Using a BORESCOPE to CLEAN OUT a CLOGGED VENT PIPE 

Lots of comments on why we didn't use PEX or PVC instead of copper. The wall thickness on both was too great for our purposes. We needed thin wall copper to maximize the inside diameter in order for the vac to suck up the nuts plus we needed that space for the camera to show our viewers what was going on. I liked the fact that the copper could be used to "chop" the nuts to make smaller pieces also. EMT lengths were too short for our application.

I lost my father to cancer back in 2016. He owned a remodeling company and taught me everything from flooring to electrical. The relationship you two have is a blessing to see. It reminds me of the good ol days with my father. Kudos to the dad here showing his son the "how to's" and to the son willing to put his nose to the grindstone. If I had anything else to say is...enjoy your time together. Embrace the blood, sweat, and tears that goes along with this type of business together. It will also come in handy later, I promise.

Never did I ever think I would watch a 24 minute video about this subject, yet here we are! It was absolutely fascinating and entertaining to boot!

As a tradesman its so wholesome to see a father passing on his knowledge to his son, you guys make a great team! That was genius to use a shop vac connected to a long pipe with borescope camera!

You made my old safety guy heart glad when you demonstrated the Fireman’s Stance on setting up that ladder. Before I retired I created a 45 minute on line course on ladder safety.

I've always wondered WHY they didn't put either a raised cap or a screen on the top of vent pipes to prevent this from happening! Good work!

Man I laughed my ass off on the first try with the pecan grab that was great guys

This is way better to watch than anything on mainstream television. Cool.good job.

Thank you! For several years, I've been trying to convince my husband that our drains could be so slow due to a clog in the vent pipes because it doesn't help much when he snakes the drains. He cleans branches, leaves, and tons of douglas fir tree needles off our roof every couple of weeks, so I thought that stuff must be getting into vents pipes too. Just bought this borescope for him.

Hey fellas, thanks for making learning about Home Maintenance, improvement, and remodeling such a fun experience. You two are always entertaining and educating. Stay blessed and positive!

When I first saw the thumbnail for this video, I thought, “oh, I’m not going to watch this. I don’t care about drain vents.” I watched it anyway. Boy am I glad I did. Not only did I realize that drain venting is important, but your insights and problem solving approach was fantastically valuable. So it’s not only what you are doing that makes your videos so good and helpful, but HOW and WHY you are doing what you are doing. THANK YOU for taking the extra time and effort to bring us along on your jobs. You are a WEALTH of really helpful time and effort-saving insights.

I worked maintenance at a school system in North Georgia. We had the same problem with a gym bathroom. Turned out that kids had poured pea gravel down the vent. Solved it the same way you did; shop vac and a long piece of 1 1/2" black plastic pipe. Sucked out GALLONS of pea gravel. Btw.. red plungers are made for drawing/sucking not pressing/pressure. Push down slow and pull up fast.

That showed great humour, resourcefulness, and perseverance. A big gold ⭐️

I like the ladder tip. Definitely wouldn't mind seeing more safety things. Good stuff guys!

I think I learnt, that copper is expensive in the USA. Plus don't count your acorns, until your water's flowing freely. Thanks for sharing guys.

My wife and I are about to close on our first house on Friday Dec. 17th 2021 and I found your channel a few weeks ago. I immediately subbed and you guys are my go to guys for content when it comes to doing things around the house. I like how you explain things thoroughly and I love that you and your son work together. That is great that you are passing your knowledge onto your son. Thank you both for showing us how to do things the right way.

This information has helped me so much. Thank you for taking time out to show how to clean out vent.

I’ve got that same borescope. Good value for the money and it’s wireless. I just used it a few weeks ago to find what was rattling in my hvac ducts. Tied it to some fish tape and found old wallpapering and even a scraper!!! Had to disassemble the venting to get it out, but those things are handy! Great video.

I've always kept one of those little snakes in my truck. It's solved minor blockage issues more times than I can recall. When you need the big boy you break it out, but that little guy often times gets it done. Thanks for another fun video.

It was like watching a pair of heart surgeons perform key hole surgery guys! One of your best vids. Andrew

That was nuts! Literally. I unclogged my like button immediately! You guys rock!

I actually laughed out loud when you two optimists said "Maybe four pecans". As an appliance repairman who has cleaned bushels of walnuts out of dryer vents I knew you weren't even scratching the surface.

