PlumbingBossPro Blog — Quotes & Estimates

From Camera Inspection to Quote: Turning What the Plumber Saw Into a Written Estimate

A camera inspection is one of the most persuasive things a plumber can do. The customer watches the screen and sees the roots, the crack or the standing water for themselves. Then the tech packs up the camera and the moment passes. If the findings are not written down and turned into a quote, the customer remembers “something about roots” and nothing more.

The Inspection Is Half the Quote

The options a sewer quote usually offers are laid out in Sewer Line Quotes: Laying Out Repair and Replacement Options in a Plumbing Estimate. This article is about the step before that: getting from what the camera showed to the written estimate.

The camera inspection itself belongs on your service list as its own line, so it shows up on the estimate or invoice like any other service. What comes out of it, the findings, is what drives the bigger quote that may follow.

Write Down What You Saw, Where

A useful finding has three parts: what it is, where it is, and how bad it looks. The tech records it in the job notes right after the inspection, while it is fresh:

• “Roots at joint approx 38 ft from front cleanout. Moderate, partial blockage.”
• “Belly holding water from approx 45 ft to 55 ft.”
• “Offset joint at approx 60 ft, camera passed with difficulty.”
• “Line beyond 60 ft looked clear to the city connection.”

Distances from the cleanout matter. They tell whoever builds the quote where the work is, and they tell the customer that you actually measured. Note which cleanout you used, too.

Photos and the Customer's Own View

Many customers watch the inspection live. Others are at work. Either way, a few pictures help. Techs can take photos with the tech app and they stay with the job, the same way before-and-after photos do on any other call. A photo of the screen showing the roots, with a note of the distance, is often enough for the office to explain the finding to a customer who was not home.

If your camera system records video, that stays with whatever process you already use for it. The written findings and photos on the job are what the office works from when building the estimate.

From Findings to Line Items

Once the findings are written down, the estimate follows from them. Each recommendation should point back to something on the list:

• Roots at a joint may lead to a clearing and jetting line, a spot repair line, or recurring jetting.
• A belly or offset may lead to a spot repair at that distance.
• Multiple problems along the line may lead to a replacement quote alongside a repair quote.

Build the estimate from your service list, and use the findings as the description. “Spot repair at approx 38 ft from front cleanout, where camera found root intrusion at a joint” connects the price to the problem in a single line.

Who Writes the Quote

Sometimes the tech who ran the camera builds the quote on the spot. More often, especially for sewer repairs, the tech records the findings and the office or owner builds the estimate afterward. Either way, the job notes and photos are the hand-off. The person writing the quote should not have to call the tech to ask where the roots were.

If you quote the same kinds of sewer work often, estimate templates help. A template for “spot repair from cleanout access” or “clear, jet and camera” gives you a well-worded starting point, and you just fill in the distances and the findings for this house. See Plumbing Estimate Templates: Quoting the Jobs You Write Every Week in Less Time.

Describe It in the Customer's Words

Techs talk about bellies, offsets and laterals. Customers do not. When the finding goes onto the estimate, translate it: a belly is “a low spot where water sits in the pipe,” an offset is “a joint where two sections of pipe have shifted out of line.” Keep the technical word in parentheses if you like, so the customer can look it up. A finding the customer understands is a finding they can act on.

Sending It While the Customer Still Remembers

Camera findings lose their impact fast. A customer who watched roots on a screen this morning is ready to make a decision this afternoon. The same customer a week later has moved on. Send the estimate the same day if you can, for online approval, and let estimate follow-up emails catch the ones who do not answer.

When the customer approves, the estimate becomes the scheduled job. The findings stay with the customer record, so if they decline today and call back next year, the office can see exactly what was found and what was recommended.

Recording the cleanout location on the house is worth doing too. In PlumbingBossPro the sewer cleanout is one of the equipment items a property can keep, with its location and access notes, and the next tech sees it on the job card. For more on how camera findings fit into quoting overall, see the plumbing estimate software overview.