown the line or if there's a
low spot, I want to be able tosee that, and you can only see
that really if there's water hasbeen used.
So I do toward the end.
So at some point during theinspection you typically go to
(03:31):
the basement, you open up theclean-out cap.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
So explain what a clean-out cap is for people who
have never done a sewer scope orowned a house.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
If you live in Ohio and you have a basement anywhere
.
If you have a basement,typically you'll have that three
or four inch pipe that's goingvertically from your underneath
the bathroom, typically goingstraight down into the floor.
It can be cast iron, plastic,pvc if it's a newer type home or
(04:02):
it can be cast iron it could beeven copper and then it goes in
the cast iron pipe.
So your clean-out it's just acap, a screw cap that you would
just use a tool, maybe a monkeywrench, to unscrew it, usually
about three-inch, three orfour-inch, so you can stick a
camera into that pipe and thengo down into the sewer line and
(04:28):
then from there you can pushthat camera all the way up to
the street.
Or maybe to a septic system, ifyou have that.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So a clean-out is basically access to get into the
pipe to do work.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yes, and every house should have a clean-out.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Isn't there also something about?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
every hundred feet there should be a clean out yep,
okay, if say you're in a houseand you're way back away from
the street, off the street, andit's oh, it's a long distance
between your house and the mainsewer line for the city, you
should have an opening, anotherclean out, 100 feet into it
(05:06):
every 100 feet here we wouldneed like nine clean outs 10 we
would need a couple cleaners.
Yes, to go all the way.
If our, if we were in a city,right, we would need several
cleaners all the way down there.
So I thought okay gotcha.
Instead we have one and we'reonly, and the septic tank is
only I don't know 20, 15 yardsmaybe from the house and there's
(05:31):
a clean out, there's a cleanout, right outside, there's
sometimes a clean outsideoutside the house it's totally
fine, but anyway you need theclean out because you may
someday need to get inside thereto unclog the check on things.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You can be relining through that, so you don't have
to dig up your pipes.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yep to reline it.
Do some work.
You need access to it, right?
Sometimes we get to a house andI'm thinking of a house that's
on an, an older house cast ironpipes and they put that brass
cap on it and if the cap hasnever been removed, you're not
(06:15):
going to get it off unless youbreak it.
And a lot of inspectors arelike all right, no, I can't
force that thing open.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Well, there's a couple reasons for that,
actually.
So the first is actually ourstate licensing that says that
we cannot damage a house.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, we're not supposed to try.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Right, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And we're not plumbers, and that was the
second one.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
So that's another part of the state licensing part
.
The state licenses plumbers andhouse plumbers.
You have a specific set ofskills and things that you can
do.
Home inspectors have their ownskills and things that they can
do and they don't mix.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
No, well, correct, now we can.
If we can get that cap off andsay the cap was junk and it
falls apart, we can put a newcap on that.
Right, there's no problem withthat.
This is something that everyhomeowner can and should have
that ability to do.
It's just a pretty simplethings to do that.
(07:16):
But I've had where I started.
I turned a cap and I can see acrack in that cast iron pipe,
like I can just see it.
Now I'm like, oh, it's beencracked and no, I'm not going to
force it because it will makeit worse, so I'm not going to
force it.
So that's one case where wecan't get to it.
If it's cast iron and I'm usingit as a brass, it's a brass cap
(07:40):
that just over the decades,that metal just seems to weld
itself onto the cast iron.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Is that like a chemical process or something it
is?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
That's kind of crazy Molecules always move.
If you took silver and goldbars and put them right together
and left them there, they willeventually start migrating the
molecules across each other.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
So they would like blend, they would fuse together.
How long does that take?
Because that's cool as heck.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I don't know they would fuse together.
How long does that take?
Because that's cool as heck.
I don't know.
I've never had silver and goldattested.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
It would take a long time, I'm sure.
Okay, so keep my jewelrytogether If I don't take my
jewelry out or my gold andsilver rings go mixed together.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You would not need to worry about that.
I'm talking long time and youprobably have little vibrations
in the jewelry box.
So no, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So what other reasons couldn't we get into a pipe?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Well, we can't get the cap off Right For whatever
reason or it might damage thepipe or the cap.
All right, kind of hands off.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
And that's a plumber's job, then because
they're going to be the onesthat are going to have to fix
that and take that off andrepair it.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We would prefer a plumber come in and cut the pipe
off, because they're cuttingthe pipe.
They may even change out thatpipe if it's damaged.
They got to replace that pipe.
Some of the home repairs arenot supposed to.
We're not there to do repairs.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
We're not plumbers, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So if it can't come off, get a plumber to do it.
Some people will pull a toiletup.
Okay, when you do that, firstof all it makes a mess, you get
water all over the floor, butyou have to replace the wax ring
.
You got to replace the wax ring.
That is a plumber's job.
Homeowner's not supposed to bethere doing that and I do,
(09:19):
especially from other states.
They used to.
I don't know if they're doingit anymore.
They would go ahead and pullthe toilet and they'd charge the
homeowner an extra $150 to pullthe toilet Right.
It's like all right.
Now you're selling a plumbingservice.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
We can't do that here in Ohio.
So that or there's no actualclean-out.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
We've had that.
Why would that happen?
Like is it just they were builtso long ago?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
no, shitty flippers.
I'll be honest, it's usuallybad the ones I've seen that
don't have a clean out.
There was a clean on that pipe.
The pipe had issues, so theythey just took the pipe out and
replaced it with one and theydid not put a clean-out into it.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I've also seen clean-outs like under tile
floors or behind plasterboard.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Yeah, we've seen them where they put the clean-out
behind a finished wall.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Right and we can't get to it?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, we can't get to it.
