What is a Diagnostic CCTV Drain Inspection?

The signs of blocked drains are easy to spot: bad smells, basins taking a long time to empty, and gurgling in your pipework or toilet. However, locating the site of the blockage can be more difficult. A diagnostic CCTV drain inspection is a technique that some plumbers use to locate the cause of your blocked drains without having to dismantle your home plumbing system.

How Does a Diagnostic CCTV Drain Inspection Work?

When you schedule a diagnostic CCTV drain inspection, a plumber will come to your home with a waterproof camera mounted on a push rod. The plumber feeds this camera into one of your drains and works it through the pipes to search for the blockage. The plumber watches the live feed from the camera to locate the clog in the pipes. When they find the blockage, the plumber can work out what they need to do to repair it and give you an estimation of the cost.

What Are the Benefits of a Diagnostic CCTV Drain Inspection?

The main benefit of a diagnostic CCTV drain inspection is that it can locate the problem with your drains without a plumber having to take your pipework apart to look for the blockage. You can get the problem solved quickly and with a minimum of disruption. CCTV drain inspection can help to keep costs low by minimising the number of parts that need to be dismantled and repaired or replaced.

A diagnostic CCTV drain inspection also allows a plumber to take a look at the nature of a blockage before they start working on the plumbing in order to fix it. For example, they can see in advance if the cause of the clog is a tree root growing into the pipe, which lets them know that some work on the tree will be required to solve the problem over the long term. They can also see if the clog is made up of fats or other organic substances that can be dissolved using chemical drain cleaners rather than a solid object that requires them to take the pipe apart to remove it.

What Other Types of Drain Inspections Are Available?

In addition to waterproof cameras, plumbers use other tools to find blockages in home plumbing systems. These include sonar surveys, which use sound waves to locate blockages in pipes in a non-invasive way. To minimise disruption in your home, look for a plumber who uses both CCTV and sonar to carry out drain inspections next time you suffer from blocked drains.