We started undertaking “look see” drain scans on properties in 2010 initially as a ‘unique selling point’ (USL) but have long since realised the benefits of these scans to find very significant defects even when there are no blockages evident.

This was certainly the case on a recent property where we undertook a Building Survey and the foul drainage pipes ran in line with the drive and connected into the main sewer on the road. It was noted that there was some movement to the front bays of this Victorian property which is not particularly unusual by itself but it is recognised that ground saturation and washing away of material as a result of defective drains can cause this type of movement and therefore the drain scan across the front of the building was seen to be very important. It was found that the underground drainage system was formed in sectional salt glaze pipe work and there was a general misalignment of pipe work with defective joints evident from the beginning of the scan. This was found to be very severe at just past the 3 metre point which is probably in the area of the left bay of the building. It was noted that there was a hole in the top of the pipe and there was some very severe misalignment and other defects could be seen further down the pipe work which was inaccessible with a 50 mm camera.