London City Drains - Drainage news

Now accessing City Drains drainage services is even easier, as we’re listed in the London Drainage Services section of google maps.

The new googlemaps listing displays our contact details and customers reviews - just search for London Drainage services on google.

Here’s a recent review from a satisfied customer of City Drains:

In this case we determined the cause of the drainage problem, and provided a fast, effective drain repair.

“Really great service by this company. Highly reccomended, will use again. Thanks for your help City Drains, you managed to get to the root of the problem when nobody else could.”

One of the qualities that stands out when dealing with London City Drains and which our customers agree on, is the go for attitude and determination to solve the drainage problem at hand.

One job recently undertaken in central London was for a solicitor firm whose drains were located in their basement offices.

Over the years a score of London drainage service firms had been called out to try and solve the drain problem of the horrendous bad smells that were emanating from their basement office area and which was affecting all those that worked in that confined zone.

A second problem was that of a blocked basement kitchen sink waste pipe. This again had been dealt with on numerous occasions but the drainage problem never solved.

The problem at hand was not an easy one as the basement was carpet tiled and there was only access to one manhole. This was the manhole that all the other drainage contactors had been heading straight to without ever investigating any further.

Our drainage engineer decided to approach the job with a different attitude altogether. The first thing he had to investigate was whether there were any other manholes available in the basement. His many years of experience told him that there had to be a main interceptor in the basement somewhere. It was crucial that this be found as this would give a clear indication of whether:

A) The smell was due to a blocked drain
Or
B) Whether the drain had an eye cap fitted

This had never been undertaken by other London drainage engineers, as was confirmed when the drain was located and exposed. The drain, although it was running perfectly and there was no blockage, had no eye cap fitted. *One was immediately fitted and one of the problems resolved.

The problem of the blocked kitchen sink waste pipe was now addressed;

The previous London drainage engineers had all tried the same method and had failed in their endeavour. They would go direct to the only exposed manhole and use the high pressure jet up a side connection, which they thought was the waste for the kitchen sink. This method failed and no time was taken to investigate further the possible reasons for this failure.

London City Drains Engineer tried a different approach. Again, all his years of experience told him that obviously something was not right. After removing every item under the sink area, he traced the waste pipe and found that this was going directly into the floor and it would be normal to assume that this would be connected into the side connection that other engineers had tried drain jetting up and had failed. The problem was that it made no sense, as there was a pool of water on the floor and this was not normal unless there had been some form of flooding.

After obtaining permission from the office manager, the engineer removed the floor lino and found that there was an old rain water gully which had been sealed with a metal cover; the kitchen sink waste pipe was running into this gully. The gully as it turned out was an expired soak away and this particular area was originally an outdoor area that had been rebuilt over to accommodate for the new offices. The builders who had connected the kitchen sink waste pipe into the gully had made a serious blunder! This was not connected to any foul drain and there was no way the waste from the sink could flow away. The problem in the end was remedied by cementing over the old gully and realigning the kitchen waste pipe so it would flow directly into the manhole drain.

Because the waste in the old gully had just been sitting there for so long, this had also gone stagnant and was another contributing factor for the bad smells.

All the problems were effectively dealt with and the office workers were very relieved to be working under healthier conditions.

• The eye cap which is normally fitted on the rodding eye in the main interceptor serves to stop bad smells and rats from coming up from the main sewer on the road into your property. Most properties in London do not have one fitted.

If your property is suffering from bad smells then this could be the reason why.

For help and advice call London City Drains on freephone 0800 007 5309

London Drainage Service | Drain Repairs London | Blocked Drain London | Drain Clearing London

Drainage London | CCTV Drain survey footage - London Drainage Service

We’ve added a report of a recent drainage survey to the City Drains London website.

In this example we inspected a 4 inch PVC drain pipe at a house in London - the customer was suffering a blocked drain which needed immediate attention. 

The cctv drain survey showed that the blocked drain was caused by a kinked pipe which caused water retention and flooding.

Drain repair was possible by excavating the blocked pipe, and realigning the drain to the correct angle, allowing the drain to flow freely and preventing any futher drain blockages.

You can see the full cctv drain survey footage, plus the drain schematic and drainage service report by visiting the London drain inspections page on our website.

Thames Water is proposing to upgrade its sludge treatment facilities at Riverside Sewage Treatment Works, in Rainham – which will enable the plant to treat the solid waste left behind after the sewage treatment process and turn it into enough renewable energy to power the entire site.

The proposed upgrade will be located entirely within the existing sewage treatment works and will involve refurbishing existing digestion tanks and building new sludge thickening, de-watering and storage facilities. All measures are being taken to ensure the works will have no effect on odour.  All process tanks and sludge storage areas will be covered or enclosed in buildings.

Sludge will be treated through anaerobic digestion, whereby solid waste is broken down in enclosed tanks in the absence of oxygen. The process generates renewable energy, in the form of biogas (methane) which can be used to run engines and turbines for heating and electricity. The process also leaves behind a nutrient-rich solid which can be used as fertiliser.

A planning application will be submitted in May 2008 and subject to approval, construction will begin in early 2009 with works due for completion by 2010.

