CCTV drain inspections and fault locating

What a CCTV inspection tells you

A camera goes down the drain and shows what is actually happening inside the pipe. Where the blockage is, what is causing it, and whether the pipe itself has cracked, sagged or been invaded by roots. You get the footage, which matters when you are deciding whether to clear it again or fix it properly.

What we are looking for

Root intrusion, and where it is getting in. Cracks and broken sections. Sags that hold water, which is where solids settle and blockages start. Displaced joints. Pipe material and diameter, which tells us the era and what it is likely to do next. And cross connections, where a stormwater downpipe has been run into the foul system.

When it is worth doing

If a drain has blocked more than once in a year, clearing it again is treating the symptom. A camera tells you whether you are dealing with a build-up or a failed pipe, and those have very different price tags.

It is also worth doing before you buy a property with mature trees near the drain line, before any work that would be expensive to redo, and before accepting a quote to replace a drain that may only need one section done.

Fault locating

The camera carries a sonde, so we can trace the exact position and depth of a fault from the surface. That means if something does need digging up, the hole goes in the right place rather than three exploratory ones.

We mark the position on the ground. On a job with a landscaped garden or a concrete drive over the line, that is usually the difference between a small repair and a large one.

What it will not do

A camera needs a way in and a pipe it can travel. A drain completely packed with roots or collapsed shut has to be cleared before there is anything to look at, and that is jetting work first. We will tell you if that is the situation rather than charging you for a camera that gets a metre down a blocked pipe.

What you get

Footage of the inspection, a plain explanation of what it shows, and an honest recommendation about whether it needs fixing now, watching, or leaving alone. If the answer is leave it alone, that is what we will say.