Drainage, Plumbing & Water Management Feature
Reducing costly repeat drainage issues
Chris Nelson of Metro Rod discusses the importance of efficient maintenance of drainage to reduce costly repeat visits
Maintenance & Refurbishment
clear that those looking after large numbers of properties need to put in place plans to minimise issues. The problem is made worse by a lack of accurate information and reporting
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on the causes of blockages. This is leading to an increased number of repeat call outs to properties to deal with the same or similar issues, creating significant and unnecessary extra costs for providers.
THE RIGHT DRAINAGE COMPANY When appointing a drainage company to deal with and prevent blockages, there are a number of considerations to keep in mind. Firstly, it is important to ensure that the provider has experience dealing with private housing properties; this ensures that the company understands the challenges and common issues that occur. On top of providing the highest quality service in a discreet manner, it is also vital to get an assurance that engineers have received thorough training, are DBS checked, and will be courteous to tenants. In order to save costs and reduce the number of repeat issues, it is also crucial to ensure that the drainage provider has analytics software capable of creating
locked drains are a common issue in housing, and can lead to significant costs for providers and local authorities – as well as unhappy tenants. With the UK spending over £100m unblocking drains each year, it is
detailed reports on drainage issues. This means that when an engineer visits a housing property to investigate a potential blockage, the information can be relayed to both the main depot and the housing provider, detailing exactly what is causing the blockage and how it will be solved.
USING ANALYTICS TO REDUCE COSTS Each time an issue is logged by an engineer at a property, all the data from the report can be recorded onto a drainage management system. This allows the drainage company to produce a full picture of any particular properties or streets where issues are reoccurring. While these repeat visits to the same properties would usually result in
significant costs, by using the data collected from previous visits, the drainage company identify recurring issues. From here, it will be able to advise on the most suitable course of action to ensure the causes of the issues are treated in the most efficient way.
COMMON CAUSES OF REPEAT BLOCKAGES Tenant behaviour is a common cause of repeat blockages, and items that shouldn’t end up down the drain causing issues are a regular occurrence. Alongside an increasing amount of fat, grease and oil being poured down
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM February/March 2020 | 29
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