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 Teddington
- 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 Teddington
Victorian terraces plus side-return extensions: modern kitchens on 1890s drain runs.
Teddington’s drain story is written in its lofts and side returns. The Victorian terraces between the High Street and the river are some of the most extended houses in London: side-return kitchens, loft bathrooms, utility rooms, all plumbed (enthusiastically, and sometimes optimistically) into drain runs laid in the 1890s for a house with one cold tap. When a modern family kitchen with a dishwasher and an American fridge drains into a four-inch clay pipe with original joints, the pipe eventually files a complaint. That complaint usually arrives via the downstairs gully, on a Sunday.
Around Bushy Park and the Grove Gardens streets, mature trees do their usual quiet work on the joints, and the closer you get to Teddington Lock the more the river’s water table joins in. We also see a very Teddington special: beautifully landscaped gardens where the drain’s inspection chamber was paved over during the makeover, which turns a twenty-minute clear into a treasure hunt. (We bring the metal detector. Genuinely.)
None of this is a criticism, Teddington; extend away. Just know that TW11 is covered 24/7 by people who find your 130-year-old pipework fascinating rather than annoying, quote before starting, and put the flowerpots back where we found them.
We cover all of Teddington (TW11) — from Teddington Lock, Broad Street, Bushy Park and across Hampton Wick, Twickenham, Strawberry Hill. Being genuinely local means we already know what Teddington's drains are made of, and how fast we can be at your door.More about drains in Teddington →