I remember the one they built alittle finished wall around it.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
It was a little workout room.
It was it was.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
It looked good it looked good and they had to take
the top off so we could thenget access from above.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Oh and you still were doing juggles and you still had
to maneuvering something thatwas your yoga for the day, baby,
I don't want to go through theday.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
But we could get that .
But still you need, you wantaccess to your clean-out Because
, first of all, plumbers chargeyou I don't know how much per
hour quite a bit.
You don't want to pay them timeto get access to you.
To create the access, so itcould be the cap.
Here's how we can do it.
(10:59):
With a sewer scope, there's noclean-out.
The cap is stuck or damaged, orthe pipe is damaged no access
to that clean out and onedoesn't exist.
I think I may have saidsomething twice there.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
But either way, with any of those, the seller should
have a plumber come in andcreate that access, that section
, whatever, and you shouldalways request that prior to
buying the house, because onceyou buy the house and sign on
that dotted line, you justbought that septic line issue
(11:36):
well, and my my favorite littlenot really.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
But somebody flips the house like, oh, the sewer
line is fine because all myworkers use the bathroom while
they're here working.
I'm like all right you gotlet's say you had three guys at
once.
I've never really seen flippershire a whole massive crew to
take care of stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
A lot of them doing it themselves because they're
you know it's morecost-effective.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
Makes sense.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
But three or four guys just peeing in the toilet
is not the same as a family offour.
It's not the same as a familyof four taking showers, doing
laundry, cooking, cleaning andusing the bathroom.
It's not the same amount ofwater flow.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And I'll be.
You know how many guys actuallygo in and use the restroom?
Or do they use a bush behindthe garage?
I mean, let's be realistic.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
I don't know that percentage, but if you're
working on the garage I'm sureit's pretty bloody freaking hot
If there's a fence around you.
I'm like, yeah, the temptationwould be there.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So you're lessening even more the number Just
because my crew used it whilethey're working on my, it's more
the number Just because my crewused it while they're working.
It's not the same.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
It's not the same.
It is not the same.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That thing could be 95,.
That pipe could be 95% blocked,but since they're only there
six hours a day, in fact, sixhours a day, rarely using it.
As soon as your family fourmoves in, you're doing laundry,
cooking, cleaning taking twohours, two weeks.
(13:20):
There's a chance that I said95% block, that 5% water flow is
not going to be enough to takecare of all the water you're
using.
You're going to have a backup.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So always get scoped.
Is there anything else aboutthis?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
It is not the home inspector's responsibility.
The client needs to talk totheir agent.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Did some agent think it was the home inspector's job?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yes, some agent thought it was the home
inspector's job, so I just wantto make sure To do what.
To actually pull the toilet,put in a clean out.
I'm not sure I got kind ofconfused in that email, so I
just want to make sure I'm veryclear about this for everybody.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Who is either new or really doesn't understand it
doesn't want to be involved inthe thing I don't know.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So home inspection companies to a man cannot put in
new clean outs.
We cannot take off stuff that'sbeen welded.
We can't pull a toilet.
We can't do any of that becausethat falls under a plumbing
license and most home inspectorsdo not have a plumbing license.
(14:32):
Now there may be one out therethat has a plumbing license, I
don't know.
I haven't pulled the listrecently to see if there's any
cross-matching between plumbersand home inspectors here in Ohio
.
That's the only one.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
If there is a guy here in Ohio that has a plumbing
license and does homeinspections, that's a pretty
thin line, because you as a homeinspector are not supposed to
do repair work on the house youinspected For at least a year.
For at least a year, it's afine line.
A home inspector did theinspection and the client
(15:06):
randomly finds his plumbingcompany through internet search
and one of his employees comesand does it.
He doesn't know what they weredoing.
That inspection, I mean therepair work I see nothing.
He didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
He wasn't soliciting which I think is was the concern
because, yeah, it used to bethat a lot of home inspectors
had side gigs.
They were, you know, theyworked in, they worked in
construction, they worked inremodeling, they worked in
whatever and so they kind ofused home inspections as a way
to funnel that sideline to theirother business, to make double
(15:43):
money off of a client, which youcannot do under the state
licensing law at all.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You should not Nope, oh no, if you get caught, you
will lose your license.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
You should not Nope, oh no.
If you get caught, you willlose your license.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
And you should, and you should.
It's not to drum up businessfor yourself, right, it's to do
a good job for the client.
If you had a family member thatowned a business that does
repair work, I don't seeanything wrong with them, but
you just let them know hey, thisis a family member of mine, and
I think that's full disclosure.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Nothing wrong with that, yeah, and that's the
client's choice then to makethat phone call, and you know.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Well, just like real estate agents, they can sell
property.
They can own property and sellit and still get that commission
.
As long as everybody knowsthat's what they're doing, right
?
That's full disclosure.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
So nothing doing right.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That's full disclosure so there's nothing
wrong with that.
A lot of real estate agents doinvestments very similar to that
.
So yeah, and they flip houses,yes, so so, yeah, good idea to
get them done, not theinspector's job to make a clean
out or to replace the pipe orpull the toilet.
Here in Ohio, if you are a homebuyer and you're listening to
(16:57):
this and your agent says, well,well, the home inspector will
pull the toilet, no no, no, no,no, no, no.
That is not aware, or they'reusing a home inspector that
doesn't follow the rules.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Either way.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Steps out of his role as an inspector, so all right.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Thank you everybodycom.
That's J-I-M-T-R-O-T-H, andclick on podcast.
Until next time, learn and godo stuff.
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