If you’re booking a CCTV drain survey, someone has usually told you that you need one. The most common reasons are a drain that keeps blocking, a Glasgow house purchase where the solicitor or surveyor has flagged shared drainage, an insurance claim that needs evidence of pipe damage, or a build-over consent application for an extension.
Glasgow Drainage Pros runs CCTV drain surveys across Glasgow and North Lanarkshire. The camera goes down the pipe, the engineer interprets what’s on screen, and you get the video footage along with a written summary on the same visit.
To book a survey, call 0141 673 3535. Standalone surveys can usually be scheduled within a couple of working days during standard working hours.
What we look for during a CCTV drain survey
A push-rod CCTV camera goes through the access point (a manhole, an inspection chamber, or sometimes a removed gully grate) and records the inside of the pipe as it travels. The engineer watches the screen live and notes anything significant.
The findings usually fall into a handful of categories:
- Cracks in the pipe wall, ranging from hairline fractures to splits running along several metres
- Displaced or open joints, where the pipe sections have moved apart and ground material is entering
- Collapsed sections, where the pipe has lost its round shape entirely
- Root ingress, where tree roots have grown in through a joint and are blocking the flow
- Scale build-up, often a thick limescale or grease lining on older pipework
- Standing water in low spots, which suggests a dip in the pipe (a “belly”)
- Foreign objects in the line, such as building debris, lost masonry, or the occasional toy
- Misconnections, where surface-water drains are wrongly connected to foul sewers (or vice versa)
The camera also records the depth and route of the pipe as it goes, which is useful when no drainage plan exists for the property.
When you’d want a CCTV survey
Before buying a house
A pre-purchase CCTV survey on a Glasgow property catches issues that the seller’s Home Report doesn’t always cover. Older tenement properties with shared private drains are the highest-risk category. A two-flat tenement might share a drain run with a third party, and any defect in the shared section becomes a joint repair bill. Finding a shared-drain defect before completion lets you raise the repair cost with the seller or factor.
Recurring blockages
If a drain keeps blocking every few months despite being cleared each time, the camera tells you why. Repeat blockages usually trace to one of a few things: a hard ring of scale that rods only chip rather than strip out, a fractured pipe section that catches debris on every wash, or roots growing in through a single joint at the back of a chamber.
Insurance claims
Insurers handling drainage subsidence, water damage, or escape-of-water claims usually want footage and a written summary of pipe condition before they’ll authorise repair work. The survey output follows the standard layout adjusters expect.
Build-over and consent applications
If you’re extending over a public sewer or a shared private drain, Scottish Water needs evidence of the pipe’s current condition before granting build-over consent. A CCTV survey provides the route, depth, and condition footage their consent process asks for.
Pre-tenancy and end-of-tenancy
For landlords with older Glasgow rental properties, a survey at the start or end of a tenancy gives you a recorded pipe condition to fall back on if a tenant later disputes responsibility for a blockage they caused.
To book any of these, call 0141 673 3535 or send us a message with the property address and what’s prompted the survey.
How a survey works on the day
A typical domestic CCTV survey takes 45 minutes to 90 minutes from arrival to leaving. Larger commercial premises with multiple runs can take half a day.
The engineer locates the access point. In tenement back courts this can take longer than the survey itself, because manhole covers are often buried under decades of paving and have to be dug out before work starts. The camera then runs through the pipe at a steady pace. Most domestic drains can be surveyed in a single run. Longer commercial runs sometimes need access from both ends.
If the line is currently blocked, the engineer will usually clear it first with rods or jetting before running the camera. Trying to push a camera through standing water and debris gives an unclear picture and risks the equipment.
What you get afterwards
The output of every survey is the same:
- A full video file of the pipe interior, indexed by distance from the access point
- A written summary describing each defect, where in the run it sits (in metres from the access), and what category of issue it is
- A recommendation on what action (if any) the engineer thinks is sensible: leave alone, monitor, clean and re-survey, repair, or replace
- A quote for any recommended repair work, separate from the survey itself, that you can take or leave
The footage and report are emailed to you the same day or the next working day, whichever is more practical. If you’ve booked the survey for a solicitor or insurance company, we can email it directly to them with you copied in.
For property buyers and surveyors
Most pre-purchase CCTV surveys we run are commissioned by the buyer’s solicitor or by a chartered surveyor adding a drainage check on top of the statutory Home Report. Each defect is recorded with its location and category, the recommendation is plain about what kind of remediation is needed, and the report can be used as supporting evidence if you want to renegotiate the offer.
For buyers, the survey usually takes a slot in the late stages of the conveyancing process, after offer-accepted but before missives are concluded. Booking the survey in that window gives time to raise any findings with the seller’s side before completion.
For insurance claims
If you’ve had an escape of water, subsidence, or surface flooding event, the insurer’s loss adjuster typically wants drainage condition evidence before authorising any remedial work. We provide the video and the written report in a format loss adjusters can use directly, and we can liaise with them on technical points if that’s helpful.
For repeat-claim properties (often older Glasgow tenements with ageing combined sewers), an annual or biennial survey gives the insurer a baseline to refer back to. Authorisation on the next claim usually moves faster as a result.
For commercial drainage
Cafés, takeaways, hotels, gyms, salons, dental practices, and small offices each have their own drainage profile. Commercial CCTV surveys typically focus on the waste runs from kitchens (grease build-up, suspected damage from hot oil disposal) and the floor drains and gullies that handle wash-down water. For larger premises or multi-unit sites, surveys run across multiple access points and the report breaks down findings unit by unit.
Where we work
We run CCTV drain surveys across Glasgow city-wide and North Lanarkshire. If your property sits at the edge of either area and you’re not sure whether you’re inside our patch, phone in with the postcode and we’ll tell you. For more on the wider service, the Glasgow drainage company page covers how we operate.
Book a CCTV drain survey
For a CCTV drain survey in Glasgow or North Lanarkshire, call 0141 673 3535. Tell us the property address, the reason for the survey (purchase, recurring blockage, insurance, consent), and any deadlines you’re working to.
For survey work that follows on from clearance, the drain unblocking page covers that side. For pipe repairs identified by a survey, the drain repairs page goes into what’s involved.
