High Pressure Drain Jetting in Greenwich — Fat, Grease and Roots Cleared

Greenwich drains fail for structural reasons as much as for domestic ones. The public network under this borough was built to pump rather than to flow, it is still largely 19th-century brick, and the ground it runs through does not let much of the rain go anywhere else. That combination produces narrow, scaled runs that block in heavy weather and stay blocked. Jetting is the right first tool because it removes what is in the pipe; if the pipe itself is the problem, a camera survey tells you that before you spend again.

The Network Under South Of The River

South of the river, London's low-level sewer runs to Deptford for pumping, and the Bermondsey branch joins it at High Street, Deptford. The pumping station that makes that work, Greenwich Pumping Station and Deptford Pumping Station until about 1986, was built in 1864-65 in London stock brick in the Italianate style as part of Bazalgette's scheme. It lifted sewage 18 feet into the Southern Outfall Sewer, it is operated by Thames Water, and the site is Grade II listed.

The same site carries a shaft for the Thames Tideway Greenwich connection tunnel, 4.5 km long, which links into the 25 km Tideway Tunnel. Thames Water is also opening more than twenty new pumping stations across London, so the arrangement of the network in and around the borough is being changed at the same time as the old stock is coming under more load. None of that reaches the private drain inside your boundary, but all of it explains why the public side of the system behaves the way it does when it backs up.

Where The Water Actually Sits

The borough's surface water strategy records that a large part of Greenwich away from the Thames overlies London Clay, while land adjoining the Thames and other river corridors overlies Alluvium and River Terrace deposits. London Clay is effectively impermeable, so rainfall that does not run off roofs and pavements stays where it lands and has to be carried by drains.

The same strategy records that the Drain London project identified 12 Critical Drainage Areas in the borough, including one at Cutty Sark. In those areas the surface water system was already over capacity when the map was drawn. That is the context for a drain that blocks every time it rains hard: the private run, the gully and the public system are all asked to do more at the same moment.

Jetting On Victorian Brick Drains In Charlton And Blackheath

The small terraced housing in the northern and western parts of the borough sits on exactly the brick barrel and clay pipework that jetting handles well. The Rectory Field appraisal in Charlton records that almost all the buildings are small Victorian terraced houses of yellow or mixed London stock under slate roofs, built in three phases: early Victorian before 1867, mid-Victorian after 1867, and late Victorian by the end of the 19th century. Three build phases across a few streets means three generations of drain laid over three generations of drain, and the later work is often the part that has failed.

The conservation areas in the borough include West Greenwich, designated 1968, East Greenwich, designated 1992, and Blackheath, alongside Rectory Field. Conservation controls change what you can do to a frontage, not what you can do to a pipe. Jetting leaves the buildings untouched, which is why it is the right technique here and excavation on a restricted frontage would not be.

Licences, Suspensions And Getting The Lorry In

Working on the public highway in Greenwich requires a street works licence, also known as a Section 50 licence, under the Highways Act 1980 and the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991. Highway excavation is granted only to a street works accredited contractor or accredited developer, and starting street works without a licence is an offence. Jetting itself involves no excavation, but the vehicle still needs a lawful place to stand.

For that, the council charges £66.40 for each bay per day plus a non-refundable administration fee of £66.40, applied for at least 10 working days before the suspension is needed, with a street plan required for business applications. That lead time is the constraint to plan around: book the engineer, then apply. Thames Water does carry out connection and main works in the borough under temporary parking restrictions made by the council, so if the work is on the public side the parking is dealt with differently and is worth asking about early.

What It Costs And What You End Up With

High-pressure jetting in Greenwich typically costs between £150 and £350. That price is fixed and agreed before the work starts, with no callout fee from the attending engineer added. You get the run cleaned out, the solids removed rather than loosened, a check that the line runs clear afterwards, and a straight answer on whether the blockage pattern points at a structural defect that cleaning cannot fix. If it does, our CCTV drain survey service is the next step rather than another clear-out.

Last Updated: 23 September 2026