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 Sunbury
- 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 Sunbury
Two Sunburys, two drain problems: 60s estate runs upstairs, riverside village pipes below.
Sunbury is really two places, and their drains prove it. Upper Sunbury, around Sunbury Cross and the A308, is 1960s and 70s estate housing: long shared drain runs, plastic-into-clay junctions, and inspection covers distributed with what we can only describe as playful randomness. Blockages here love the junction boxes where several properties’ waste meets, which means your blocked drain is often technically your neighbour’s blocked drain. The camera sorts out the whodunnit without anyone falling out over the fence.
Lower Sunbury, the village end by the Thames and the lock, is a different animal: older cottages and villas with older pipework, mature gardens whose roots have opinions, and the same close-to-the-river water table that keeps all riverside drains working harder than inland ones. It’s also home to some of the best-looking manhole covers on our patch, a sentence we stand behind.
From Kempton Park to the lock, TW16 is covered 24/7. We know which end of Sunbury you’re calling from, what your drains are probably made of, and we’ll give you an honest ETA and a fixed price before anything starts.
We cover all of Sunbury (TW16) — from Sunbury Cross, Lower Sunbury village, Sunbury Lock and across Shepperton, Hampton, Ashford. Being genuinely local means we already know what Sunbury's drains are made of, and how fast we can be at your door.More about drains in Sunbury →