Buying an older coastal house and checking its drains

5 November 2026

Buying an older house on the north-east coast usually means falling for something: a view across the bay, thick stone walls, a garden that catches the evening light. The drains rarely feature in the daydream, and yet in a house of a certain age they can be one of the costlier things to put right after the keys change hands.

What the Home Report leaves out

In Scotland the seller provides a Home Report, which includes a survey of the property. It is a valuable document, but the survey is a visual inspection. The surveyor notes obvious signs of trouble, but will not normally run a camera through the pipes under the garden. Old clay drains can be cracked, displaced at their joints or full of roots without anything showing above ground, and the first wet winter in a new home is a poor time to find out.

What a camera can show

A CCTV drain survey sends a camera through the pipework from an inspection chamber, recording as it goes. A push-rod camera suits the smaller pipes around a house, while a crawler unit can travel along larger drains. The survey records the pipe material, the joints, cracks, roots, displaced sections and deposits, and the points where the view is interrupted. For a country house with private drainage, the footage can be read alongside plans for the pipework leading to a septic tank or treatment plant.

Where its limits lie

A survey has limits, and a good surveyor is open about them. The camera cannot see through standing water or past a solid blockage, and it cannot go anywhere without a way in. Pipes that never had chambers fitted may only be reachable from one end. A sensible buyer reads the report alongside the list of what could not be inspected.

Drain CCTV explains what a CCTV drain survey can and cannot establish for property purchases, building work and recurring drainage faults, which is a useful thing to understand before booking one.

Before the builders arrive

Many buyers of older coastal houses plan changes: an extension, a converted outbuilding, a new driveway. Knowing where the drains run before those plans are drawn avoids unpleasant surprises when the digger arrives. Building over a public sewer requires Scottish Water's consent, and a private drain buried under a new floor slab is very hard to reach afterwards.

A survey can replace some guesswork with a record of what was visible. That knowledge can go into the offer, the plans or the decision to walk away, and any of those is better than learning about a collapsed pipe from a damp patch on the lawn.