As a previous maintenance man, if you use 2 plungers (one in each sink) you won't have to fight the water coming back up in other sink. Have one person hold down while other uses the other one

Father and son any one can be a dad this is What it takes to be a father you have to be there great job guys

You guys didn’t disappoint at the end with the hardware netting! Excellent job. What was priceless though was Paul’s look on his face when the water wouldn’t drain at the sink! 🤣 😭 Love your video’s!!!

Some of the stuff ypu guys get into is amazing but very interesting! Enjoy the interaction between you guys and spit balling different ideas to get to the root of the problem. Keep 'em comin'.

Love the channel so much I’ve been watching all the older videos. Crazy how much better the camera quality, editing, and Paul’s presence/presentation has gotten over time.

Hey guys I live in Maryland and watching you put the screen on the pipe reminded me it's now become customary at least in my area during new construction to install 2 90s to make a u shape

Aaaand props on checking the angle of the ladder - just like we teach rookies in the academy

Awesome. Great job. Been in the remodeling business all my life,worked with my Dad for 35 years this is what it’s all about

I didn't learn what to do as much as I had a great laugh. Thanks. I did learn as a child... to never ever push a clog down. My family owned an apartment building. We always PULLED all of the clog out. Never push it down. The way my father put it... if you push a clog down... it will find a few friends and have a clog party.

You guys are definitely becoming part of the family. Just love the sense of humor and good common sense!

That was some good footage guys. STUD PACK RULES!

I just found this sight and man have I learned a lot in a short time. This guy has been around and he knows his stuff. Thank God I tripped over this sight.

With those Harbor Freight snakes, you can chuck a drill right to that back stud. That makes it easy to use one hand on the trigger for speed, and the other one on the snake handle to sweep it in and out of the pipe

One of the most entertaining best "how to" and explaining the situation I've seen! And helpful as my vent is, I believe, clogged.

this is a perfect time to use PEX pipe...cheaper, somewhat flexible, and, while not having quite as big an opening inside, still works wonders for what you are doing. Of course, you could use a piece of 1" PEX as well to get that inside diameter. The beauty part about the flexibility is that you can bend it over as you pull it up to keep the vacuum hooked to it when pulling nuts stuck at the end of the pipe.

A good demonstration on how to over come the jobs ongoing challenges and set backs, set backs always make you think outside the box or in this case inside the pipe. Good job and great video, Thanks.

I was on the edge of my seat when you had the pecan suctioned to the edge of the pipe. I was dying laughing when it fell off at the very end lol

Hysterical!!!!! so Close!!!!!! I can't tell you how many times I have done something similar...almost getting it, and then losing it at the last millisecond!!!! I thought I was the only fool...you made me feel good!!!!!! You have to do what you have to do!!!!

One of the best video titles I've seen! I unclogged my like button.

What a lesson. Years ago my brother had a clog in his kitchen sink as well and the bathroom which was on the other side of the wall. We worked that clog until I said how about we do the vent and see what we can get done that way. We went into the roof and did almost what you did. We managed to clean out the clog. We never found out what it was. Now I think I can call him and let him know what it may have been. I’m sure it was a bunch of nuts as he lived in a fairly wooded area. Love the video. Great work.

"realizing that we're gonna be here longer"

KUDOS for outsmarting the 🐿. While the Mr. 🐿 thought he’d found an pantry, he failed to use his borescope before he smugly dropped his stash down the “tube”! Great video guys.

Borescopes ARE invaluable tools!

Hey guys I appreciate the attention to detail. I think my situation is like the one in the video. So I will dive it a go. But I will try PVC instead of copper. Thanks again for the demo.

Borescopes are awesome. I have a wifi one that I use along with a painters pole, shop vac and a custom U-pipe to vacuum out my gutters from the ground. Have an old cell phone attached to the painters pole so I can see in gutter with the borescope, its amazing because I hate ladders.

This would make an ultimate Christmas gift

Greetings from yet another Paul

Father and son best buds great to see.

Yalls videos have gotten really really great yeah I've had the same problem here in Texas exactly the same process and had to run a snake with a cutting head a really good video for home owners

We were about to go buy some vent caps for our roof vents. I like the cheaper hardware cloth and pipe clamp. We have both on hand. We saved video. Lots of knowledge presented.

Fun video. I recently bought a 'scope like that to check a clogged sump pump discharge pipe but found the wire was too flexible, I tied it tightly to the end of a snake like you used to keep it straight, so that the camera and the end of the snake were right next to each other, worked pretty well.

