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.
We survey from our base in Castlecroft, Wolverhampton, across the West Midlands, south Staffordshire and east Shropshire.
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What you get
- Every accessible run — manhole to manhole, plus rodding eyes, gullies and soil vent pipes.
- Defects coded to MSCC, the industry’s Manual of Sewer Condition Classification, each observation positioned in metres from the start of its run.
- A condition grade per section on the Drain Repair Book scale, A to E, so the urgent and the cosmetic are separated rather than listed together.
- A site plan showing the layout of the system. For a great many properties this is the only accurate drawing of the drainage that has ever existed.
- The full video, so you can see the defect rather than take our word for it.
Our reporting software is WRc-approved and MSCC-compliant, which matters when the report has to satisfy a water authority, a solicitor or an insurer rather than just you.
The report comes back the same day. Surveys are carried out by NADC-certified surveyors, and every report carries the surveyor’s certification number — which is what makes the document worth something to a third party.
What we do not provide is a recommendations section. Our reports set out what is there and how bad it is, graded section by section, and leave the remedial decision to you and whoever you appoint. We do not carry out drain repairs or excavation, so we have no commercial interest in what the survey finds.
Why a CCTV survey gets commissioned
Buying a property. A standard structural survey does not go underground at all. A drain survey does, and the report is written so it can go straight to a solicitor or be used to renegotiate. This is the single commonest reason people call us.
A drain that keeps blocking. Repeated blockages are a symptom, not a cause. Clearing them again treats the symptom; the survey finds the root ingress, the stepped joint or the broken section producing them.
Building over or near a drain. Extensions, conservatories and garden rooms frequently sit over a shared lateral or a public sewer. Severn Trent will want to know the position, depth and condition of the pipe before agreeing a build-over agreement, and a survey with a site plan is what that conversation needs.
Diverting a sewer. Where a public sewer crosses the plot and the build cannot be designed around it, a diversion under section 185 of the Water Industry Act 1991 is the route. Severn Trent will not entertain an application without an accurate record of what is there now — its line, its depth, its condition and its connections. That record is a survey and a plan.
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; photographs of a wet patch are not.
A new build, a handover or a warranty question. Drainage laid during construction is not always laid correctly — joints pulled at installation, builders’ debris left in the run, insufficient fall. While a warranty still runs, those faults may be someone else’s to put right.
Adoption and as-built records. Where drainage is to be offered for adoption, or where a site needs an accurate as-built record of what was actually installed rather than what was drawn.
Settling who owns what. Shared drainage produces a great many arguments between neighbours about who pays. A recorded survey and a site plan turn opinion into evidence.
Septic tanks and treatment plants. The run between the house and the tank fails like any other pipe, and it is worth ruling that out before anyone talks about replacing the tank. On private drainage the whole system is the owner’s responsibility.
Commercial and industrial drainage. Yard drainage, interceptors and surface water systems are frequently altered over the years without anyone recording it. A survey is often the only accurate record that exists.
Drain mapping and site plans
Every survey produces a plan of the system as we find it. On older properties, on sites that have been extended several times, and anywhere drainage is shared between neighbours, that plan is regularly worth more than the condition report — because until it exists, nobody knows which pipe belongs to whom.
Who owns the drain
Since the 2011 private sewer transfer, the sewerage undertaker — Severn Trent across our whole coverage area — owns most shared drainage and everything beyond your property boundary. You are responsible for the pipework that serves only your property, up to the boundary.
If a survey shows the problem is past that line, it may be Severn Trent’s to fix rather than yours, and that is worth knowing before you pay for anything.
One point that catches people out across the Black Country and south Staffordshire: South Staffs Water supplies the drinking water in much of this area but is not the sewerage undertaker. For a drainage problem, Severn Trent is who you want.
Common questions
How long does a survey take? One to three hours for most domestic properties, depending on the number of runs and how accessible the manholes are. Large systems take longer — one recent survey covered thirteen separate runs.
Do I need to be there? No, provided we can reach the manholes and any locked gates. Plenty of our pre-purchase surveys are done with the buyer nowhere near the property.
Will you find things a homebuyer’s survey missed? Almost certainly, because a standard survey does not look underground at all.
Can you survey a drain that is currently blocked? We would clear it first — the camera cannot see through standing water and debris. We can do both in one visit.
What if you find something serious? Every section is graded, so you know what is urgent and what can wait. Since we do not carry out repairs or excavation, there is no incentive for us to find work that isn’t there.
What if the survey finds nothing? Then you have a graded report saying so, which is the outcome you were hoping for and worth having in writing.
How far do you travel? Roughly an hour from Castlecroft for survey work — the West Midlands, south Staffordshire, east Shropshire and north Worcestershire. See areas we cover.
Sub-services: Homebuyer drain surveys · Build-over agreements · Drain mapping · Commercial surveys Also: Blocked drains and drain unblocking · Case studies Guides: What the grades mean · Roots, joints and why old clay fails
Talk to the person who will do the work.
Surveys across the West Midlands, south Staffordshire, east Shropshire and north Worcestershire. Unblocking closer to home.