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15 years of plumbing in Kempton Park
CCTV Drain Inspection
Kempton Park
CCTV drain inspection in Kempton Park puts a camera down the line so you see the root, crack or collapse, and how far along it sits, before anything is dug up.
Six faults a drain camera inspection puts on screen
Each is noted with its distance from the access point, so a repair opens only the section that needs it.
Root intrusion
Roots get in at joints and cracks and grow into a mat that catches paper and fat. The camera shows where they enter the pipe.
Cracks and breaks
A cracked or broken pipe leaks into the ground around it and can draw soil in. The footage shows how long the damaged stretch is.
Open or displaced joints
A joint that has pulled apart or dropped leaves a lip that snags debris. The camera shows the step a rod keeps catching on.
Sags holding water
A section that has settled holds standing water and silt where the pipe should fall away. Debris collects there between clearings.
Stormwater connections
A gutter downpipe or yard drain tied into the sewer is what Ekurhuleni's planners call an illegal connection. The camera finds where it joins.
The route and the record
Where the line runs and where it meets the next pipe, with a recording of the run and each fault marked by distance.
Residents asked for cameras in the sewer
In July 2024 residents of Aeroparque Street in Bonaero Park told the Kempton Express that three sewer lines had burst at manholes in their street, a problem they said had run for about ten years. One resident asked for a survey: "I would like the municipality to survey the sewage line. They can put cameras underground that may assist in determining the cause of all of this and also need to put new pipes." The City did not comment to the paper.
The bigger fix for the area has not landed either. A sewer project meant to end the failures in Bonaero Park, Pomona and Serengeti, with Begonia Street among the worst hit, grew from a R25 million budget to more than R39 million. In April 2026 Rudie Heyneke of OUTA, the advocacy group, told the Kempton Express: "This is not a delayed project, it is a failed one." The paper reported that wastewater was reaching the wetlands at Blaauwpan and in Bonaero Park.
Ekurhuleni's own planners described the mechanism years earlier. The 2015 spatial plan for Region B, which takes in part of Kempton Park, put stormwater in the sewers down to "illegal direct stormwater to sewer connections and infiltration through breaks in an ageing sewerage network", and noted "backlogs on the maintenance of the existing sewer infrastructure". It called removing property owners' direct connections "the cheapest intervention measure". Neither a break nor a connected downpipe can be seen from the surface.
The same faults turn up on private lines: a cracked pipe, a joint that has opened, roots, a downpipe tied into the sewer. A drain camera inspection shows which one it is and how far from the access point it sits. That matters once the damage reaches an insurer, because Absa's homeowners policy, for one, excludes "loss or damage resulting from a lack of maintenance, gradual deterioration, or wear and tear". A dated recording shows the assessor the pipe as it was found, rather than leaving it to two people's descriptions.
Footage is evidence before it is a repair. It lets you choose between rodding, a patch repair and a new section with the fault in front of you, and it gives the City a picture to work from if the problem sits in its connecting sewer rather than on your property. On Aeroparque Street the residents had to ask for a camera. On your own line you can have one put down before a single paving brick is lifted.
Before paying for a trench, ask to see the inside of the pipe. A recording with each fault marked by distance lets you, your insurer and the City look at the same evidence before anything is dug.
The reason for filming, and what is usually behind it
Read across each row: why the line gets filmed, the fault most often behind it, and what the footage settles.
Drain camera work, Kempton Park properties
| What you notice | What it usually is | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| The same drain blocks every few months | Roots at a joint, or a sag where debris settles | Camera from the nearest access point, the fault marked by distance |
| Paving or lawn sinking along the drain line | A broken pipe leaking into the ground beneath | Camera to find the break before any paving is lifted |
| A sewage smell in the yard with no blockage | A cracked pipe or an open joint below ground | Footage of the full run to the street connection |
| Rods snag at the same point every time | A displaced joint or a partly collapsed section | Camera to see whether the pipe is still open or has collapsed |
| Plans to pave, extend or build over a drain | Route and condition of the line not known | Survey with the route marked out and the recording kept |
A line standing full of sewage has to be cleared before the camera can see much of it.
Four commitments on every camera inspection
Each answers a common complaint about plumbers: being charged for a guess, or digging that turned out to be in the wrong place.
Filming priced on the phone-back
You hear what the inspection costs before anyone drives out, and whether the line may need clearing first so the camera can see.
