Drainage for businesses and commercial premises

Our commercial work covers shops, cafés and restaurants, takeaways, offices, rented and managed residential blocks, and small industrial units. The drains on these sites work harder than those in a house, with more people using them and, in many cases, more grease, silt or debris going in.

Kitchen waste water carries fat that cools and sets on the pipe walls further down the line. Over weeks it narrows the bore until one busy service tips it into a full blockage. Grease traps and interceptors help, but only if they are emptied and the pipes beyond them are kept clean.

Planned cleaning with high-pressure water jetting strips that build-up before it becomes a blockage. Booking it at a quiet time is far easier to live with than an emergency in the middle of a lunch rush, and it gives you a record that the drains are being looked after.

Outside, gullies and channel drains collect silt, grit, leaves and litter washed off hard surfaces. Once the pots fill, rain sits on the surface instead of running away. Emptying gullies and jetting the connecting pipes keeps yards, service areas and car parks clear, and reduces the chance of water finding its way into a building during heavy rain.

In parades of shops, mixed-use buildings and blocks of flats, several premises often feed into the same drain. A blockage that keeps returning may come from someone else's waste, or from a defect in the shared pipe. A CCTV drain survey shows where the problem starts, which is the first step to getting the right person to deal with it.

We agree access times before we arrive, so work can be planned for before opening, after closing or during quieter periods where that suits. Tell us about anything we need to know on site, such as deliveries, customer areas to keep clear or keyholders, and we will plan around it.

Before starting, we confirm which fittings will be out of use and for roughly how long, so staff can be told in advance. Where a job needs more than one visit, such as cleaning followed by a repair, we try to keep the gap short and the disruption to a minimum on each occasion.

Recorded survey footage and a written summary give landlords, managing agents and insurers a clear account of the condition of a drain and where the fault lies. That makes decisions about who pays and what work is approved much quicker, and gives everyone the same information to work from.

The more we know before arriving, the quicker the visit. Let us know how we get on site and who will meet us, whether you have drain plans or past survey reports, which sinks, toilets or gullies are affected, and whether the problem is constant or comes and goes. Persistent smells are worth mentioning too; our guide to drain smells covers the usual causes.

If the problem only shows at certain times, such as during a busy service or after heavy rain, say so; that pattern is often the best clue to the cause.

Send a commercial enquiry with your site details, or call George on 07799 153198. For coverage, see areas we cover.