Collapsed Drain Repair Kingswood | No Dig Fixed

A phone call came in from a homeowner on one of the older streets off New Cheltenham Road. Slow drainage in the kitchen, occasional gurgling from the downstairs toilet, and a patch of lawn that had started to feel soft underfoot. They'd had a local plumber out who cleared what he could, but the problem kept coming back within a few weeks.

That pattern, slow drain, recurring blockage, soggy ground, is one I recognise immediately. It's rarely just a blockage.

What We Found at the Survey

We ran a CCTV camera through the inspection chamber at the back of the property. The first ten metres looked reasonable: some grease buildup, minor root tendrils from a nearby laurel, nothing that would cause the symptoms they were describing.

Then, at around 13 metres, the picture changed.

The camera dropped. Literally dropped, because the pipe beneath it had collapsed. A section of vitrified clay pipe, probably original to the house and likely laid in the 1960s, had fractured along two joints and the crown of the pipe had fallen inward. The bore was reduced by roughly 60 to 70 percent. Effluent was pooling in the void below the collapse, finding its way into the surrounding soil, and occasionally backing up into the house when the restriction was overwhelmed.

The soft patch on the lawn made sense now. Water had been saturating that ground for months, possibly longer.

The Grading in Numbers

We use the MSCC5 grading system, which runs from 1 (no defect) to 5 (structural failure). Section C was as clear a Grade 5 as I've seen on a residential property in BS15. There was no ambiguity about what needed doing.

The Fix: No Digging Required

The homeowner's first question was whether we'd have to lift the garden. Entirely understandable. The collapsed section ran under about three metres of established lawn and a brick path they'd had laid two summers ago.

We didn't touch any of it.

The repair method was cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) relining. A felt liner, saturated with epoxy resin, is pulled or inverted into the existing pipe from the access chamber. An inflatable bladder holds it tightly against the pipe wall while the resin cures. What you're left with is a smooth, continuous pipe within the old pipe: no joints, no cracks, nothing for roots to work through.

On this job we relined the full 16-metre run from the chamber to the boundary connection. It made sense to include section B rather than reline around a joint that was already showing displacement.

The process took the better part of a day. Setup and jetting in the morning, liner installation mid-afternoon, post-cure camera inspection before we left.

Before and After at a Glance

The 20-year guarantee applies to the reline itself. It covers the remedial repair work, not blockage clearance.

The Lesson from This Job

Clay drain pipes laid before the 1980s were well made for their time, but they're jointed every metre or so, and those joints are the weak point. Ground movement, tree roots, or simply age can unseat them. Once one joint goes, water escapes, the surrounding soil erodes, and the next joint shifts. It's a slow cascade.

If your drainage is in an older Kingswood property, particularly in New Cheltenham, Soundwell, Hanham or around Two Mile Hill, and you're seeing recurring slow drains or soft ground near your drainage run, a CCTV survey is the only way to know what's actually there. Jetting a collapsed pipe doesn't fix the collapse. It just delays the next call-out.

Drainsco covers Kingswood and all the BS15 to BS30 postcodes, with engineers available 24 hours a day. If you want to know what's under your garden, we'll tell you exactly what the camera shows, give you a clear price before anything starts, and there's no call-out fee.