Think you solved my problem at my house. Big oak and pine trees and lots of squirrels here. I am ordering the scope immediately and will take a look but I was pretty sure it was a vent related and now I am getting after it! Thx guys, love the channel because you are real and show that it its usually never as simple as we think it is. Excellent work gents!

This is what happens when you sent out nuts instead of cookies for Santa 🎅, he conveniently disposes them in the vent pipes . Great channel, love the work you all do , keep up the great work and content 👍

Boy O boy, that was really something. I'm watching your older videos and learning a lot. Thank you.

They have a jet fitting and hose combo you can attach to a pressure wash gun that might have blown through that, but you would have needed a large bucket under the sink and a rag in the the double wye so you could collect the nuts.

Valuable information that you can only get from someone that has been in the business for years. Young guys listen up👍🏻🔨

At the time you got to the elbow and realized the clog went into the horizontal pipe, that would have been a good time to try sealing the vacuum directly to the vent pipe and see if it would suck the clog out. If it got the clog to the vertical pipe, you could use your copper pipe to get them. It may take several tries or may not work at all, but it may have been worth a try.

Thank you for the thorough video understanding my bathroom tub and wash sink venting problems. It clogs up every 3-4 months with several inches of standing water. Mike

I can’t believe this video just popped up in my feed 🤣 Last year in August my wife found a baby squirrel on a hike. No mom. We looked for days. This poor thing was following her down the trail until it collapsed from exhaustion. She brings this squirrel home and it lives in our house all winter. Went in her cage at night but ran around the house supervises. Cool experience aside from the eaten Apple Pencil, iPad and home theater speaker corners. Fast forward to now. In April I built a cage outside. It connects to the indoor one with 3” ABS. She has an exit so she can roam the neighborhood. This squirrel is not only still hanging around with us every day, she had 4 babies and moved back in to the indoor cage. The babies are now old enough to be outside. Every day we go out and the squirrel comes and gets nuts from us to bury all over the yard. Yesterday she takes a walnut, climbs up the cage, hops on the roof, runs to the vent stack and drops it in 🤣 I was like 😳

My dad owned a hardware store and I have some copper 1/2 inch 90 degree elbows with the price of 13 cents marked on them. For a recent kitchen project I exhausted my stash of parts and had to buy some tees, I was astounded at the price. I hope you find a use for that copper at some point. Thanks for the laughs, this was a great video.

This would be a great application for those drain un-clogging balloon thingies that attach to a garden hose. It expands to fit the inside of the pipe and then blasts the clog away

Very Fun video and much appreciate the "ladder stance" refresher. I forgot that one and most likely was 1 roof trip away from a slip-up.

You guys did great considering what you were working with. I can't believe the plumber couldn't clear that vent. A K-50, a couple of cable segments, and a spade head would probably knock it out in no time.

Love the fact there’s still someone that can think for themselves. Yes, you make me remember my grandfather which could fix anything because he used what the Good Lord gave him, his brain.

I can’t believe that shop vac was able to draw the water up all the way!

Wow! I think I have figured what’s clogging my drains here in Cali. There’s something not letting air vents work properly. Thank you guys so much for this video.

I have been a plber for almost thirty years and I have had acorns in a drain line long enough to sprout and have pulled them from vents as well. A piece of PEX piping is a good way to get as well. Once again gentlemen excellent work and video. I will be looking into that camera as well!

Just sold a 1928 'cottage' in central Austin that had similar issues. Our washing machine started overflowing out of the drain and our kitchen sink was backing up when we washed clothes. I tried liquid drain cleaners but couldn't keep it cleared out. Finally caught a squirrel dropping acorns down the vent pipe. Birds would also land on the pipe end, but I never saw them drop things down it. I wish I had thought about using a borescope camera. Instead I shoved a waterhose down the pipe and left the water on until things loosened up. Watching your video makes me wonder if the acorns had started to root in the muck. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience. I plan to treat my new house a lot better than the last one.

Don’t forget that you can also use the shop vac to blow air into the vent.

I learned plumbing from my Dad... It's great to teach your trade to your kids whenever possible... Good video guys

I don't see why more people don't use vent covers. They would prevent so many issues, especially in situations like this.

You did a good job. It's the original plumber's fault for not going straight down instead putting a 90 at the bottom of the vent !

I'm kind of disappointed you got through the entire video without Jordan saying "Deez nuts!"

