Planned Commercial Drainage Maintenance

Why reactive drainage is expensive

An emergency call out happens at the worst time by definition, usually during service or trading, and often out of hours. On top of the attendance you carry lost revenue, staff standing idle, potential food safety implications and, in hospitality, a real risk of being told to close until the issue is resolved.

The same run, jetted on a Tuesday morning in a planned visit, costs a fraction of it and takes an hour. Over three years, sites that move to planned maintenance almost always spend less in total, and they spend it on dates they chose.

Building a schedule that fits the site

The right frequency depends on what goes down the drain and how much. A busy restaurant kitchen with a long external run needs quarterly attention. A pub with cellar drainage and a beer line waste needs regular but lighter visits. An office block or retail unit with mainly sanitary waste may need annual jetting and an inspection of the surface water system before winter.

The starting point is a baseline survey. Camera the main runs, note the material, condition and any existing defects, then set the frequency from what the footage shows rather than from a generic package.

What a maintenance visit should include

• High pressure jetting of the main runs and the branches that cause trouble.
• Cleaning and emptying of gullies, channel drains, silt traps and catchpits.
• Grease trap check and, where contracted, servicing.
• CCTV check of key runs so you can see the bore is clear rather than take it on trust.
• Chamber inspection, including benching and cover condition, which is also a safety matter.
• A written record with dates, findings and any recommendations.

Record keeping that earns its place

Dated maintenance records are useful in more places than people expect. Environmental health officers ask about fat management. Landlords ask for evidence that lease obligations are being met. Insurers ask about maintenance history when a claim involves drainage. Franchise and brand audits frequently include it.

We supply a report after every visit with the date, the work carried out, the condition observed and anything that needs planning for, which means the file builds itself rather than being assembled in a hurry when someone asks.

Catching defects before they close you

The genuine value of the camera check on a maintenance visit is early warning. A joint beginning to open, a light root presence, a deposit reforming faster than it should, or standing water appearing in a section that used to run clear are all things you can plan a repair around. Left alone, each of them eventually becomes a call at nine on a Saturday.

Repairs found this way can be carried out overnight, on a closure day or during a quiet week, with lining rather than excavation wherever the pipe allows it, which for a trading premises is usually the difference between an inconvenience and a shutdown.

How we work with commercial clients

We look after pubs, restaurants, hotels, care homes, retail units, offices and industrial premises across West Lothian, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Lanarkshire and Fife. Visits are scheduled around your trading hours, including overnight and early morning, and the same team attends each time so they know the site.

We hold five million pounds of public liability cover, provide RAMS on request, and back the planned schedule with genuine twenty four hour emergency attendance for the times when something happens anyway. Ask us for a baseline survey and a proposed schedule and we will price both before you commit to anything.

Getting started without a big commitment

The sensible first step is a single baseline visit: jet the main runs, clean the traps and camera the system, then look at what came back. That gives you a condition record, an idea of how quickly deposits reform and a sensible frequency for future visits, all for the price of one attendance.

From there most sites settle into a rhythm quickly. There is no requirement to sign a long agreement, and we are happy to simply diary a repeating visit and review it after a year against what the camera shows.

Questions we get asked