You watch the screen
The picture is shown to you on site as the camera moves along the pipe. Whether you get a copy of the recording is agreed before the inspection starts.
No trench quoted blind
Excavation or a new pipe section is quoted only after the camera has shown the fault and how far along the line it sits.
Questions answered later
If your insurer, your body corporate or the City asks about the footage after the visit, send the question through the same form and it is answered from the inspection notes.
How a drain gets filmed
The price is agreed before the camera goes in, and the findings come before any repair quote.
Request it online
Use the form and say why you want the line filmed: repeat blockages, sinking paving, a smell, or plans to build over it.
Talk through access
A plumber phones you back about the access points, such as a gully, a rodding eye or an inspection chamber, and explains the visit charge before booking.
Camera down the line
The camera is pushed from the access point toward the street connection while you watch. Each fault is noted with its distance.
Findings, then options
You get the recording and a short written note of what was found and where. Repair options are priced separately, and you choose.
Related work in Kempton Park
Questions about filming a drain in Kempton Park
Send anything else through the call-out form, and the plumber who phones back will answer it.
Is the camera inspection charged separately from clearing the blockage?
Yes, each is priced as its own line. The call-out charge is explained on the phone-back, and the inspection and any clearing are agreed with you before the work starts.
If the line is standing full, it may need clearing before the camera can see anything, and you are told that before you agree. The plumbing prices page explains how a quote should be laid out.
Is CCTV drain inspection the same thing as a drain camera inspection?
Yes. Both names describe a small waterproof camera on a flexible push rod, fed into the drain from a gully, a rodding eye or an inspection chamber while the picture shows on a screen above ground.
A "CCTV drain survey" is the same job again. What matters is that you see the picture as it is taken and keep the recording afterwards.
Our main drain passes under three units in the complex. Can it be filmed from the common property?
Where the line has an inspection chamber or a rodding eye on common property, the camera goes in from there and travels under the units without anyone having to enter them. Each fault is noted by its distance from that point, which tells the trustees whose section is affected before any owner is disturbed.
The recording then goes into the body corporate's maintenance file. See commercial plumbing for complex and body corporate work.
My insurer wants proof the pipe broke suddenly. Will footage help?
It helps by showing the pipe exactly as it was found. Home insurance generally pays for sudden damage and excludes gradual deterioration and wear and tear, and a recording lets the assessor judge the pipe directly instead of from a description.
Ask your insurer before any repair whether its assessor wants to see the damage first. The footage and the written note of each fault go with your claim, but whether the claim is paid is the insurer's decision.
The paving above the drain has dropped. Should the line be filmed before it is lifted?
Yes. A dip along a drain line can mean a broken pipe washing soil away beneath it, and the camera shows where the break is so that only that section is opened.
If the footage shows the drain is sound, the cause lies somewhere else, such as a leaking water supply pipe, and leak detection is the next step.
We want to build over the old drain line. Can the camera show where it runs?
Yes. The run is followed from chamber to chamber, and the distance to each bend and junction is recorded, so the route can be marked out before the plans are drawn.
Rerouting a drain is a change to the drainage installation, which needs the City's written approval under its Water Services By-laws. The footage is useful for the plans as well as for the builder.
Will the camera pick up a gutter downpipe that was plumbed into the sewer?
Yes. A connection shows on screen as a junction where no house fitting should be, and running water down the downpipe confirms it. Ekurhuleni's Region B plan names these "illegal direct stormwater to sewer connections" as one cause of stormwater in the sewers.
Once found, the downpipe is turned to discharge to the ground or a stormwater channel instead. That is usually a small job.
The camera shows a sound pipe. Was the inspection wasted?
No. A clean run rules the drain out, which is worth knowing before anyone digs up or replaces a pipe with nothing wrong with it.
The search then moves to the real cause, such as a leaking supply pipe or a fault in the municipal sewer, and you keep a recording showing your line was sound on that date.
Where we work
Every suburb inside Kempton Park, from Birchleigh North down to Bonaero Park on the airport fence.
- Kempton Park CBD
- Allen Grove
- Aston Manor
- Birch Acres
- Birchleigh
- Birchleigh North
- Bonaero Park
- Bredell
- Cresslawn
- Croydon
- Edleen
- Esther Park
- Glen Erasmia
- Glen Marais
- Isando
- Kempton Park West
- Nimrod Park
- Norkem Park
- Pomona
- Rhodesfield
- Serengeti
- Spartan
- Terenure
- Van Riebeeck Park