Tree roots in drains: how they get in and what actually fixes it
Roots find old clay joints, thicken into a mass and catch everything passing. Jetting clears them; unless the joint is repaired they come back.
Read the guideA camera survey earns its money in three situations: buying a property, repeat blockages and insurance claims. What it shows and what you get.
A CCTV survey earns its money in three situations: buying a property, drains that block repeatedly, and insurance or liability claims. It shows the condition and layout of the run, finds the specific defect causing a problem, and gives you recorded evidence — which is what turns a guess into a priced repair.
A self-levelling camera on a rod or crawler is pushed through the drain from an access point, recording as it goes, with the depth and distance tracked so that anything found can be located above ground. In practice that means you end up knowing three things you did not know before: where the drains run, what condition they are in, and exactly where any defect sits.
That last point is the one that saves money. Without it, a repair starts with exploratory digging. With it, the dig is in one place, the right size, and quoted in advance.
A standard homebuyer survey does not look inside the drains. On an older property, a house with mature trees nearby, or anything off the mains, that is a meaningful gap — underground drainage is expensive to repair and completely invisible from the surface. A pre-purchase survey tells you whether you are inheriting a sound system, and if you are not, it gives you something concrete to negotiate with before exchange.
A drain that blocks once is bad luck. A drain that blocks two or three times a year has something physical catching waste: a root mass through a joint, a dropped or dislodged section, a dip holding water, a partial collapse, or something built into the run. Clearing it repeatedly treats the symptom at full price each time. One survey finds the cause.
Recorded footage with distances and a written report is evidence. Whether the question is a claim, a shared drain between neighbours, or liability for damage caused by a collapse, “we think it is around there” carries no weight and a located, recorded defect does.
If an extension, driveway or new drainage is going in near existing runs, a survey beforehand records the condition they were in — which is worth having if anything is damaged during the work.
If a drain has blocked for an obvious reason and cleared properly — a one-off blockage in a kitchen run full of fat, say, with nothing else in the system misbehaving — a survey is not automatically necessary. Likewise if the property is modern, the drains are plastic and everything has always run well. A good drainage firm will tell you when a survey would not change what needs doing.
Be wary of a “survey” that is a verbal opinion and a request for a repair quote. The point of paying for one is to leave with something you can show a solicitor, an insurer or another contractor.
For a standard domestic property, a camera survey with a written report generally sits in the low-to-mid hundreds, depending on how many runs need inspecting, how good the access is and how much reporting you need. Larger or commercial sites are priced individually. It is worth asking two things when you book: whether the quoted price includes a written report, and whether jetting is included if the drain needs clearing before the camera can pass — a silted run sometimes does.
If the property has a septic tank or treatment plant, the drains are only half the system. We survey the tank or plant at the same visit — condition of the chambers and baffles, whether the outfall is running, where the discharge actually goes, and the state of the drainage field. For anyone buying a rural property, that combined picture is the thing worth having before exchange rather than after.
We carry out surveys across Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Sheffield, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, with our own camera and jetting kit on the van. More on our drainage and CCTV work, or call 07884 111 641 and tell us what the drain is doing.
Four findings account for most surveys on older property around Derbyshire and north Nottinghamshire, where a lot of the drainage is clay pipe laid in short lengths.
Root ingress. Fine roots work through the joints, then thicken into a mass that catches paper and fat. Jetting with a cutting head clears it, but unless the joint is repaired the roots come back, so the survey matters as much as the clearance.
Displaced or dropped joints. Ground movement pulls a joint apart or drops one side. Waste snags on the step, and silt builds behind it. Small ones can be lined; bad ones need a dig.
Standing water in a dip. A section that has settled holds water permanently, so solids drop out there every time something passes. It is a blockage waiting to happen, every few months, forever — and it is invisible from any chamber.
Fat and scale build-up. On kitchen runs the bore narrows gradually until a normal amount of waste cannot pass. Jetting restores the full diameter; rodding simply makes a hole through it.
Have the property’s access points open and known if you can, say up front what the survey is for — a purchase, a claim, a recurring blockage — because the reporting differs, and ask whether clearance is included if the run turns out to need it. If it is a pre-purchase survey, book it early enough that the findings can still change the negotiation rather than arriving the week of exchange.
Usually in the low-to-mid hundreds for a standard domestic property, depending on the number of runs, access and the level of reporting. Commercial sites are priced individually.
You should. Ask when booking — footage and a written report are the deliverable, and they are what an insurer or a solicitor will want to see.
Not reliably. A heavily blocked or silted run usually needs jetting first so the camera has a clear path. We carry both, so it is one visit rather than two.
Yes — the sonde in the camera head is tracked from the surface, so runs can be plotted and marked up. On properties where nobody knows where the drains or the outfall go, that alone is often the reason to do it.
Septic tank emptying, installations, servicing and drainage across Derbyshire, Sheffield and Yorkshire — 24/7.
Roots find old clay joints, thicken into a mass and catch everything passing. Jetting clears them; unless the joint is repaired they come back.
Read the guideA few sensible checks will clear a fair number of blocked drains without a call-out — and the rest will tell you quickly that you need a jetting unit.
Read the guideReplacing a septic tank is usually permitted development, but building regulations still apply and some sites need consent. Here is what applies when.
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