Many homeowners take great care of their possessions and their property and spend lots of time making sure that they have the latest things and replacing things when their get old or break. This is just a natural human instinct and is something we all do. However when things are out of sight they often get forgotten about and aren’t dealt with until problems occur. There must be thousands of people in the UK who get important post and file it away in a drawer out of sight and ‘out of mind’. It’s only when they find they need that important post does the scale of the problem present itself and hours have to be spent sorting out the accumulation of many months of paperwork. Similarly, because the drains that leaves your home are underground they too often get forgotten about until you have a problem, although there is a good chance that the drainage is decades old.
Drain maintenance
Not many people realise the importance of drain maintenance. We all have our cars serviced and even our central heating boiler serviced, but rarely do we have our drainage serviced until a problem occurs – which can often be the most expensive way of realising that drain maintenance is important.
Drain blockages
The first sign a drainage problem will present itself will usually be as a slow draining sink or a toilet which won’t take the water away. When you notice these problems this is the time to act. If you leave these problems unattended there is a likelihood that the problem will only get worse and cause sewer flooding in your garden or even worse in your home.
Drain jetting
If you have a blockage a drainage company in London will usually be able to solve the problem quite quickly. They will first try to remove the clog using a technique known as drain jetting. In this process the drainage engineer in London will use high pressure letting equipment, similar to the jetting equipment you might use to clean your driveway, to blast the clog into tiny parts. This is done by inserting the high pressure hose into the drain to the point of the clog. The force of the pressurised water can commonly clear most blockages caused by household waste and fats. If this doesn’t work the drainage engineer may turn to CCTV survey equipment
CCTV surveys
If the blockage is still causing a problem after drain jetting the engineer will usually opt for a CCTV survey to assess the cause of the blockage. Using high-tech camera equipment the drainage engineer will visually inspect the internal drainage pipes to see what is causing the problem, the survey results will be assessed and a course of action decided upon. If the drains are very old there may be cracks or damage along their length. There may have been subsidence and the drain may have collapsed or there may be root infiltration in the drain blocking the path of any waste products.
Root removal
If the drain is blocked by roots the drainage engineers can solve the problem without the need for excavation. They will insert a spinning root cutter into the drain which can cut the roots away from the drain leaving the drain free to allow waste water to pass through again. Depending on the damage caused by the roots they may then suggest a drain liner repair, where a resin liner is blown into the drain which forms a water tight seal so the roots can’t grow back.
All the above problems are dealt with by London drainage experts on a daily basis and all can be solved with the minimum of fuss.