Drain Surveys in Edinburgh

For a drain survey in Edinburgh, we record the private drainage run on CCTV and give you video footage, still images of any defect, distances and depths, and costed repair options in a plain English report.

Most Edinburgh drain surveys we carry out fall into one of three groups. Buyers whose home report or surveyor has flagged drainage and who now have a completion date to work to. Owners of a flat or a house that keeps blocking and who are tired of paying for the same clearance twice a year. And landlords, factors and insurers who need documented evidence of the condition of a shared run.

Edinburgh property makes surveys more useful than average. Much of the city is Victorian tenement and villa stock on original clay pipework, laid in short jointed lengths that have moved over a century. Add mature street trees, back court extensions built over the drainage line and shared runs serving several flats, and there is a lot that only a camera can settle.

We own our CCTV equipment and carry it on the same van as the jetting gear. If the run has to be cleaned before the camera can see anything, we do both in one visit rather than charging for two.

Drain surveys across Edinburgh: Leith, Portobello, Corstorphine and Craigmillar

Leith, Portobello, Corstorphine and Craigmillar each hold a mix of housing, yet the reasons people book a survey are much the same in all four. Buyers want to know what sits under a flat or house before they commit. Landlords want a record of a shared run before anyone agrees who pays for a repair. Owners in a tenement stair or an older villa want to know why the same drain chokes every few months. In each case the camera travels the private drainage from the building to the boundary, the recording is kept, and the written report locates any defect by distance so it can be found again. Where a pipe is too dirty to film, it is cleaned first on the same visit. If the footage shows a fault, the report sets out the repair options so you can decide what happens next.

Pre purchase drain surveys for Edinburgh buyers

A home report does not put a camera in the drains. If your surveyor has recommended a specialist drainage inspection, that is what this is. We inspect the private drainage serving the property, record the whole run, and give you a report you can actually use in a negotiation, because it puts a cost against anything we find.

We know purchases run to deadlines, so pre purchase work gets priority in the diary. Tell us the date you are working to when you ring.

What the survey covers

• The full private drainage run from the building to the boundary
• Inspection chambers, gullies and the connection point where accessible
• Cracks, fractures, displaced joints and open joints
• Root ingress and the defect the roots entered through
• Deformation, partial collapse and full collapse
• Standing water showing loss of fall
• Fat, scale and silt reducing the bore

What you get, and how long it takes

A typical domestic survey takes one to two hours on site. Longer shared tenement runs and commercial sites take longer. You receive video footage, still images of any defect, the distance and depth of each defect from the chamber, a plain English explanation of what it means, and costed repair options where work is needed.

If the survey finds a problem

You get the options and the prices, and no pressure. Plenty of what we find is minor and worth nothing more than keeping an eye on. Where a repair is needed we tell you whether a patch liner will do it, whether the run needs full relining, or whether the section has gone far enough that it has to be dug out and replaced. We carry out that work ourselves, so there is no second survey and no second contractor.

Surveys before work in conservation streets

Edinburgh has 50 conservation areas, and the Old Town and New Town together form a World Heritage Site. Building work in those areas carries extra controls, so a drain repair that means lifting setts, paving or a front step is worth planning carefully. A CCTV drain survey in Edinburgh's older streets settles where the run actually goes and whether the defect can be dealt with from inside the pipe, before anyone decides to dig. That is often the difference between a patch liner placed through a chamber and an excavation that may need checking with the City of Edinburgh Council first.

Steep runs on the southern ridges

Marchmont and Bruntsfield are built along glacial drumlin ridges, so drains there can fall steeply before levelling off. On camera, a loss of fall shows up as standing water in the pipe, and that is where solids collect. A drain inspection there can come down to finding the dip and measuring how long it is, which tells you whether lining will do or the section needs relaying. Further south and west, around Morningside and Corstorphine, where a villa garden has trees near the drain, the survey may be looking for the joint roots came through.

After the survey

If the footage shows a cracked or root-damaged length, read about drain relining. If it shows a blockage that keeps forming, our drain unblocking in Edinburgh page explains how it is cleared. For the wider picture of the work we do in the city, see drainage in Edinburgh.

Drain surveys across Edinburgh

Leith and Portobello include older flats and houses where drainage may be shared or altered by later building work. In a tenement, checking which connections feed a common run is as important as finding the restriction. An older clay drain can have open joints or roots, but the housing type alone does not prove a fault.

Corstorphine and Morningside include villas, garden properties and newer homes. Where trees stand near an older drain, a survey can look for roots entering through a damaged joint; in plastic pipework, standing water or retained debris can point to a fall or installation problem. The camera evidence, rather than the neighbourhood name, decides whether clearing, monitoring or repair is appropriate.

Edinburgh drainage questions

Local pages nearby

Town pages

Helpful guides

• What a CCTV Drain Survey Shows and What It Costs
• Pre-Purchase Homebuyer Drain Surveys Explained
• Signs of a Collapsed Drain