December 20, 2024
What to do if your water pipes freeze or your drains flood
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Domestic
Drainage and subsidence problems can be some of the biggest challenges any homeowner will ever face. The faults, by their nature, are often hidden from view, making them difficult to detect and put right.
Likewise, a residential property’s water supply system may function perfectly well for many years, before failing suddenly, causing a big flood that can result in serious damage and major costs.
Catalyst has the answer to these challenges with a full range of services to assist home owners with investigating drainage, subsidence and water supply concerns and putting in place high quality solutions.
Our expertise
Catalyst is a UK leader in the drainage, subsidence and clean water services for domestic properties. Our experts advise owners of many kinds of property from small bungalows to large high-value detached homes.
Why choose Catalyst – independent advice
Catalyst delivers services through a carefully created and maintained managed network of trusted service partners. All our contractors are rigorously vetted for financial stability, service quality and business probity before they can join our network and are then regularly audited.
This provides our customers with 5 key advantages:
- Our advice and project proposals are based on the best independent expertise.
- We will select the best contractors with precisely the right skills and experience for your project so you can be sure of a quality outcome.
- Catalyst will project manage all work carried out from start to finish.
- We provide transparent information and clear communication so you can be confident of the progress of work carried out on your behalf.
- We have no expensive overheads, so we can negotiate fair and controlled prices on your behalf.
Domestic property drainage
Drainage problems in residential property can occur in many different ways. For example, they may only emerge gradually as water from a faulty drain seeps into foundations or basements, causing damp, mould growth, structural damage or sudden flooding.
Or a home may be inundated by a catastrophic flood caused by the failure or surcharging of a public sewer or because a nearby water course bursts its banks during heavy rainfall.
Our domestic property drainage services can help identify problems before they occur. If a home is affected by a drainage fault, we can quickly diagnose the cause of that too and put in place robust remedial measures to ensure it does not happen again.
Catalyst domestic drainage services
- CCTV drainage surveys
- Sewer and drain inspections
- Drainage flow testing
- Drainage system capacity modelling
- Drain cleaning and unblocking
- Drainage root cutting
- Drainage laser profiling
- Drain and sewer excavation and repair
- Drain and sewer replacement
- Drainage pipe no-dig patch lining
- Drainage pipe lining
Septic tanks and small treatment plants
Catalyst provides a range of services for domestic homeowners whose properties are not connected to the main sewer system and instead rely on septic tanks, cess pools or small water treatment plants.
These facilities require regular inspection, emptying and cleaning to work effectively and provide long and reliable service.
Our services for homeowners with independent sewerage systems include:
- Septic tank inspection
- Septic tank cleaning
- Septic tank emptying
- Septic tank maintenance and repair
- Septic tank installation
- Small water treatment plant cleaning and emptying
- Small water treatment plant repair
- Small water treatment plant installation
- Drainage field investigation and planning
- Drainage field installation
- Drainage field maintenance
Septic tanks – general binding rules
Catalyst can help residential home owners who have septic tanks make sure their properties comply with new regulations called general binding rules for small sewage discharge into the ground.
The rules do not allow wastewater from a standard septic tank to be discharged directly into water courses. The Environment Agency (EA) is giving homeowners, and businesses, time to upgrade their septic tanks to ensure they comply with the regulations.
Catalyst can advise domestic homeowners on the most cost-effective plan to upgrade their septic tanks to ensure they are not at risk of prosecution and potentially heavy fines when the new regulations are enforced.
This may involve adaptation and upgrade of the current septic tank system, replacing it with a more advanced small water treatment plant, or there may now be an opportunity to connect to the main sewer system. Whatever it is, you can trust Catalyst to provide the best advice.
Drainage consultancy
Catalyst can also provide domestic homeowners with independent drainage consultancy services covering a wide range of issues, including:
- Drainage system design for domestic home newbuilds.
- Drainage system design for home extensions or backland or garden infill development.
- Investigation of drainage problems, such as low flow rates and intermittent sewage flooding.
- Investigation of flooding risks, such as sewer and water course surcharging.
- Flooding alleviation and mitigation, including attenuation systems.
- Dispute resolution – for example with other property owners or businesses, including water companies, over drainage issues.
- Identifying a wide range of specific problems, such as the misconnection of a foul water sewer into a surface water drain.
Domestic property subsidence
Subsidence can be one of the most pernicious and devastating problems to affect domestic properties. Homeowner can trust Catalyst’s advice on this issue. We aim to provide the most robust cost-effective solutions.
Our subsidence investigation and remediation team is led by Paul Duddle, a member of the Subsidence Forum, a national body on the topic, and a recognised UK leader in the field of subsidence services.
Subsidence services we provide for homeowners include:
- Site investigations.
- Structural surveys.
- Historical land use analysis.
- Laboratory testing.
- Crack and level monitoring.
- Drain surveying and repair.
- Building repair and strengthening.
Domestic property subsidence consultancy
We can act as independent experts on behalf of domestic property owners in resolving disputes related to subsidence with third parties, including: property neighbours, water utility companies, insurance companies, national and local government agencies, estate agents, property landlords, property sellers, builders, and property developers.
Domestic water supply
Catalyst provides a full range of water supply pipe maintenance and replacement services for homeowners. From leak detection to renewing supply pipes, our qualified and experienced water engineers are ready to assist, quickly and professionally.
Leak detection services for homeowners
Water leaks can be highly damaging to houses and other residential properties. When a leak is detected, intervention has to be fast and decisive to investigate and resolve the problem.
Catalyst is an experienced provider of leak detection services. We can deploy an array of diagnostic methods. Many are remote-access technologies to reduce the impact of investigations on the fabric of a house.
Our leak detection services include:
- Thermal imaging.
- Acoustic profiling.
- Tracer gas analysis.
- Correlation leak detection.
- Damp meter detection.
The cost of leaks – who pays?
Leaks can occur anywhere along a pipe that takes water to your home. The precise location of that leak will determine who pays for the repair needed and the damage the leak may cause.
This is determined, in most cases, by the location of the water stop cock. All pipes before the household stop cock are the responsibility of the water company. Supply pipes from the stop cock into the home are the responsibility of the property owner.
Catalyst will give clear advice about who is responsible for a defective pipe and so who should repair or replace it, and pay any clean-up and recovery costs, giving customers clarity and peace of mind.
Domestic home water pipe repair and replacement
Our teams can also repair or replace water pipes as required. We can also extend or modernise water pipes, for example as part of plans to extend or refurbish a domestic property. In many cases, we can use ‘no-dig’ installation technology to reduce disruption to your property and reduce costs.
Water damage remediation
Catalyst can provide a full range of water damage remediation services, either funded directly by the homeowner or via an insurance claim. This may include flood water removal, specialist drying, and after flood building repairs, including installation of new flood defences and mitigation measures, and redecoration.
