The Growing Concern
When Julie B took over as operations manager at a Bridge Road Warehouse in Chertsey three years ago, she inherited what seemed like a well-run facility. The 15,000 square foot warehouse served as a regional hub for several retailers, handling inbound shipments and dispatching goods across Surrey and beyond.
“It was a dream job at first,” Julie remembers. “We had a great team, reliable clients, and the warehouse itself seemed solid. But there was this one niggling issue that kept coming up – puddles in the yard after heavy rain.”
Initially, Julie didn’t think much of it. A bit of standing water in a loading bay seemed like a minor inconvenience rather than a serious problem. But as the months passed and Britain’s weather became increasingly unpredictable, those puddles started turning into ponds.
“Last October was the wake-up call,” Julie says, her expression serious. “We had three days of torrential rain, and the water in the main loading area was ankle-deep. Drivers were refusing to reverse their lorries up to the bay because they were worried about getting stuck. We had pallets of stock sitting on the warehouse floor that we couldn’t load because the area was flooded. I was losing business, and I knew I couldn’t keep making excuses to our clients.”
The Failed Quick Fixes
Julie’s first response was to tackle what seemed like the obvious culprits. She had her maintenance team clear all the gutters, unblock the visible gullies, and remove accumulated leaves and debris from around the drainage grids.
“We spent a whole weekend cleaning everything we could see,” Julie explains. “The lads worked really hard, and I honestly thought we’d cracked it. But two weeks later, we had another downpour, and the flooding came back just as bad as before.”
She tried a local drain clearance company who jetted the main drains and assured her they’d cleared some blockages. Again, it seemed to help briefly, but the improvement didn’t last.
“I was getting increasingly stressed,” Julie admits. “Our insurance company was asking questions about why we kept reporting water ingress. One of our biggest clients – a homewares retailer – actually threatened to move their contract to a different warehouse if we couldn’t guarantee reliable loading and unloading. I was looking at potentially losing £200,000 worth of annual business.”
The frustration was compounded by not knowing what was actually wrong. Surface-level interventions weren’t working, but Julie had no idea what was happening underground.
Finding Proper Answers
A fellow warehouse manager Julie met at an industry networking event in Weybridge mentioned he’d had similar problems the previous year and had used a company called YourDrainExperts to conduct a comprehensive CCTV drain survey.
“He said it completely changed his understanding of what was wrong,” Julie recalls. “He’d been throwing money at the wrong problems because he couldn’t see what was actually happening in the pipes. The Chertsey CCTV survey showed him exactly what needed fixing.”
Julie called us the next day. After explaining the flooding pattern – particularly how it worsened after prolonged rainfall and seemed concentrated around the main loading bays – we recommended a full CCTV survey of the warehouse’s drainage system.
“I was quoted a price that seemed reasonable, especially compared to what I’d already wasted on fixes that didn’t work,” Julie says. “And they could come out within the week. At that point, I just needed answers.”
The Investigation
Our team arrived at the Chertsey warehouse on a grey Wednesday morning. Julie walked us around the site, pointing out the areas that flooded worst and showing us where water seemed to pool and refuse to drain.
“The engineers were really thorough,” Julie remembers. “They asked loads of questions – how old the warehouse was, when the drainage was last upgraded, whether we’d had any ground works done, that sort of thing. They were building a proper picture rather than just turning up and sticking a camera down a drain.”
We identified the main access points and began feeding our high-definition cameras into the drainage system. Julie watched the monitor as our cameras navigated through the underground pipes.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” she says. “You could see the inside of the pipes so clearly. And you could see immediately that something was wrong.”
The footage revealed that while the pipes weren’t completely blocked, they were significantly compromised. Years of accumulated silt, mud, and fine sediment had built up along the bottom of the drainage runs, particularly in the sections serving the loading bays where heavy vehicles constantly drove over the drains.
“The engineer paused the footage at one section and said, ‘Look here – your pipe should have this much capacity, but the silt build-up has reduced it by about forty percent,’” Julie recalls. “He explained that during normal rain, the reduced capacity was just about coping, but during heavy downpours, the system simply couldn’t handle the volume of water. That’s why we kept flooding.”
But the survey revealed additional problems that Julie hadn’t expected. Several sections of pipe showed hairline cracks and fractures – damage likely caused by the constant weight of fully-loaded lorries driving over the drainage runs day after day.
“When they showed me those cracks, I felt a bit sick,” Julie admits. “The engineer explained that while they weren’t causing problems yet, if they got worse, we could end up with collapsed drains. That would mean excavation, road closures, the whole nightmare. We’d caught it just in time.”
The Comprehensive Solution
Our engineers recommended a two-stage approach. First, high-pressure water jetting to blast away all the accumulated silt and restore the pipes to their full capacity. Second, no-dig relining of the cracked sections to reinforce them and prevent future structural failures.
“What really impressed me was how they explained everything in plain English,” Julie says. “No jargon, no trying to upsell me on things I didn’t need. Just: ‘This is what’s wrong, this is how we fix it, this is how long it’ll take, and this is what it’ll cost.’ That transparency was exactly what I needed.”
