Drainage Survey and No-Dig Lining Repairs at Sheerness Dockyard Church for Coniston Ltd
Project Snapshot
| Client | Coniston Ltd |
|---|---|
| Sector | Construction |
| Location | Sheerness Dockyard Church, Isle of Sheppey, Kent |
| Services | CCTV drain survey, high-pressure jetting, resin patching, drain lining |
| Duration | 1 month |
| Challenge | Defective drainage discovered during survey at a listed building under a £4.2m National Lottery Heritage Fund restoration, requiring no-dig repair across 120 metres of pipework |
Overview
Sheerness Dockyard Church is one of the most significant buildings at risk in the South East of England. Damaged by fire in 2001, it has stood at the entrance to the former Royal Dockyard on the Isle of Sheppey for over two centuries. A £4.2m National Lottery Heritage Fund grant awarded in 2019 made a full restoration possible, with an 18-month programme beginning in November 2020.
Coniston Ltd, the principal contractor on the restoration, brought London Drainage Facilities in to survey and repair the drainage system. What began as an inspection and clearance job revealed something more serious: 120 metres of scaled and structurally defective pipework that needed no-dig lining repair before the wider restoration could proceed.
The Challenge
Heritage restoration projects introduce a layer of constraint that standard construction drainage work does not. The building fabric is irreplaceable, excavation is rarely an option, and every trade working on site is accountable to a programme and a funder with strict expectations.
Coniston Ltd needed the drainage system surveyed before work progressed, but without detailed records of what was under the ground, there was no way to know in advance what condition the pipework was in. Large-diameter pipework, up to 900mm in places, ruled out standard camera equipment.
When LDF’s CCTV survey identified not just blockages but structural defects in the lining, the scope widened. The drainage system needed more than a clean: it needed a repair programme that could be delivered from within the pipe, without disturbing the church’s historic fabric or disrupting the wider site programme.
Our Approach
LDF began with a full CCTV survey using a crawler unit: the right tool for large-diameter pipework up to 900mm that smaller inspection cameras cannot access. The footage gave the technical team a complete picture of the drainage network’s condition and confirmed the locations and extent of the defects.
With the survey complete, the team moved to clearance. High-pressure water jetting removed the accumulated debris and scale from the affected sections, with a tanker on site to remove the arisings. This restored flow through the system and prepared the pipework for the lining works to follow.
The survey had revealed fractures, open joints, and lining defects across 120 metres of drainage. Excavating to repair these in a listed building undergoing a funded heritage restoration was not a viable option. LDF carried out resin patching and full drain lining across all affected sections.
The lining system works by inserting a flexible liner into the existing pipe and guiding it around bends, mapping precisely to the contours of the original pipework. Once in position, the resin sets and bonds the liner to the pipe walls. Fractures are sealed, open joints are closed, and the structural integrity of the pipe is restored, all from within, with no excavation and no surface disruption.
The team worked in confined spaces throughout. All work was completed within the one-month programme.
The Outcome
All 120 metres of defective drainage were surveyed, cleared, and relined within the project timeframe. The drainage system was returned to full structural integrity without any excavation or disturbance to the church’s historic fabric.
The work meant Coniston Ltd could continue the wider restoration programme with the drainage infrastructure resolved, and the building’s underground drainage now matches the standard being set above ground by the rest of the restoration.
About This Project Type
Drainage work in heritage and listed buildings presents a specific challenge: the usual response to a defective drain, dig it up and replace it, is frequently ruled out by the building’s age, status, or the terms of a funding agreement.
No-dig lining repair is the standard solution in these environments. It restores structural integrity and seals defects from within the pipe, with no surface disruption. But it requires an accurate CCTV survey first: the liner can only be designed and installed correctly if the full extent and location of the defects is known.
LDF carries large-diameter CCTV crawler equipment as standard, which means it can survey pipework that most drainage contractors cannot access. Combined with resin lining capability and confined-space working experience, LDF can take a heritage drainage project from survey through to signed-off repair in a single engagement.
For construction and restoration contractors working on listed or heritage sites, LDF is an accredited Tier 1 drainage contractor with the H&S documentation, method statements, and RAMS capability to work within the requirements of funded heritage programmes.
Work with LDF
Call our 24-hour helpline: 0800 612 2179
Or visit: london-drainage.com/drain-repairs
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