I remember a previous video on RU-vid saying to run your hot water for 10 minutes a month to get rid of that fat. Great stuff. Thanks

DEFINITELY my favorite new subscription !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you live in a Northern climate, covering the vent pipe with screen will cause moist air to freeze and close the pipe. It's not as dramatic with pvc pipe as when they used steel pipe for vents.

Great explanation of the clog using the straw

this was so helpful.. Having trouble basement toilet not flushiing. Spent $400 trying to figure out problem.Tried all kinds of things: pulling toilet, snakeout, camera, etc. No blocckage. I have been thinking it was the roof vent, but didin't want too to spend anymore money with guessing. We've been here 52 years, lots of trees, squirrels, birds. Now I'm ready to call someone to check vent.

21:06 There’s the SHOT! WOW, is that just crazy🤣 Good job Jordan & Paul, u guys NEVER SURRENDER, and ALWAYS get the job done 👍🏻

I liked it. Especially how it didn't go well and the improvisation!

Great job guys, learned a lot, did not realized this can happen, I have to protect my vent pipe. Now I know this. Nice team work, keep the good work up.

Great video. What struck me is how small the vent was, diameter-wise. Live in Illinois.

YOU TWO GUYS WILL DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING TO GET THE JOB DONE!

Hey Stud Pack, GREAT video (as ALWAYS!), not sure if you guys are down south, but for northern folk, NEVER cover with wire or use a vent cap over your air vent pipe, the snow and ice will create a frozen layer over it and seal it shut! And the last thing anyone wants to do in winter is climb on to a roof to thaw that thing out!

Thoroughly enjoy your content. It is very informative and entertaining at the same time. Please keep the videos coming!

dude, that was CRAZY!!! one for the record books!!!!

You guy's gave me some good idea's to clean out my plumbing vents on the roof. I need to clean them out for leaves and debris.

Outstanding video. Excellent production value. Quick story. Walked into my seasonal house one day to find a dead, waterlogged red squirrel in the toilet bowl. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out how it got there. No evidence of the squirrel being in the house. It must have crawled/fallen down the vent pipe from the roof. I’m SO GLAD the squirrel didn’t die in the vent pipe. I still need to put a screen over the pipe end to prevent this from happening again.

This makes me feel better about having a borescope sitting on a shelf. It really might come in handy some day!

The one that got away. It was the biggest I have ever seen. At least you got it on cam, great job. Great work. keep up the informative content

Thanks ! I did the same and also topped the pipe with a 90 degree PVC elbow just to keep the crap out !

I used a shop vac to suck rocks up to about an inch in diameter up 6 feet of 1 1/4 PVC pipe. I told myself this will never work but I was amazed when it did. I took the filter out and the rocks just came banging in against the side of that old metal shop vac. Occasionally, they plugged at the spot where they came into the vac because there was a deflector there. This was to clear rock from a 6" pvc section that was placed around a frost proof hydrant in my old shop floor. Clearing out the rock enabled me to unscrew the hydrant leaving the base in place and then screw a new matching hydrant in. The old rubber on the end of the stem could not be retrieved without removing the whole hydrant pipe. It took me a while but it saved me from having to dig a huge hole outside the shop and under the cement floor.

I'm a newcomer of this channel, and I'm hooked! You two make a wonderful father/son duo, and the content is engaging, entertaining and VERY informative. I'm from Southwest Louisiana, so I can relate to a lot of the hot, humid attics y'all are crawling through from time to time.

get one of those expandable bladders that attach to a garden hose.. would work perfect in this situation

I was in Sioux Falls S Dakota one Christmas, when it was -68 out. The vent pipe for the toilet froze over with ice causing fumes in the house, that really made my uncle really ill. On the news they warned people who were getting sick, so I had to climb up, on a ladder and break that ice away. That was rough do do at that low temp. But it worked!! It, too was a small vent pipe!

Fantastic! I loved the bore cam combined with the drain snake !

Love the fact there’s still someone that can think for themselves. Yes, you make me remember my grandfather which could fix anything because he used what the Good Lord gave him, his brain. Sad, common sense no longer exist. I used a water hole and a expanding bladder which blew the crap out of my vent pipe. Thank you for showing me some ideas with the copper tubing, cam, and shop vacuum . Thx! - Hal

I would put a metal screen over the vent to stop the squirrels/chipmunks from dropping nuts in the vent, looks like you read my mind ! Lol 😆