Drain Repairs London

The repair depends entirely on the type and severity of damage. For minor cracks or root intrusion, no-dig drain relining slides a resin sleeve through the existing pipe and cures it in place — no excavation, no garden destroyed, often completed in a day. For collapsed sections, more comprehensive excavation work may be needed, but a CCTV survey first means we only dig where we have to.

Contact your local engineer and we'll come out, run a survey and tell you what's needed — and what isn't.

Common signs include: you can smell sewage around the property, dampness around your house that doesn't have an obvious cause, the ground in your garden is sinking in patches, tree roots growing within the drainage system (often visible at manholes), or the drains are simply old and worn — clay pipes installed pre-1965 reach the end of their lifespan.

A collapsed drain doesn't always announce itself loudly. You might notice sagging floors, cracked walls, dampness within your home, soil erosion or subsidence in the garden, or a strong smell of sewage that won't go away. Any of these in combination warrants an urgent CCTV survey — a collapsed drain that goes unaddressed is a subsidence claim waiting to happen.

Drain relining is a no-dig method for repairing pipes that are cracked or have small holes. A flexible felt liner coated in resin is pulled through the damaged pipe, then inflated to press against the pipe walls and left to cure. The result is effectively a new pipe inside the old one — typically with a 50-year design life.

Compared to excavation, relining is faster, cheaper, less disruptive (no excavation in your garden, no removed paving) and leaves zero mess. Not every drain is suitable for relining — collapsed sections, very tight bends and severe deformation often need traditional repair — but a CCTV survey tells us quickly which approach is right.

A fully collapsed drain is different from a crack or a displaced joint — the pipe has lost its structural shape entirely, usually after years of undetected root intrusion, ground movement, or corrosion finally reaching a critical point. Water and waste can no longer pass through the collapsed section at all, so a collapsed drain typically presents as a sudden, total blockage rather than a gradual slowdown.

A CCTV survey confirms the exact location, length and severity of the collapse before any work starts. Short, accessible collapsed sections are often still repairable with no-dig lining techniques — a resin liner can bridge a genuinely collapsed section in some cases, not just a cracked one. Longer or more severe collapses need traditional excavation to dig out and replace the damaged pipework, after which the ground is reinstated.

Left unaddressed, a collapsed drain tends to get worse: soil washes into the void left by the failed pipe, which can lead to subsidence under a path, driveway or even a building foundation. If you suspect a collapse — sudden total blockage, sinking ground, or a strong sewage smell with no other explanation — treat it as urgent and get a CCTV survey booked.