The Defect, Measured
What it is and how far it sits from the access point, recorded as a distance rather than described as somewhere near the driveway.
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A CCTV drain inspection in Alberton turns a recurring mystery into a measurement: what the defect is, and how far down the line it sits. That measurement is what tells you whether the problem is on your side of the boundary or the City's, and it is what an insurer or a conveyancer will actually act on. You keep the footage. If the drain is blocked right now, start at blocked drains.
Tell us how many times this line has blocked and roughly where the access points are. If the line is fully blocked, say so, because it has to be cleared enough for the camera to pass.
A camera run is not a service in itself. It is the thing that stops you spending money on the wrong repair, or on the same clearing job four times.
What it is and how far it sits from the access point, recorded as a distance rather than described as somewhere near the driveway.
The commonest find in Alberton's older streets. The camera shows how far the mass extends, which is what decides between cutting it out and replacing the section.
Where a section has settled and now holds water, or has failed outright. Both look identical from the surface and need completely different work.
The measurement placed against your erf boundary, so a defect in the municipal line can be taken to Ekurhuleni with something they can act on.
A sonde in the camera head traced from the surface, so the run gets marked on the ground before anyone excavates, paves or builds over it.
What is under a property before you own it. Cheaper than the first winter of discovering it, and increasingly asked for on older Alberton stock.
The reason to put a camera down a drain is not curiosity. It is that three separate parties, the City, your insurer, and whoever ends up doing the repair, all respond to recorded evidence and none of them respond to a description. Ekurhuleni handles something like 5,000 sewer complaints in an average month. A call saying the drain keeps blocking joins a very long queue. A call giving a defect type and a measured distance that places it beyond your boundary is a different kind of report.
The measurement is the whole trick. As the camera travels it records distance, so when it reaches the root mass or the cracked section we know how many metres down the line that sits. Set that against where your erf boundary is and you have an answer to the only question that decides who pays. It also survives a change of personnel, a follow-up call and an assessor's review, which a conversation at the gate does not.
What the camera finds in Alberton follows a pattern. In the older suburbs, where underground drainage was laid decades ago in short earthenware or cast iron sections, the defect is usually fine roots at a joint: every joint is an opening, mature verge trees are looking for water, and once a root mass is established it catches everything passing. Newer areas and the estates fail differently, typically at a belly where a section has settled, or at a poorly bedded connection, rather than at the joints themselves.
Which matters, because the repairs are not remotely comparable. A root mass in an otherwise sound line can be cut out and the joint dealt with locally. A two metre run that has settled and now holds water will keep collecting solids no matter how often it is cleared, and only re-laying it to proper fall ends that. Clearing both of them costs the same. Repairing them does not, and guessing between them is how people spend money twice.
What you leave with: the recording, the defect named, its distance from the access point, and a plain explanation of what you are looking at. It is yours to take to another contractor for a second quote, to your insurer, to the City, or to a conveyancer. We would rather you could check our recommendation than have to take it on trust.
Four situations where a survey earns its money, and outside them we will tell you to just clear the drain.
Fixed price for the survey, and the repair priced off what it finds.
Quoted before we arrive, and it does not move because the line turned out to be long.
Every defect logged as metres from the access point, not as a vague location.
You keep the recording, and you are free to take it anywhere for a second opinion.
Off what the camera actually found, so you can see the reasoning behind the number.
When it is worth it, what it costs, and what you get to keep.
It is a fixed price for the survey, quoted before we arrive, and it buys you the run of the line, the defect located and measured from the access point, and the footage. If a repair follows, it is quoted separately off what the camera found. The honest way to think about the cost is against the alternative: if you have already paid to have the same drain cleared three times, the survey has been the cheaper option since the second one.
Four situations. The same drain has blocked more than twice. A purchase is going through and you would rather find out what is underground while it is still somebody else’s problem. A section has collapsed or subsided and you need to know how far it runs before anybody digs. Or you are in a dispute, with the City or an insurer or a neighbour, about whose line the defect is in. Outside those, clearing the blockage is usually the right call and we will say so.
That is one of the main things the survey establishes. The camera records distance as it travels, so when it reaches the defect we know how far down the line it sits, and that measurement placed against your boundary tells you which side it is on. It matters because a defect in the municipal line is Ekurhuleni's to repair, and a measured recording is a far stronger basis for that conversation than a description.
Roots at the joints is the most common in the older suburbs, where earthenware or cast iron drainage was laid in short sections decades ago and every joint is an opening for fine roots to find. After that: fat build-up narrowing the bore, a belly where a section has settled and now holds water, cracked or displaced sections, and occasionally something simply lodged. Each of those has a different repair and a different cost, which is the point of looking.
Yes, and you keep it. You get the recording, a note of the defect and its distance from the access point, and a plain explanation of what we are looking at. That is yours to use: to get a second quote on the repair, to hand to an insurer, to attach to a municipal query, or to give to a conveyancer. A survey you cannot take away with you is not much use to you afterwards.
Usually yes, at least partly, because a camera cannot see through standing water or a solid blockage. On a completely blocked line we clear enough to get the camera past, then survey. That is worth knowing when you compare prices, because a survey quote that assumes a clear line and a blocked drain are two jobs. We tell you which one you are looking at before we start rather than adding it afterwards.
Yes. The camera head carries a sonde that can be traced from the surface, so as it moves down the line we can mark the route and the depth on the ground above it. That is how you avoid digging a trench across a garden hunting for a pipe, and it is worth doing before any excavation, paving or building work goes anywhere near the drainage.
It is often the thing that makes the claim possible. Insurers want to know what failed, where, and whether it was sudden or long-term deterioration, and a dated recording with a measured location answers all three in a way that a written description does not. We also itemise the invoice so the survey and any repair sit on separate lines, which is the form an assessor expects.
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Need a drain surveyed in Alberton? Send the details through and you will get one fixed figure for the survey, with no expectation that you go any further.