Ross sits inside the Ross Valley Sanitary District, which asks for a compliance certificate on your private sewer lateral at sale and at certain remodels. We run the camera and show you what that inspection is going to find.
In Ross, the sewer main under the street belongs to the Ross Valley Sanitary District. The lateral running from your house out to that main belongs to you, and so does anything that goes wrong inside it.
That split matters at two moments. The first is the morning a line backs up. The second is when you sell, add a bathroom, or take on a large remodel, because the district asks for a certificate of compliance on the private lateral, and getting one means putting a video camera down the pipe.
Ross has large lots, mature trees, and a good deal of housing old enough that the original lateral is still in the ground. Roots find the joints. Older clay and cast-iron pipe cracks and settles as the ground moves. Most owners learn about it one of two ways: the line backs up, or a sale inspection turns up a defect. The second one arrives with a deadline attached.
A lateral inspection either passes or it does not. If it does not, you want someone who can tell the difference between a line that needs cleaning and a line that needs replacing, because those two answers are very far apart in cost. We have worked on Ross Valley laterals since 1986.
The Ross Valley Sanitary District maintains the public sewer main in the street. The private lateral running from your house to that main is the property owner’s responsibility, including inspection and any repair it needs.
The district lists buying or selling a property, remodeling in excess of $75,000, and adding a bathroom as triggers. Those thresholds and rules do change over time, so confirm the current requirements with RVSD directly before you plan a timeline around them.
Sometimes. Cleaning clears roots and years of buildup, and if the pipe underneath is sound that can be the whole job. Cleaning does not repair an offset joint, a crack, or a section that has collapsed. The video is what tells you which situation you are in.
Roots follow moisture. They enter through cracks and separated joints, which older clay and cast-iron pipe develops as the ground shifts. Once inside, a few fine roots grow into a mat that catches grease and paper until the line stops flowing.
Yes. We run a camera through the lateral and you see the footage yourself. Worth knowing: RVSD does not review inspection video except as part of a sewer permit application, so check with the district about exactly what it needs from you and in what form.
No, and we do not treat it as the default. Plenty of laterals have one bad section and sound pipe on either side of it, which is a spot repair. Replacement is the right call when the pipe has failed along its length or the material is at the end of its service life.
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