Recurring blockages, foul smells, planning works or insurance claim — a proper CCTV survey shows you exactly what's going on inside your drains. Video footage, written report and root-cause diagnosis supplied.
35+ years on the tools · Same-day service guaranteed · Fully insured domestic & commercial
35+
Years on the tools
Guaranteed
Same-day response
£5M PL
Fully insured
CO5 8DX
Local to West Mersea
A controlled inspection of your drainage system using a self-levelling camera mounted on a push-rod or crawler tractor, recorded to MP4 with a written defect report. The camera traces every accessible run, identifies cracks, displacements, root ingress, blockages, deformations and connection faults, and gives you a documented map of your drainage condition.
Homeowners experiencing repeat blockages or unexplained smells. Insurance assessors investigating subsidence and water-damage claims. Architects and developers planning extensions, basements or new builds. Buyers of older properties wanting certainty before exchange (see our dedicated home-buyer survey). Landlords and managed estates building a drainage asset register. Engineers planning lining, jetting or excavation works.
Before any drainage repair quote — you can't quote properly without seeing the pipe. Before completing on a property. After a recurring blockage in the same place. If you have unexplained damp, smells or subsidence. Before an extension or driveway works that might impact existing drainage. As part of planned maintenance for commercial property.
A camera in a pipe is only as useful as the engineer interpreting the feed. We use OS-MaP and EN 13508-2 coding so reports are recognised by surveyors, insurers and the water authority. A cheap survey with no report and no defect coding is worth what you paid for it.
Skipping or cheaping out on a CCTV survey turns small problems into big bills. Here's what we routinely see in jobs that should have been surveyed sooner:
Any contractor quoting a drain repair without first seeing the pipe is guessing. You either over-pay for excavation that wasn't needed, or under-pay for a fix that doesn't address the actual defect.
Pre-purchase CCTV surveys catch around 1 in 4 properties with significant drainage defects. Skipping the survey saves £250 and risks a £5,000–£20,000 problem on the other side of completion.
A blockage that clears then returns 3 times a year is a structural defect, not a one-off. A CCTV survey identifies the cause and ends the cycle of £200 emergency unblocks.
Insurers increasingly require pre and post CCTV evidence on subsidence and water-damage claims. No CCTV = no defensible claim, or a heavily reduced settlement.
Two-minute call with Matt to scope the symptoms, agree an ETA and confirm pricing brackets before we leave the yard. No call-out fee for the conversation.
We lift covers, run flow tests and — where relevant — drop the CCTV camera in to identify the actual cause, not the easiest symptom.
Itemised price covering parts, labour, disposal and timeline. You approve in writing before any tools come out of the van.
Work carried out cleanly: dust sheets, tool mats and bagged waste. We protect floors, gardens and driveways throughout.
Post-works flow test, CCTV verification where appropriate, photos and a written job sheet emailed within 24 hours plus our workmanship guarantee.
You find out exactly what's wrong, where it is, how serious it is — and what fix is appropriate. No guessing, no over-quoting.
OS-MaP and EN 13508-2 coding, supplied as PDF, recognised by surveyors, insurers and the water authority.
Full inspection footage supplied as MP4 file, time-stamped and chainage-marked. Useful for second opinions and negotiation.
Hand-drawn or measured plan of run layout — invaluable for extension planning, landscaping and conveyancing.
If a repair is needed, we quote from the actual CCTV — not a guess. Lining, patch, jetting or excavation, you'll know which and why.
Pre-purchase reports routinely save buyers £5,000–£15,000 off the asking price. Insurance reports support claim acceptance and pay-out value.
A CCTV survey is technical work, and the quality of the report is what determines whether it's actionable or a piece of paper. Here's how we run surveys across Essex, Suffolk and London.
Discuss your projectPush-rod self-levelling colour cameras (up to 60m run) for domestic and most commercial work. Crawler tractor units for 150–300mm+ commercial runs and storm-water mains. Sonde-equipped heads for surface tracing — we can mark the depth and run of a pipe on your driveway to within 100mm. Pan-and-tilt heads for lateral inspection.
OS-MaP defect coding (Water Research Centre, the UK standard for drainage condition reports), EN 13508-2 European coding for commercial and insurance work. Reports include chainage, defect type, severity grade (1–5), photo plates and a plain-English summary at the front.
Reactive survey (something's wrong, find out what). Pre-purchase survey (see our dedicated page). Pre-works survey (planning lining, jetting, extension, landscaping). Post-works survey (proof a repair was completed correctly). Planned-maintenance survey (commercial PPM, school termly rounds). Insurance survey (subsidence, water damage, claims). Build-over survey (water authority requirement before extensions over public sewers).
Domestic surveys are typically £200–£400 for full run inspection and written report, completed in 90–180 minutes. Commercial surveys are quoted on access, depth, length and report depth — typical range £400–£2,000 for a mid-size site, longer for school estates or multi-building managed sites.
MP4 footage and PDF report emailed within 24 hours of survey (faster on request for conveyancing deadlines). Drainage map within 48 hours. Repair quote — if a defect needs work — within 48 hours of report, quoted directly from the footage.
Colchester, Essex, Suffolk & London.
Call Matt direct or request a written quote — we'll come back to you fast.
Clear Drains 4 U · West Mersea, Colchester CO5 8DX · 35 years' experience
