Are You Having a Drain Emergency in London? - City Drains

Drainage surveyor

Drainage is invariably underground and can only be seen at inspection chambers. Out of sight usually means out of mind and so it tends to be ignored until it misbehaves. This is often carried out by the Surveyor at the same time as a Homebuyer Survey or Building Survey. It simply involves lifting manhole covers and running water through the drain runs from the taps within the property, whilst observing the flows throughout the drainage system. This allows the Surveyor to check if the drains are running free, or if there are blockages, and will also indicate any severe leakage.

Leaking drains very often go undetected for years or decades, but if close to the building, the ground beneath the foundations can be weakened by the water, resulting in subsidence. It is for this reason that surveyors may request a drainage report when they have seen cracking or other indications of foundation movement.

In these cases, a water, or hydraulic, test is required. This involves plugging the drain at the lower end, filling it up with water then waiting to see if it holds the water or if it leaks away. When the plug is removed, the water should flow away rapidly to indicate that the drain is not blocked. There may be several sections of the drainage, each of which will require testing separately.

Drains can be tested and surveyed quite easily if there are adequate inspection chambers, and if they are not blocked. However, especially with older properties, there may be few or no inspection chambers. In these cases, the only way to test and survey the drains is to dig holes and break into the pipes - this gets expensive! We often find drains are blocked, or are backing up from overfull cess pits or septic tanks. In these circumstances, there is little which can be done until the system has been unblocked, cleared or emptied - again an expensive operation.

A drainage report would normally include a plan showing the layout of the drains, along with details of pipe diameters, depths below ground, results of water tests, and findings of CCTV surveys. This is an exciting project for us. Carrying out detailed CCTV drainage surveys is a vital step in regeneration projects like this. The capacity of drainage assets have to be matched to the scale and scope of the development. New living standards and lifestyles put different stresses on drainage systems.

The drainage assets represented a significant risk for us, because we could not be sure of their condition. That is why we have asked Lanes Group to work with us, to precisely map the drainage system, and its condition.

The drainage survey will also help us later, in the first stages of the new build programme as it will clearly show how we need to connect new drainage assets to the current system. Lanes drainage engineers are using HD video cameras, in some cases attached to remote-controlled robot vehicles, to carry out the drain surveys. GPS technology is being used to plot all pipes and manholes, creating a digital map of drainage assets, over which development plans can be laid.

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