Your drain is slow, backing up, or you're buying a house in BS15 and want to know what's under the garden before you commit. A CCTV drain survey puts a camera down the pipe and shows you exactly what's there, referenced to depth and distance.
We cover every part of Kingswood, from Hanham and Two Mile Hill through to Warmley, Cadbury Heath and Longwell Green. One call books a surveyor, not a salesperson. You get the footage, a written report, and a plain-English summary of what needs doing. If nothing's wrong, the report says that too.
What the Survey Actually Involves
A push-rod camera goes into the drain at the nearest access point, usually a manhole or inspection chamber. It travels the length of the pipe while the operator monitors the feed live on a portable screen and recorder unit. You see what we see as it happens.
Afterwards, you receive:
- A written report with exact fault locations referenced to distance and depth
- Screen grabs of any defects, root ingress, or displaced joints
- A plain-English summary of what needs doing, if anything
- The footage itself, yours to keep
Private Drains, Shared Laterals and Wessex Water's Boundary
This is something a lot of homeowners don't realise until they're mid-dispute with a neighbour or a solicitor. Not every drain under your garden is your responsibility.
Wessex Water covers the Kingswood area. As a general rule:
- Drains inside your property boundary serving only your property are your responsibility
- Shared laterals connecting multiple properties were transferred to Wessex Water under the 2011 sewer transfer, so they're the water company's problem to fix
- Public sewers in the street have always been Wessex Water's
Where that boundary sits depends on your specific property and when it was built. Our camera survey covers the pipes you own. If the camera reaches a shared lateral or public sewer, we'll tell you clearly, point you to Wessex Water's mapping service, and note the boundary in the report. You won't be quoted work on a pipe that isn't yours to fix.
For pre-purchase buyers, knowing where that boundary sits before exchange can change how you negotiate. A collapsed section on a shared lateral is Wessex Water's repair, not yours.
When You Actually Need One
Not every slow drain needs a camera. These situations usually do.
Recurring blockages. If jetting clears it and it blocks again within a few months, there's almost certainly a structural reason. A crack, a root entry point, or a pipe that's bellied and holds standing water. The camera finds it; guessing doesn't.
Before buying a property. Drains aren't covered in a standard homebuyer's survey. In older Kingswood housing stock, particularly the interwar terraces around Soundwell, Speedwell and New Cheltenham, you'll find clay pipe runs that have shifted or cracked over decades. Catching that before completion protects you at the negotiating table in a way that finding it six months after moving in simply doesn't.
After a repair or reline. A post-works camera survey confirms the fix is holding and the pipe is clear end to end. It's also the basis for the 20-year guarantee we offer on remedial work. That guarantee covers the repair itself, which means the physical work carried out, whether that's a structural repair, a patch liner, or a full reline. It doesn't extend to blockage clearance or descaling, and the terms are set out in writing when the job is agreed.
Insurance or landlord requirements. Some insurers and letting agents now ask for a drain survey report as part of a claim or compliance check.
What We're Looking For
Common findings on Kingswood surveys include:
- Root ingress through cracked joints, particularly on older clay runs near the trees along Warmley Hill and in the Mangotsfield and Staple Hill areas
- Pipe displacement where ground movement has caused joints to separate or offset
- Grease and silt build-up that's narrowed the bore to the point where blockages become frequent
- Collapsed sections in pipes that haven't been inspected in years
- Misconnections, where a rainwater downpipe has been connected into a foul drain. These are fairly common in older properties and don't always indicate a deliberate act. The report notes them so you know what's there
Not all of these need immediate work. The report tells you what's urgent and what you can monitor.
Survey Types at a Glance
| Survey type | Typical use | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic survey | Repeated blockages, suspected damage | Report, footage, fault location |
| Pre-purchase survey | Buying a property in BS15–BS30 | Full written report suitable for solicitors |
| Post-repair survey | After drain repair or relining | Confirmation report, supports 20-year guarantee on the remedial work |
All jobs are priced individually, agreed on the phone before we start, with no call-out fee.
Where We Survey Most Often
CCTV surveys come up regularly in Cadbury Heath and Oldland Common, where older drainage routes run under extended rear gardens. Pre-purchase surveys are common in Hanham, Longwell Green and Pucklechurch as buyers work through BS15 and BS30 postcodes. Root-related surveys are particularly frequent in Downend, Mangotsfield and around Warmley, where mature street trees have had decades to find their way into clay-jointed pipes.
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Engineers are on call 24/7 across BS15 to BS30. The price is agreed before we lift a cover, and there's no call-out fee. Call 0117 463 6191 to book a survey or talk through what you're seeing.