You've got a drain that keeps blocking, a smell you can't trace, or a surveyor flagging drainage on a property you're about to buy. Without a camera in the pipe, you're guessing. A CCTV drain survey stops the guesswork.
We push a high-definition camera through your drains, record everything, and tell you exactly what's there and where. Not "somewhere in the system." To the metre. You get footage and a written report you can act on, show a solicitor, or hand to a loss adjuster.
Our engineers are DBS-checked, uniformed, and fully insured. We work across SP10 and SP11 seven days a week.
What a CCTV Survey Actually Involves
The camera goes in through a manhole or an access point, sometimes a ground-floor toilet or inspection chamber if there's no external access. It travels through the pipe and sends live footage back to a monitor above ground. The engineer narrates what they're seeing as they go.
We're looking for:
- Root ingress, which is common on older estate roads and tree-lined streets across Andover
- Pipe fractures, often caused by ground movement or heavy traffic over domestic runs
- Displaced or collapsed joints where sections have shifted over time
- Blockage material that hasn't cleared fully with jetting, or that keeps returning
- Incorrect fall, where a pipe is running flat or back-pitched and retains water
- Build-up of scale, fat or debris that's narrowing the bore
Once the camera's back out, you get a timestamped recording and a written report. The report identifies each defect, gives you a location referenced from the nearest access point, and describes the condition in plain language. No jargon, no vague commentary left for you to interpret.
When You Need a Survey, Not Just a Jetting
Jetting clears what's in the pipe. A survey tells you why it keeps coming back, or whether the pipe itself is the problem. These aren't the same job.
You probably need a CCTV survey if:
- A blockage has cleared but the drain is still slow a few weeks later
- You're getting recurring blockages in the same section of pipework
- There's a damp patch, subsidence, or a persistent smell with no obvious source
- A neighbour's works have disturbed shared drainage and something's changed
- You're buying a property and want to know what you're inheriting before exchange
Pre-purchase surveys are something we do a lot of in Andover. A conveyancer won't flag drainage condition, and a standard homebuyer's report doesn't include a camera inspection. If the property is on Picket Twenty, Picket Piece or anywhere else where estate drainage hasn't been formally adopted yet, knowing the pipe condition before exchange protects you.
Pre-Purchase Surveys and Adoption Timelines
Andover has seen a lot of house building over the past fifteen years. East Anton, Saxon Fields, Picket Twenty and Picket Piece all have relatively new drainage, but new doesn't always mean correctly installed. Joints get misaligned during backfill. Pipes get damaged by subsequent groundworks.
Adoption by Southern Water doesn't happen overnight. On some Andover estates, the process has taken several years from build completion, and until adoption is confirmed, maintenance responsibility sits with the developer or, in some cases, the individual homeowner. A survey carried out before exchange gives you hard evidence of condition at the point of purchase, which matters if defects emerge after you've moved in.
Older stock in Charlton, Knights Enham, Walworth and Harroway is a different picture. Clayware and pitch fibre pipes from the 1960s and 1970s are still in service under many of these roads and gardens. They crack, deform and attract roots. A survey before you buy means you're negotiating with facts, not assumptions.
The villages around Andover have their own challenges. Wherwell, St Mary Bourne and Overton often have private drainage arrangements or older combined systems. Thruxton properties sometimes connect to systems laid before modern building standards applied. We cover all of these areas, and we also cover Ludgershall and the Tidworth area in Wiltshire, where drainage arrangements and water authority boundaries differ from those closer to Andover town.
How We Report What We Find
The written report uses a standard drainage condition grading so you can share it with a structural engineer, a solicitor or an insurer. Each defect gets a grade, a distance from the access point, and a description in plain English.
| What's in the report | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Pipe material and diameter | What you've got and whether it meets current standards |
| Defect type and location | Exactly what's wrong and where to dig, if digging is needed |
| Condition grade | How urgent the remedial work is |
| Camera footage reference | Timestamp so you can cross-reference the video |
| Recommended next steps | What needs doing, with no pressure to book it on the spot |
If we find something that needs fixing and we carry out the remedial work, drain repairs and relining completed by Drainsco carry a 20-year guarantee. That applies to physical remediation work only, not to clearance or descaling jobs.
Common Findings Across Andover
In Foxcotte and Smannell, root intrusion from mature trees is the most frequent finding. The roots follow the moisture gradient straight to pipe joints, and once they're in, they grow fast.
On newer builds at King's Furlong and across parts of East Anton, we more often find installation defects, displaced joints or sections with inadequate fall. These don't cause an immediate blockage but they collect silt and grease and they fail earlier than they should.
In the town centre and on older streets around Millway and the Harroway, we regularly find pitch fibre pipe that has deformed into an oval cross-section, a condition known as peapodding. At its worst it causes near-complete collapse and serious flow restriction. It's not something to monitor and revisit. It needs assessing properly so you know whether remediation is urgent.
Gully and manhole surveys are also common in commercial yards and car parks across the Andover trading estates, where vehicle loading causes joint displacement you'd never spot without a camera.
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Our engineers are on call across SP10 and SP11, including evenings and weekends. Every job is priced individually, agreed on the phone before we start, with no call-out fee. Call 01264 312680 to book a survey or talk through what you're seeing.