You've got a drain that keeps blocking, a smell you can't trace, or a solicitor asking for a drainage report before exchange. A CCTV drain survey tells you exactly what's wrong, where it is, and what needs doing. No guessing, no excavating blind.
We send a push-rod or crawler camera down the pipe and record everything. Cracks, root ingress, displaced joints, collapsed sections, grease build-up, whatever's there gets captured on video with a depth and distance log. You get the footage and a written report, often the same day.
What the Survey Involves
The camera goes in through an existing access point, a manhole, an inspection chamber, or in some cases a rodding eye. We don't dig to find the problem first. The camera finds it for us.
As it travels down the pipe, the operator watches the live feed and logs any defects. Each one is recorded with its distance from the entry point, so if there's a crack at 7.4 metres on a 100 mm clay pipe under your driveway in Olton, that's what the report says. Not "somewhere under the drive".
What we commonly find:
- Root intrusion through clay pipe joints, particularly in older properties in Knowle, Dorridge, and Bentley Heath where trees are established and the drains are original
- Displaced or open joints on Victorian-era brickwork sewers in Shirley and Acocks Green
- Pitch fibre pipe failure on post-war estates, Kingshurst and Smith's Wood especially. Pitch fibre was widely used in domestic drainage from the 1950s to 1970s and it degrades badly, deforming into an oval cross-section that causes repeated blockages
- Fractures caused by ground movement or vehicle loading over unprotected pipework
- Grease and fat constriction on kitchen waste runs in terraced properties in Lode Heath and Chelmsley Wood
- Poorly installed junctions from extension or conversion work
After the survey you get a copy of the recorded footage, a written condition report describing each defect in plain English, its location, the pipe material, and our recommended next steps. If repair or relining is needed, we'll quote for it at the same time.
When You Need One
Not every blocked drain needs a camera. A simple partial blockage, jetting sorts it. But a CCTV survey earns its money in specific situations.
Recurring blockages. If your drain blocks every few months despite being cleared, there's a structural reason. A camera finds it.
Pre-purchase surveys. Drainage isn't covered in a standard homebuyer survey. Solicitors and buyers in Solihull postcodes B90 through B94 and across B37 increasingly request a standalone drainage report before exchange, particularly on older detached and semi-detached stock in Dorridge, Hampton-in-Arden, and Balsall Common. One thing that often surprises buyers is finding out which drain is theirs to maintain and which has been adopted by Severn Trent. Many roads in Solihull borough have complex adoption histories, and a survey can confirm whether a lateral drain is private, shared with a neighbour, or already adopted as a public sewer. Getting that wrong at purchase is expensive.
Insurance claims. If you're claiming for subsidence or drain damage, your insurer will want documented evidence. The footage and written report from us provides that documentation and supports your claim when you submit it. Insurers may commission their own loss adjuster, but having a timestamped camera record from before any repair work is far stronger than nothing.
New build or extension sign-off. Before backfilling a newly laid drain, a camera confirms it's laid correctly, at the right gradient, with no damaged joints. Much cheaper than re-excavating later.
Persistent smell. A drain smell inside the property with no obvious source often comes back to a cracked pipe under a slab or a broken joint in an inaccessible void. A camera is the quickest way to find it.
What It Costs
Every survey is priced for the job in front of us. The figure depends on access, pipe length, and how many runs need surveying, so we'll give you a clear price on the phone and confirm it before we lift a cover. No call-out fee on top, and a combined jet-and-survey visit is priced as one job, not two.
The Report You Walk Away With
A lot of drainage companies hand over a USB stick and leave you to interpret it. We don't.
The written report names each defect, gives its distance from the access point, notes the pipe material and diameter, and recommends a course of action in plain language. If the crack at 7.4 metres needs a patch repair, we say so. If the pipe needs a full no-dig reline, we say that too, with a price.
For pre-purchase surveys, the report is formatted so a solicitor or conveyancer can read it without needing us to translate. That matters when a buyer in Meriden or Catherine-de-Barnes is working to an exchange deadline. Where the survey identifies uncertainty over drain ownership, we note it clearly so your solicitor can raise it with the vendor or check the Severn Trent records.
The footage is yours to keep. If you want a second opinion before authorising any repair, that's entirely your call.
Areas We Cover
We carry out CCTV drain surveys across the whole of Solihull borough. Pre-purchase work comes in heavily from Knowle, Dorridge, Balsall Common, and Berkswell, where older stock changes hands at pace and buyers are rightly cautious. Recurring blockage surveys are common across Shirley, Monkspath, Hillfield, and Dickens Heath. Pitch fibre problems keep us busy in Kingshurst, Smith's Wood, and Chelmsley Wood. Commercial drainage surveys run across Castle Bromwich, Marston Green, and Elmdon, often tied into planned maintenance contracts. Any postcode between B37 and B94, we're on familiar ground.
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Engineers are on call 24/7 across Solihull. For planned survey work we aim to get to you within 24 hours, often the same day if you call in the morning. Price agreed before anything starts. Any remedial work that follows the survey carries our 20-year guarantee, the survey itself is a diagnostic visit. No call-out fee.
Call 0121 816 1938 to book or to talk through what you need.