When the Venue Blames Your Drains: Pre- and Post-Build Documentation

The email arrived nine days after the strike, and it was three lines long: a photograph of a floor gully with white residue around the grate, a repair invoice for a blocked trap, and the sentence ‘we assume this is yours’. The build had used 3,200 litres of water and about 110 kg of powder, and the venue had decided, without evidence, that both had gone down their drain.

It took two hours to answer the email and four days for the venue to withdraw the invoice, and the only reason it went that way is that we had photographs from before and after. Without them, the argument would have been about who everyone thought was more likely to be telling the truth.

What the venue is actually worried about

Most venues are not looking for somebody to blame. They are protecting a drainage system they do not fully understand and cannot easily repair, and they have usually had one bad experience with a contractor who poured something down a gully. Understanding that changes the conversation: you are not defending yourself, you are reassuring a building manager.

So the documentation starts before the build, with a two-minute conversation about where water is allowed to go. Ask them to show you the drain they want used, photograph it with the cover off, and note the date and the name of the person who pointed at it. That single photograph has ended more disputes than any contract clause.

Before: the four frames that matter

Four photographs taken before anything is unloaded: the floor where the build will sit, the nearest drain, the route between them, and the wall or column used as a height reference. Add a fifth if there is any pre-existing damage, because a scuff that was there on Monday becomes your fault on Friday.

Send them to the venue contact the same day with a one-line message. Not a report, not a PDF, just the images and a sentence: ‘Condition on arrival, 07:40, for reference.’ This creates a timestamped record that costs nothing and takes four minutes.

During: keeping water where it belongs

A build on a sealed floor should sit on a liner with turned-up edges, and the meltwater should be collected and removed rather than pushed towards a gully. Bucket it into a service sink if the venue has one, or into a container and out with the rest of the waste. It sounds laborious; on a 40 square metre build it is about twenty minutes of extra work at the strike, and it removes the entire category of drain complaints.

If a gully does have to take water, fit a strainer bag and check it before leaving. A bag costs a few pounds and catches everything that would otherwise set in the trap. Photograph the bag in place and again when it comes out, because ‘we used a strainer’ is a claim and a photograph of one is evidence.

There is a version of this that costs even less: agree in writing that no water goes to a gully at all. Put it in the method statement as a single line, get the venue to initial it, and the entire subject disappears. Buildings that have been burned before will thank you for raising it first.

After: closing the file in ten minutes

At the strike, take the same four frames from the same positions, plus a close-up of the drain with the cover back on. Send them within 24 hours with a short note listing the water used, the disposal route and the condition on departure. When the complaint email arrives nine days later, the reply is not an argument, it is a forwarded message with a date on it.

Keep the set for twelve months. Most claims surface within a quarter, but some arrive after an annual inspection, and a file from last January has settled more than one of those.

The condition record template and the liner specification we issue to crews are in the artificial snow user guides, and they take about ten minutes to complete on site.