A standard home inspection runs water and watches drains for a few minutes. It cannot see the one pipe most likely to cost you five figures: the sewer lateral running from the house to the street — original terra-cotta in most homes built before the 1960s, under trees that have had eighty years to find it.
Why older Virginia neighborhoods especially
Roanoke's Grandin, Raleigh Court and Old Southwest, downtown Fredericksburg, Winchester's historic district, the mill villages around Martinsville — these neighborhoods share original clay laterals, mature street trees, and shifting clay soil. Roots enter at every joint; joints shift with the seasons; and the pipe belongs to you, not the city, right up to the main.
What a camera inspection shows
A plumber runs a camera the full length of the lateral and you watch in real time: root intrusion, cracked or offset joints, bellied sections holding water, or a line with decades of life left. You get footage and a locate — meaning if repair is needed, it's a marked spot, not a mystery trench.
Using it in the deal
A failed lateral is a negotiation item like a bad roof. Buyers routinely recover repair costs — or walk from a genuine problem — on the strength of a $200–350 inspection. Sellers of older homes increasingly camera the line before listing for the same reason.
Already own the house?
If your older home has never had the lateral scoped and you're planning a basement finish or an addition, scope it first. Discovering a failed lateral after the basement is finished is the expensive order of operations.