Drain repairs in Christchurch, done once and done right.

Signs a drain needs repairing, not clearing

A drain that blocks once has usually just blocked. A drain that blocks again within months is telling you something about the pipe. Other signs point the same way. A patch of lawn that stays green and wet in dry weather. A smell near a gully trap that does not go away. Paving or soil that has started to sink along the line of the drain. Toilets that gurgle when a basin empties.

None of those is proof on its own, which is why we look before we dig. A CCTV drain inspection shows the fault, how far along the line it is, and how deep. That turns a guess into a defined job with a defined price.

What breaks drains in Christchurch

Many older Christchurch homes still drain through earthenware pipe. It was laid in short lengths, so there is a joint every metre or less, and each joint is a place a tree root can find. Once a root is in, it grows, catches paper and fat, and the line blocks. Clearing it removes the blockage and leaves the way in open.

Ground movement does the rest. Pipes settle, joints pull apart and step out of line, and a length can lose its fall so that water and solids sit in a dip. Shallow pipes under driveways crack under vehicle weight. Each fault looks different on camera and each has a different repair.

Repair one spot or relay the run

A single cracked joint or one root entry in an otherwise sound pipe is a spot repair. We dig down at that point, cut out the damaged section, fit new pipe with sealed joints and backfill. The rest of the line stays as it is.

When the camera shows fault after fault along the same run, patching one of them leaves the others to fail next. Then the honest recommendation is to relay the length in new pipe. It is a bigger job once, in place of a small job every year. We show you the footage and you make the call. Laying a complete new line is covered on our drainlaying page.

How we dig, and what gets put back

Most of what makes a drain repair expensive is what sits on top of the pipe. So we locate the fault first and open up only what we need to. Where the drain runs close to other buried services we can use hydro excavation, which exposes the pipe with water and suction and does not put a digger bucket near a cable.

Reinstatement is part of the job, not an extra. Lawn is put back level, concrete is cut square and repoured, and pavers are relaid. Repair work on sanitary drains is certified work, so it is signed off by a certifying drainlayer.

Whose pipe is it

As a rule the drains inside your boundary are yours to maintain and the council looks after the main. Where the line between the two sits is not always obvious from above ground. A camera inspection shows which side of the boundary a fault is on, which settles who needs to fix it before anyone spends money.