Drainage maintenance
Scheduled drainage
checks — keep manholes
and gullies running properly
Planned drainage maintenance for landlords, commercial sites and larger domestic properties across Kent. Jetting, CCTV, gully clearance and manhole inspection on a written schedule.
What it covers
Drainage maintenance done quietly, before the manhole backs up onto the patio
Drainage systems are almost entirely invisible until they fail. A gully fills with leaves over autumn, a manhole grows a root, a long-radius bend silts up — and the first you know about it is foul water surfacing on the lawn or the patio after a heavy weekend's rain. Scheduled maintenance prevents almost all of it.
Our drainage maintenance contracts cover gully clearance, manhole inspection, jetting of internal and main runs, CCTV verification, root cutting at known problem joints, and rainwater downpipe and soakaway checks. Visits run on a written schedule tailored to the property and the use.
Typical schedules are quarterly for commercial kitchens, six-monthly for moderate commercial and care, and annual for landlord portfolios and larger domestic properties with mature trees, multiple gullies or older clay pipework. Every visit produces an itemised report.
What happens if you wait
Drainage doesn't fail gradually — it fails on the rainiest Saturday of the year
A partial blockage you've been ignoring becomes a full backup the moment the weather does anything unusual. Three weeks of mild build-up plus one heavy storm equals foul water on the patio. PPM is simply pushing the curve back before it reaches that point.
Backed-up manholes overflow into gardens, garages and ground-floor rooms — biohazard cleanup routinely runs into thousands.
Commercial kitchens that miss scheduled FOG management fail inspections and risk hygiene-rating drops.
Leaking and overflowing drains contribute directly to subsidence — insurers increasingly scrutinise maintenance records.
Common mistakes we fix every week
- Annual single-visit jetting on a commercial kitchen that needed quarterly attention.
- Skipping gully clearance over autumn because 'it always coped before'.
- Letting a single root-affected joint run for years without lining it.
- Not keeping written records of what was inspected and what was cleared.
- Coordinating four different contractors instead of using one accountable provider.
- Skipping CCTV on annual visits because 'we did one last year'.
Our process
A predictable, step-by-step system — no surprises, no upsells
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STEP 01Onboarding survey
Walk the property, locate all manholes and gullies, document the existing system.
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STEP 02Schedule & contract
Fixed annual price, written schedule, named contact, clear scope per visit.
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STEP 03Scheduled visits
Engineer arrives on the agreed date with jetter, CCTV and rods as required.
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STEP 04Itemised report
Written report after each visit — what was cleared, what was checked, what's flagged.
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STEP 05Quoted remedials
Any defects flagged as a separate fixed-price quote — no bundling, no surprises.
What you get
Concrete outcomes — not vague promises
Fixed price written into the contract — no per-visit surprises.
Properties on PPM typically see emergency drainage call-outs drop 70%+ year on year.
Reports kept on file for EHO, landlord licensing, mortgage and insurance audit purposes.
No finger-pointing between contractors — single point of responsibility.
Maintenance customers get priority booking on any emergency between scheduled visits.
We'll tell you when a property genuinely doesn't need quarterly visits — annual is fine for most domestic landlords.
Technical detail
What's actually checked on each visit — and how we set the schedule
A drainage maintenance visit is not 'turn up, look in the manhole, leave'. It's a methodical sweep of the entire above- and below-ground drainage system with the right kit to actually do something about anything found.
Manhole inspection — the system map
Every visit starts at the manholes. We lift each cover, check flow, identify the upstream and downstream runs, and confirm the system map. Anything backing up, silted, root-affected or showing structural defects is logged and either cleared on the visit or quoted for remedial.
Gully and rainwater clearance
Surface water gullies, rainwater downpipes and soakaways are checked and cleared as part of every visit. Leaves and silt build up faster than most owners expect, and a single blocked gully can flood a driveway in heavy rain.
- Gully grate lift, clear and reinstate
- Rainwater downpipe rod and rinse
- Soakaway inspection where access allows
- Catchpit and silt-trap clearance
Internal waste and main-run jetting
Internal waste runs (kitchen drains, washroom waste, bathroom downstairs runs) are jetted on a schedule that matches the use. Main external runs are jetted with verification CCTV at least annually — more often for commercial kitchens.
CCTV verification and reporting
Each scheduled visit ends with a CCTV pass on the main run to confirm clearance and to flag any developing defect — roots, cracks, displaced joints. Footage and a written report are saved to file, with photographs of any flagged defect for follow-up quoting.
Frequently asked
Straight answers to the questions Kent homeowners ask us most
How often should drains be maintained?+
Quarterly for high-throughput commercial kitchens, six-monthly for moderate commercial and care, annually for landlord portfolios and larger domestic properties. We'll write a schedule that fits the property and its use.
How much does a drainage PPM contract cost?+
From a few hundred pounds per year for a single domestic property to several thousand for multi-site commercial. Fixed annual price agreed in advance.
What's included in the cost?+
Scheduled visits, jetting on agreed runs, gully clearance, manhole inspection, CCTV verification on main runs, and written reports. Remedial work (repairs, lining, excavation) is quoted separately.
Will PPM stop emergencies entirely?+
No — but it dramatically reduces them. The emergencies that still happen are usually unrelated to scope (impact damage, third-party blockages from neighbouring properties).
Can you cover a commercial portfolio?+
Yes. Many of our PPM customers are multi-site — single coordinator, single monthly or quarterly invoice, individual site reports.
What if I find a defect between visits?+
PPM customers get priority emergency response and a discounted call-out rate between scheduled visits. Most defects fixed within 48 hours.
Will you keep records for EHO?+
Yes — every visit produces an itemised report that's kept on file for the contract duration and formatted to satisfy EHO, landlord licensing and major UK insurer requirements.
What areas do you cover?+
Kent, Medway, South-East London and the wider Home Counties for both reactive and PPM contracts.
Areas we cover
Schedule the drains — and stop the surprises.
Free site survey across Kent. Fixed annual price. Written schedule and itemised reports on every visit.
Fully insured · Workmanship guarantee · 7 days a week