0800 772 33 99 — we cover WS9 from our base in Castlecroft, Wolverhampton.

Two things, both from the same van: clearing a drain that has blocked, and putting a camera down one to find out why.

What we do in Aldridge

Blocked drains — cleared with high-pressure jetting rather than rods. Drain unblocking

CCTV drain surveys — graded, MSCC-coded, site plan and full video, report back the same day by NADC-certified surveyors. CCTV drain surveys

No repairs, no excavation — so no reason to find work that isn’t there.

Why people here ask for a survey

Buying the property. A standard structural survey does not go underground. This one does, and the report is written so it can go straight to a solicitor or be used to renegotiate.

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.

All the reasons a CCTV survey gets commissioned

Why drains fail in Aldridge

Most recurring problems here trace back to ground conditions rather than to anything that was put down the drain. This is why.

Brick clay, dug out and filled back in. Aldridge was a brickmaking centre, and the clay pits that fed it were later infilled. Drainage laid over former pits sits on ground that settles differently from the undisturbed soil a few streets away – which is why two similar houses here can have quite different drainage histories.

An affluent commuter suburb on older pipework. Aldridge, Little Aston and Streetly are large interwar and post-war houses on generous plots with mature planting. Long runs, big trees, and root ingress as the commonest finding.

Coal to the south and west. The coalfield edge reaches under part of the area, adding ground movement to the picture. What that causes: uneven settlement, and pipe joints that step apart where the ground has dropped unevenly beneath them.

Which is why we would rather put a camera down the run than tell you what is probably wrong with it.

Who pays

Anything shared or past your boundary is Severn Trent’s since 2011. On plots this size, a good deal of pipe sits well away from the house.

Areas we cover

Aldridge, Little Aston, Shelfield, Stonnall, Streetly and Walsall Wood — WS9.

What we need on site in Aldridge

Aldridge and Little Aston are a fair sample of Aldridge drainage, and what follows is what we find across WS9.

Drain rods laid out on wet paving beside a lifted cast-iron manhole cover, with a jetting hose coiled alongside

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 Aldridge 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.

If it keeps blocking in Aldridge

Aldridge covers a fair spread of housing, from Aldridge, Little Aston, Shelfield, and this applies to most of it.

A drain that has blocked twice in a season is telling you something structural, and clearing it a third time treats the symptom.

Rodding punches a hole through. Flow returns and the water goes away, but a 100 mm pipe with a 30 mm channel rodded through it is carrying a fraction of its capacity, with the rest of the obstruction still sitting there.

Jetting works on the whole bore. The nozzle scours the pipe wall as it is drawn back, follows bends that rods will not, and takes the run back towards its actual diameter.

Then put a camera down the same run. Standing water hides everything, so the survey is worth doing once the pipe is clear – which is why we do both in one visit.

Extending a property in Aldridge

In Aldridge – WS9 – this is one of the questions we are asked most, and the answer is usually the same across Aldridge and Little Aston.

The expensive version of this always runs the same way: plans drawn, quotes accepted, foundations marked out, and then somebody lifts a cover in the middle of where the extension is going.

If you intend to build over a public sewer or lateral drain, or within three metres of one, you need Severn Trent’s agreement. Two things catch people out after the 2011 transfer: the pipe down your own garden may be a public sewer if it serves more than one property, and the length beyond your boundary transferred as well.

They will want to know where the pipe runs, how deep it is, what condition it is in and where the chambers are. That list is a description of a survey with a drainage plan, which is why it is worth doing at design stage rather than after.

Why drains block, and what they block with

Aldridge and Little Aston are a fair sample of Aldridge drainage, and what follows is what we find across WS9.

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 Aldridge.

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.

The report, and what is in it

We cover WS9, and this comes up often enough on Aldridge property to be worth setting out properly. Aldridge and Little Aston see it as much as anywhere.

Written to be handed to somebody else – a solicitor, an insurer, a water authority – rather than just read once.

Each section carries a DRB grade and each observation a position in metres and a still image. Our reporting software is WRc-approved and MSCC-compliant, which matters when the report has to satisfy a third party rather than only you.

What it does not contain is a recommendations section quoting for work. We do not carry out repairs, relining or excavation, so we have nothing to sell on the back of what the camera finds. The report sets out what is there and how bad it is; what to do about it is for you and whoever does the work.

Common questions

Is a pre-purchase survey worth it on a house this size? This is exactly where it pays. The sums involved are larger, the runs are longer, and the drainage is further from the building than anyone expects.