Investment plea for London sewers

 
Investment is urgently needed to upgrade London’s drains & sewers and reduce the threat posed by climate change and flash floods, experts have warned.

The severity and regularity of flash floods is expected to increase as more of London’s green spaces are concreted over and the population rises.

In 1859 Sir Joseph Bazalgette used 318 million bricks to create an underground grid to transfer London’s sewage to the east of the city.
 
It is now processed and turned into electricity at treatment works in Beckton and Crossness.
London’s unusual combined sewer system deals both with water flushed from homes and incoming rainfall from drains.

Climate change is expected to increase the regularity and severity of flash floods, placing greater demands on the system.

This will be compounded by the vanishing areas of green spaces able to soak up rainfall and a 800,000 population increase predicted by 2016.

Here’s another movie of a blocked drain London City Drains cctv survey.

In this example our London drain engineer was making a cctv survey of a 4 inch diameter earthenware/cast iron drain at a home in London.

As the cctv survey footage shows, the drain is misaligned, meaning the section of drain pipe must be replaced to prevent a future drain blockage or flooding problem.

The drain survey video footage, drain survey inspection report and drain schematic can be viewed on our london cctv drain inspection survey page.

Alternatively you can download just the drain inspection video by clicking on this link:

Off set drain, cctv drain inspection video - Greater London

London’s Sewer System - Blocked drain london - london drainage history, advice and tips

Over 2,800 million litres of waste produced every day
349 sewage treatment works
Over 2,400 sewage pumping stations
Over 67,700 km (42,000 miles) of sewers
Europe’s largest sewage treatment works at Beckton, East London

Hot cooking fat solidifies when poured down the plughole. Each year over 1000 tonnes of fat cause 36,000 sewer and drain blockages. Dispose of the fat by letting it set in an old tin, and put in a bin.
 
Until around 1800 the river Thames had supported a large fishing industry, which caught and sold a wide range of species, including lobsters and salmon. But by 1805 only 150,000 cesspits had been built to serve London’s one million inhabitants and within a decade many householders had begun to illegally connect their overflowing cesspits to surface water drains which flowed into the river Thames, the main source of drinking water for London. The rising tide of sewage rendered it virtually lifeless - the river began to smell, especially in hot weather.
The state of the river became a well-publicised scandal that resulted in the Public Health Act of 1848. This established the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers. The new Commission quickly ordered a major survey of the London sewers, which were found to be inadequate and in major need of repair.

Outbreaks of cholera had occurred in 1832 but in 1849 a further outbreak, during which the death toll was estimated at 2,000 Londoners per week, prompted Dr John Snow and William Farr to conduct a study of the Broad Street Public Well in Golden Square, Soho. As a result, they realised contaminated water caused cholera and not “foul vapours” in the air as had been widely believed.

In an attempt to curb disease the Government passed the 1852 Metropolis Water Act. This introduced a number of measures including making the slow-sand filtration of water and the covering of service reservoirs mandatory and also ensuring that, in order to avoid proximity to sewage outfalls, the abstraction of water only took place above Teddington Lock on the River Thames.

In around 1854, the cash-strapped Commission of Sewers was replaced by the Metropolitan Board of Works whose Chief Engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, devised a sewage interception scheme designed to solve London’s sewage problem. Bazalgette planned to construct large intercepting sewers to collect flows from the existing river outfalls and convey the waste to East London. Here it could be stored in storage lagoons for up to 9 hours and released into the River on the ebb tide flow to the sea.

Bazalgette’s scheme was initially rejected on the grounds of cost, but in June 1858 the stench from the river Thames became so bad that it became impossible to continue business in the Houses of Parliament and action was demanded. As a result, the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, rushed through an act allowing the Board of Works to raise the money to pay for the works by imposing charges on Londoners. Bazalgette’s plans had been so well honed that he was able to begin at once and by 1874 the system was fully operational.

We’ve uploaded a cctv video of a drain inspection survey to the London City Drains website.

In this case, the surveyed drain was a earthenware/PVC construct - we found the drain to be in good condition with some silt build up.

You can download the drain survey video from the London City Drains homepage, or direct by clicking on this link:

London City Drains, drain inspection cctv survey video

One of the biggest technical advances to improve blocked drain clearing services in London, is the implementation of cctv drain survey techniques. This allows us to look inside drains and make a damage assessment without the need for expensive drain excavation.

In this way, experienced drainage engineers are able to save you a lot of time and money by quickly diagnosing your drainage problem and deciding on the best course of action. In addition to drawing on their experience, drainage engineers can get confirming evidence of whether you drain problem can be fixed with drain jet cleaning [drain jetting] alone, or if drain excavation and repair is necessary.

Plus cctv drain and sewer surveys are great for the customer - in addition our drainage engineer’s advice you can see the problem yourself on the cctv survey footage of your problem sewer or drain.

To give you a better idea, we’re currently working to add footage of our previous cctv drain surveys to the London City Drains website.

You’ll be able to see clips from real cctv drain and sewer surveys in London.

Hopefully the streaming video feed of ‘what goes down the drain’ will be available on the London City Drains website later this week - watch this space!!