Julie approved the work immediately, and our team scheduled it for the following week, timing it to minimize disruption to the warehouse’s operations.
“They worked around our schedule,” Julie notes. “They came in early morning before the main deliveries started, and they worked efficiently. The jetting took about a day and a half – you could actually see the filthy water coming out as they cleared years of accumulated muck from the system. Then they did the relining work on the damaged sections. The whole job was done in three days.”
Testing Time
The real test came about ten days after the work was completed, when a weather front brought two days of sustained heavy rainfall to Surrey.
“I’ll be honest, I was nervous,” Julie admits with a laugh. “I kept checking the weather forecast and thinking, ‘This is it – this will show us whether it’s actually worked.’ I even came in on the Saturday morning during the worst of the rain, just to see.”
The difference was dramatic. Water drained away from the loading bays as quickly as it fell. No pooling, no flooding, no standing water preventing lorry access.
“I actually took photos and sent them to my husband,” Julie says, grinning. “He thought I’d lost the plot, sending him pictures of an empty car park. But I was just so relieved. For the first time in nearly two years, we’d had serious rainfall and our warehouse could handle it.”
Three months on, through what turned out to be one of the wettest winters on record, the drainage system has coped perfectly with everything the weather has thrown at it.
Business Secured
The resolution came just in time. The homewares retailer who’d threatened to move their contract was so impressed with how Julie had tackled the problem that they actually increased their storage requirements at the warehouse.
“They said it showed proper management – identifying a problem and fixing it properly rather than just patching it,” Julie explains. “They’ve actually sent us two additional clients who needed warehousing in the area. That one decision to get the CCTV survey done has probably secured about £400,000 worth of annual business for us.”
Julie has since arranged annual drainage surveys with YourDrainExperts as part of the warehouse’s preventative maintenance programme.
“I see it as insurance now,” she reflects. “The CCTV survey costs a few hundred quid once a year. Compare that to the business I could have lost, or the cost of emergency repairs if those cracks had turned into collapsed drains. It’s a no-brainer.”
She pauses, then adds: “The biggest lesson I learned is that you can’t fix what you can’t see. I wasted months and quite a bit of money trying different surface-level solutions because I was guessing at what was wrong. The CCTV survey gave me concrete evidence of exactly what the problem was. After that, fixing it was straightforward.”
Key Lessons for Commercial Property Managers
This Chertsey case study demonstrates several important principles:
- Persistent flooding after rainfall often indicates underlying drainage capacity issues rather than simple blockages
- Years of silt accumulation can significantly reduce drainage system capacity without causing complete blockages
- Heavy vehicle traffic over drainage pipes can cause structural damage that worsens gradually over time
- CCTV surveys provide definitive diagnosis, preventing wasted investment in ineffective solutions
- No-dig repair technologies allow structural drainage problems to be resolved without major operational disruption
- Regular preventative surveys can identify developing issues before they cause business-critical failures
- Professional drainage management protects commercial relationships and revenue streams
FAQs: Preventing Flooding at Commercial Warehouses in Chertsey
Why does my warehouse in Chertsey keep flooding after heavy rain even though the drains seem clear?
It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You’ve cleared the gullies, swept the yard drains, maybe even had someone jet the visible blockages – yet every time it rains heavily, you’re back to paddling through the loading bay.
Here’s the thing: what you can see on the surface is only part of the story. Underground, your drainage pipes might be half-full of silt and sediment that’s built up over years. From above ground, everything looks fine because water is still draining – just not fast enough when you get a proper downpour.
Think of it like a clogged artery. Your drainage system hasn’t stopped working completely; it’s just been slowly losing capacity. During light rain, the reduced pipe diameter can just about cope. But throw a heavy storm at it, and suddenly you’ve got more water coming in than can drain away, and that’s when the flooding starts.
The only way to know for certain what’s happening down there is a CCTV survey. It’s like finally being able to see what’s causing the problem instead of just guessing at fixes that might work.
How does heavy vehicle traffic damage warehouse drainage systems?
Picture this: a fully-loaded articulated lorry weighing 40 tonnes reversing up to your loading bay multiple times a day, five days a week, year after year. All that weight isn’t just pressing down on the tarmac – it’s pressing down on whatever’s underneath, including your drainage pipes.
Most warehouse drainage systems weren’t really designed with that kind of punishment in mind. Over time, the constant pressure causes tiny cracks to appear in the pipes. Joints between pipe sections can shift slightly. Older clay or concrete pipes might start to deform or compress.
None of this happens overnight – it’s gradual. You won’t notice it until one day you’ve got a proper problem on your hands. Maybe a section collapses during heavy rain, or those hairline cracks have spread and now you’re getting leaks into the surrounding ground.
The good news? A regular CCTV survey can spot these early warning signs – the small cracks before they become big problems. It’s much easier (and cheaper!) to reinforce a slightly damaged pipe than to deal with a collapsed drain that’s shut down your entire loading operation.
What is silt build-up and why does it happen in warehouse drainage systems?
