Ninety-year-old clay under KT3's semis has had ninety years of clay-soil movement, and the joints show it. A survey before an extension, or when a drain has blocked twice, finds the displaced joint while it is a patch job rather than a dig.
A CCTV drain survey is exactly what it sounds like: we put a camera down your drains and watch, in glorious detail, what four decades of plumbing decisions look like from the inside. To be clear, we would do this bit for free. It’s the best television in the trade. Narrating a drain run like a nature documentary (“here we see the fatberg in its natural habitat”) is a professional perk.
What you get is the useful part: a plain-English report of exactly what’s down there, where it is, and what (if anything) actually needs doing. No jargon without translation, no invented “urgent works”. If the drain is healthy, the report says so.
When a survey earns its money:
- Repeat blockages. If the same drain keeps blocking, something structural is causing it: roots, a dropped joint, scale, or a slumped section. The camera finds the cause, so you stop paying to treat the symptom.
- Buying a house in the TW area. Much of the local stock has original clay drains from the Victorian era or the 1930s. A £250 survey before exchange can save you a £3,000+ excavation after. Lenders and insurers increasingly ask for one.
- Landlords and letting agents. A dated survey report is clean evidence of drain condition between tenancies.
What it costs: a standard domestic survey runs £150–£350 depending on how much drain there is to inspect, and homebuyer surveys with a full written report start around £250. Fixed price, agreed before we start. If the survey finds something that needs fixing, the survey fee is credited against repair work we do, so you never pay twice to learn the same fact.
What to do right now in New Malden
- A survey is a planned visit, not an emergency. If water is actually backing up right now, call us about the blockage first.
- Have a rough idea where your manholes or inspection covers are. If you don't know, that's fine, finding them is part of the job.
- Buying a house? Book the survey before exchange, not after. A collapsed drain is the buyer's problem the moment you own it.
CCTV Drain Survey help, local to New Malden
Interwar suburb on the Beverley Brook: long 1930s runs, a brook that backs up in storms, and grease from one of London's best restaurant streets.
New Malden, KT3, is interwar London at its most complete: street after street of 1930s semis between Kingston Road and the Beverley Brook, with a High Street that has become one of the best places to eat in south-west London. Both facts matter underground.
The semis have long garden runs with a gentle fall towards the brook, and the brook itself is the local wildcard. After heavy rain it runs high, the surface water system backs up, and gullies that are perfectly clear overflow because the water has nowhere to go. We get a lot of storm calls here and the honest answer is sometimes that the drain is fine and the brook is full. We would rather tell you that than clear a clear pipe and charge for it.
The High Street is a grease story. Dozens of kitchens on small, old pipes produce fatbergs that we find professionally fascinating and restaurateurs find expensive, and a planned jetting schedule beats a Friday-night flood every time. We cover New Malden, Old Malden and Coombe at any hour from the Kingston side.
We cover all of New Malden (KT3) — from the High Street, New Malden station, Beverley Brook and across Kingston upon Thames, Raynes Park, Worcester Park. Being genuinely local means we already know what New Malden's drains are made of, and how fast we can be at your door.More about drains in New Malden →