We survey across WV14 – Bilston, Bradley, Ettingshall, Lanesfield, Ladymoor, Millfields, Moxley, Priestfield, Spring Vale and Stowlawn. It is about ten minutes from our base in Castlecroft.

A CCTV drain survey puts a camera through your drainage and produces a record of what is actually there: every run, every junction, every defect, positioned to the centimetre and coded to the industry standard.

Call 0800 772 33 99 · Request a survey

What you get

In Bilston a survey is usually answering one question: how many joints have stepped, and how badly. Every section is graded, every defect coded to MSCC and positioned in metres, with a site plan and the full video. The report comes back the same day, by NADC-certified surveyors.

What a CCTV drain survey covers

Why people here ask for a survey

An insurance claim. Escape of water and subsidence claims turn on evidence. A graded, coded report by a certified surveyor is what an insurer will accept.

A drain that keeps blocking. Repeated blockages are a symptom. The survey finds the root, the stepped joint or the broken section causing them.

All the reasons a CCTV survey gets commissioned

Why drains fail in Bilston

Ground conditions decide what fails in a drain and how often, and they vary street by street. Here is what we are working with.

Ground that has been moving for two centuries. The Thick Coal was worked at shallow depth beneath Bilston, and the town’s history of subsidence is long and well documented. The Bilston steelworks, which ran until 1979, left slag and made ground over a large part of the area. Drainage laid across either behaves the same way: it moves.

Displaced joints dominate what we find. More than anywhere else we work, a Bilston survey is likely to come back with stepped or open joints. That matters for a buyer, because a run with several displaced joints will keep blocking whatever anyone does to it, and the fix is not a jetting visit.

Short-length Victorian clay in the old streets. More joints per metre than anything laid since, on the ground least able to keep them in line.

Pitch fibre on the later estates. Stowlawn, Bunker’s Hill and Lanesfield bring the 1950s-70s pipe that deforms rather than cracks. Worth identifying before committing to a purchase – it cannot be repaired in place.

None of that is visible from the surface, which is why a camera settles in an hour what guesswork will not settle at all.

Who owns the drain

Since 2011 Severn Trent has owned shared drainage and everything beyond your boundary. In Bilston’s terraced streets a shared run is the norm, so a survey that establishes where your length ends frequently answers the question of who pays.

South Staffs Water supplies the water here but not the sewerage.

Same drain, same spot, every few months

Drainage across Bilston — Bilston town centre and Bradley and the streets around them — follows one pattern. WV14 is what that covers.

CCTV view inside a drain showing loose debris collected against the pipe wall

That pattern is worth taking seriously, because it rarely resolves itself.

The three usual causes are a joint that has moved and now catches everything passing, a section that has settled and no longer falls towards the sewer, or roots holding a joint open. All three are visible on camera and none of them are fixed by clearing.

Worth checking before you pay for anything: repeat blockages near a boundary are very often on the lateral drain, which since 2011 has belonged to Severn Trent rather than you.

What we need on site in Bilston

On Bilston property, and particularly around Bilston town centre, Bradley, Bunker’s Hill, this is the usual picture.

A few practical things that make the difference between an hour and half a day.

Somewhere to park within reach of the run. The hose and the camera reel both have a working length.

An accessible chamber. Buried or paved-over covers are common on older Bilston property and finding one is part of the job, but knowing where it is saves time.

Water and power are not needed – the van carries both.

Clear the area if you can. Bins, planters and parked cars over the covers are the usual delay.

Pricing, and why we quote before we travel

Bilston covers a fair spread of housing, from Bilston town centre, Bradley, Bunker’s Hill, and this applies to most of it.

Nobody likes a price that appears after the work. We give you one on the phone for Bilston work, agreed before we set off.

The two things that move it are access and whether the run needs clearing before it can be surveyed. Both are things we would rather establish in the conversation than on your driveway.

Recently built property in Bilston

Bilston covers a fair spread of housing, from Bilston town centre, Bradley, Bunker’s Hill, and this applies to most of it.

We survey a good deal of newer housing, and the reason is usually a warranty deadline rather than a blockage.

Drainage laid during construction is not always laid correctly, and the problems tend to surface once the ground has settled – by which time the question is whether it is still covered. A graded report with each observation positioned in metres is what makes that conversation possible.

Before you build over a drain

Extensions and garden rooms in Bilston frequently sit over a shared lateral, and Severn Trent will want position, depth and condition before agreeing a build-over.

There is a second reason to survey first, and it is worth as much as the first: a dated, coded record of the pipe’s condition before your works began ends any later argument about whether the build damaged it.

Why drains block, and what they block with

Bilston town centre and Bradley are a fair sample of Bilston drainage, and what follows is what we find across WV14.

We can usually tell you on the phone what is likely to be in there, because the list is short.

Wipes. The most frequent single cause, and the most avoidable.

Nappies and sanitary items, which expand rather than break down.

Congealed fat, particularly on the older shallow runs common across Bilston.

Tree roots, entering through a joint that has already opened up – which makes it a pipe problem wearing a gardening disguise.

Something wrong with the pipe itself. Repeat blockages in one spot mean a defect, and that is a camera job rather than another clearing.

Common questions

Every firm tells me my drain needs relining — how do I know? A graded report tells you which sections are actually failing. We do not carry out repairs, so we have no stake in the answer.