Right, so imagine every lorry that drives into your yard is tracking in a bit of mud and dirt. Every rainstorm washes a bit of grit and sediment off the car park. Over months and years, all that material finds its way into your drains and settles at the bottom of the pipes.
It’s not like a blockage where you’d suddenly notice the drains have stopped working. It’s sneakier than that. The silt just gradually accumulates, millimetre by millimetre, reducing how much water your pipes can actually carry. You might not notice anything wrong for years because during normal weather, the system’s still coping – just barely.
Then you get a really heavy downpour, and suddenly your drainage can’t handle it. The pipes that should be carrying all that water away are effectively half their original size because of all the muck sitting at the bottom.
The solution is high-pressure water jetting – basically a really powerful jet wash for the inside of your pipes. It blasts away all that accumulated silt and gets your drainage back to full capacity. Honestly, you’d be amazed at the amount of muck that comes out of pipes that look fine from the outside.
Can drainage problems be fixed without digging up my warehouse car park or loading bays?
This is usually the first question we get, and I completely understand why. The thought of having to dig up your car park, close off loading bays, and lose business while contractors excavate everywhere is enough to make any warehouse manager break into a cold sweat.
The good news is that in most cases, no, we don’t need to dig. Modern drainage repair technology has come a long way.
For cracked or damaged pipes, we use something called no-dig relining. Basically, we insert a flexible liner coated with resin into your existing pipe, inflate it so it fits snugly against the pipe walls, and leave it to harden. What you end up with is essentially a brand new pipe inside your old one – stronger than the original, sealed against any cracks, and we’ve not had to dig up a single paving slab.
For silt build-up and blockages, we use high-pressure water jetting. Think of it as a pressure washer on steroids, powerful enough to blast away years of accumulated debris. Again, no digging required.
Your warehouse can keep operating throughout the repairs. Lorries can still access the loading bays. You’re not losing business. And you’re not facing a massive bill to resurface your car park afterwards.
The only time we’d typically need to excavate is if a pipe has completely collapsed – and even then, a CCTV survey done before that happens usually spots the warning signs early enough to fix it without reaching that point.
How often should commercial warehouses in Chertsey have CCTV drain surveys?
Look, I’m not going to tell you that you need surveys every month – that would be overkill and a waste of your money. But once a year? That’s what we recommend for warehouses, and here’s why.
Think about what your drainage system deals with: heavy vehicles constantly driving over it, massive roof areas funnelling rainwater into it, maybe a bit of industrial runoff depending on what you’re storing. It’s working hard every single day.
An annual survey lets you stay ahead of problems rather than reacting to emergencies. You can see if silt’s building up and get it jetted before it causes flooding. You can spot those hairline cracks we talked about before they turn into collapsed pipes. And you can schedule any maintenance during a quiet period when it suits you, not during your busiest week when a drain decides to fail.
Plus, and this is important for your bottom line, your insurance company loves documented maintenance. If you ever need to make a claim for flooding or drainage damage, having annual survey records showing you’ve been looking after the system properly makes everything much smoother.
The way I explain it to clients is this: that annual survey might cost you a few hundred quid. But one emergency repair? One lost day of operations because your loading bay’s flooded? One angry client taking their contract elsewhere? That’ll cost you thousands, easily.
Prevention is always cheaper than crisis management.
What are the business risks of ignoring warehouse drainage problems in Chertsey?
Alright, let me be straight with you about what can happen if you ignore drainage issues – and I’ve seen all of this happen to warehouse operators who kept putting off dealing with problems.
Your operations grind to a halt. Flooded loading bays mean lorries can’t reverse up to unload or load. Suddenly you’re ringing clients telling them their delivery’s delayed because you’ve got three inches of water in the yard. Not a good look.
Stock gets damaged. Water finds its way in, your client’s inventory gets wet, and now you’re facing compensation claims. I’ve known warehouse managers lose contracts over this – their client’s stock worth tens of thousands was ruined because of preventable flooding.
Someone gets hurt. Standing water is a slip hazard. One of your team or a visiting driver takes a tumble, and now you’re dealing with injury claims, Health and Safety investigations, the whole nightmare.
Your building suffers. Persistent flooding doesn’t just disappear – that water’s going somewhere. Usually it’s undermining your foundations, causing subsidence, or seeping into areas it shouldn’t be. The repair bills for that kind of structural damage make drainage repairs look like pocket change.
Clients leave. This is the big one. You might have worked with a client for years, but if you can’t guarantee reliable loading and unloading because your drainage’s dodgy, they’ll find a warehouse that can. We worked with one manager in Chertsey who nearly lost £200,000 worth of annual contracts because flooding kept disrupting operations.
Your insurance gets expensive – or disappears. Keep making flooding claims and watch your premiums rocket. Or worse, your insurer adds exclusions to your policy or refuses to renew altogether. Then you’re trying to get insurance with a history of claims, and that’s never cheap.
The thing is, all of this is avoidable. A CCTV survey shows you exactly what needs fixing before these disasters happen. It’s not sexy or exciting, but it protects your business from problems that could genuinely put you under.