What Is Drain Descaling and When Do You Need It

How scale builds up in drains

Limescale from hard water, combined with grease and soap residue, gradually coats the inside of a pipe. Unlike a single blockage caused by an object stuck in the drain, this build up narrows the whole pipe over months or years.

This is especially common in older cast iron and clay drainage, and in kitchen waste pipes that regularly carry fat and food residue.

Signs a drain needs descaling

• Water draining more slowly than it used to, without a single obvious blockage
• Recurring blockages in the same section of pipe
• Gurgling sounds from sinks or toilets as water struggles past the narrowed section
• A CCTV drain survey showing heavy scale on the pipe wall

How descaling is carried out

Descaling is usually done with high pressure water jetting fitted with a specialist descaling head, which chips and cuts away the hardened deposits without damaging the pipe. In some cases mechanical rodding heads are used first to break up the thickest sections of scale.

For heavily scaled pipes it can take more than one pass to bring the pipe back to a usable diameter, and a CCTV survey before and after the work gives a clear picture of the improvement.

Domestic and commercial cases

In a domestic setting, descaling is often carried out on kitchen waste runs or on older properties with cast iron drainage nearing the end of its working life. In commercial premises, descaling is common in catering environments where fat and grease build up quickly, and in properties on hard water areas across parts of Essex.

Booking a descaling visit

If your drains are running slowly or blocking repeatedly despite regular unblocking, descaling may resolve the underlying cause rather than treating the symptoms. We carry out drain descaling alongside CCTV surveys and jetting across London and Essex, including 24 hour emergency call outs where needed.