Why Merton properties get drainage faults
Merton is mostly suburban, with interwar semi-detached houses in Morden and Mitcham, Victorian terraces closer to Colliers Wood and newer developments along the main routes. Most properties have their own garden drainage.
You cannot repair what you cannot see. A camera survey turns a guess about the state of a drain into a record of exactly what is there, where it is and how bad it is.
The River Wandle runs through the borough and the ground alongside it holds water, so gardens drain slowly and soakaways fill during prolonged rain. Where a driveway has been paved without drainage, that water goes straight into the foul system.
Our approach in Merton
A survey is only useful if it is done systematically, so we cover the whole run rather than the first few metres.
- Clear enough of the line to give the camera a usable view
- Run the camera through the full length of the affected drain
- Record the position and depth of any defect with a locator above ground
- Grade what we find, from minor wear to a defect needing repair
- Provide the footage and a written summary you can pass to an insurer, surveyor or builder
Off-street parking and side access make these jobs relatively straightforward. Where a chamber has been covered by a driveway, we trace the run with a camera and locator instead of lifting slabs blind.
Signs it needs attention now
- A drain that blocks again within weeks of being cleared
- Unexplained damp, subsidence concerns or a sinkhole in the garden
- Buying a property with mature trees close to the drain run
- An insurer or managing agent asking for evidence of the pipe condition
- Planning an extension that will be built over an existing drain
What we see most often in Merton
- Waterlogged ground alongside the Wandle holding surface water
- Soakaways filling and failing to discharge during prolonged rain
- Inspection chambers buried under later driveway work
Merton work is mostly suburban and mostly for owner-occupiers, with off-street parking and side access making visits efficient. We also attend a steady number of garden drainage jobs where rainwater has nowhere to go.
Equipment and what happens afterwards
We survey with a self-levelling colour camera and an above-ground locator, which together tell us not just what a defect looks like but exactly where it is and how deep. That matters, because a repair quote based on a rough guess at position is a repair quote that changes once the ground is open.
You receive the footage along with a written summary describing each defect, its position and how serious it is. We write it so that a surveyor, an insurer or a builder can use it directly. Where a repair is needed we set out the realistic options, including the ones that do not involve excavation.
What cctv drain surveys cost in Merton
A CCTV drain survey is a fixed £300 plus VAT, including the footage and a written summary of what we found. You get a fixed price up front rather than an hourly rate, which means a difficult job in Merton does not become an open-ended one.
Areas we cover around Merton
Merton sits within our core coverage, taking in SW19, SW20, CR4 and SM4 across Merton. Average response is 75 minutes, and we operate in Wimbledon, Croydon, Balham and Wandsworth too, which helps when a drain run is shared between properties in different streets.