Blocked Drains Sydney, Cleared Properly
Sink, shower, laundry or outside drain backing up? We clear it with high pressure jetting, then put a camera down the line so you know why it happened. Licensed plumber, any hour, clear price before we start.
Licence No. 299307c · Licensed & insured in NSW · No call out fee · 24 hours, 7 days
★★★★★ 5.0 from 50 Google reviews
Serving Sydney since 2016 · Independent and locally owned, no franchise fees · Pensioner discounts
Which Drain Is Blocked?
Where the water is backing up tells you a lot about what’s actually wrong, and how urgent it is.
One sink, shower or basin
Usually a local blockage in the trap or the branch pipe close to the fixture. Hair, soap scum and grease build up over months until the last bit of it stops the flow. Annoying rather than urgent, and generally straightforward to clear.
The kitchen sink
Nearly always fat and food waste. Cooking oil goes down warm and liquid, then cools and sets on the inside of the pipe like candle wax. It narrows the pipe a bit more every week until nothing gets through.
The laundry
Lint from the washing machine, mixed with detergent residue. Laundry drains also tend to be the lowest point in the system, so if something is wrong further down the line, the laundry is often where it shows up first.
An outside drain or the gully
Leaves, silt and tree roots. The overflow gully outside is designed so that if the main line blocks, sewage comes out there instead of inside your house. If it’s overflowing, that’s not a local blockage, it’s the main line.
More than one fixture at once
If the shower gurgles when you flush the toilet, or several drains are slow at the same time, the problem isn’t any one of them. It’s the main line they all join into. That’s a blocked sewer and it needs clearing before it backs up inside.
What Causes Blocked Drains
Tree roots
The most common cause of a drain that keeps blocking in an older Sydney home. Roots find the smallest crack or a loose joint, grow in through it looking for water, and then catch everything that flows past. Clearing the blockage without dealing with the roots means you’ll be ringing a plumber again within months.
Fat, oil and grease
Kitchen drains, almost exclusively. It builds a layer on the pipe wall that gets thicker over time. Hot water and detergent move it further down the line rather than removing it.
Hair and soap
Bathroom drains. Hair catches on anything rough inside the pipe and soap scum binds it into a mat.
Wet wipes and the wrong things flushed
Wet wipes don’t break down, whatever the packet says. Neither do cotton buds, sanitary products, nappies or paper towel. They snag on a root or a joint and everything after that piles up behind them.
Broken, cracked or sagging pipes
Older clay pipes crack as the ground moves. A sag in the line, sometimes called a belly, holds water and solids where they should be flowing through. Either way the blockage will keep coming back until the pipe itself is dealt with.
Silt, leaves and debris
Mostly stormwater drains and outside gullies, and it shows up after heavy rain when every blocked drain in the suburb decides to fail at once.
Should You Try to Clear It Yourself?
Sometimes, yes. We’d rather tell you that than charge you to come out for something you could have sorted in ten minutes.
Worth a go: a slow bathroom sink or shower where nothing else in the house is affected. Pull the plug out, clear the hair from the top of the trap, and try a plunger. If the water starts moving, you’ve found it.
Don’t bother: caustic drain cleaners from the supermarket. They sometimes shift a soft blockage, but they don’t touch roots or grease properly, and they sit in the pipe damaging it while they wait. If the blockage is solid, you’ve now got a pipe full of caustic liquid for whoever opens it up.
Ring someone: if more than one fixture is affected, if the outside gully is overflowing, if it keeps coming back, or if there’s sewage anywhere it shouldn’t be. Those are not blockages you clear with a plunger.
Drain Backing Up Right Now?
Ring Angelo direct. Any hour, any day, no call out fee.
How We Clear a Blocked Drain
We find out what we’re dealing with
Before anything goes down the pipe we work out where the blockage is and what’s likely causing it. Which fixtures are affected, how long it’s been building, whether it’s happened before. That decides the right tool rather than guessing.
High pressure jet blasting
Water at high pressure cuts through tree roots, grease and debris and scours the inside of the pipe rather than just punching a hole through the middle of the blockage. That’s the difference between a drain that runs properly and one that blocks again in six weeks.
CCTV camera inspection
Once it’s clear, the camera goes down the line. You see the footage. If it’s roots, you see the roots and where they’re getting in. If the pipe is cracked or sagging, you see that too. Clearing a drain without looking at why it blocked is how people end up paying three times for the same problem.
Then we tell you what’s next
Sometimes the answer is nothing, it was a one-off. Sometimes there’s a cracked pipe that needs relining. Either way you get the footage, a straight explanation and a fixed price before any further work happens.
When a Blocked Drain Is Something Bigger
Most blocked drains are exactly that. Some are a symptom of a pipe that has already failed. These are the signs:
- It keeps coming back. A drain that blocks every few months has something permanent in it, usually roots in a crack.
- More than one fixture is affected. That’s the main line, not a local blockage.
- The outside gully overflows. The blockage is past the point where everything joins up.
- Sewage smell in the yard. Waste is escaping the pipe somewhere underground.
- A patch of grass greener than the rest. Something is feeding it that shouldn’t be.
- Gurgling when you flush. Air is being forced back through the system because it can’t get past the blockage.
If any of those sound familiar, the camera will tell you for certain. Better to know now than after it’s backed up into the house.
Clear Pricing, No Surprises
There is no call out fee, and you get a clear price before any work begins. What it costs depends on where the blockage is, what’s causing it and how easy the line is to access, so we diagnose it first, then tell you the price, then you decide.
Pensioner discounts are available. No franchise fees loaded onto your invoice, and no surprises when it arrives.
Blocked Drain Service Across Sydney
We cover the Inner West, St George, the North Shore, Ryde and surrounding suburbs, including Ashfield, Marrickville, Earlwood, Croydon, Concord, Abbotsford, Five Dock, Drummoyne, Strathfield, Burwood, Bexley, Kogarah, Hurstville, Gladesville, Lane Cove, Chatswood, Mosman, Roseville, Pymble, Wahroonga and Turramurra.
Not sure if we reach you? Ring us and we’ll tell you straight away.
What Our Customers Say
We called Cesco out to our building for a second opinion on an ongoing issue we have had with our strata’s plumbers. After a little bit of investigation, Cesco were able to identify the problem, which turned out to be significantly less of an issue than we were previously told. It pays to have trade people that you can trust aren’t trying to rip you off. These guys have saved us thousands of dollars and we will definitely be having them back!
— Caine Hodder
We use Angelo’s team to service our vulnerable clients (aged and disabled) and we trust he will always do excellent work, does not overcharge and only does work that is required to be done. Can’t recommend them enough.
— Jeremy Cochineas
Blocked Drain Questions
How quickly can you get here?
We aim to be at your property within 60 minutes, depending on where you are and what else is on. We answer the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Do you charge a call out fee?
No. You get a clear price before any work starts, and pensioner discounts are available.
Why does my drain keep blocking?
Almost always tree roots in a cracked pipe, or a sag in the line holding water where it should be flowing. Clearing the blockage deals with the symptom. The camera finds the cause, and until that’s fixed it will keep happening.
Will jet blasting damage my pipes?
Not when it’s done properly. The pressure is matched to the pipe material and condition, which is part of why we look before we blast. A pipe that’s already cracked or collapsed needs a different answer, and the camera tells us that.
Do I get to see the camera footage?
Yes. There’s no point us telling you there’s a problem underground if you can’t see it for yourself. You see what we see.
Is a chemical drain cleaner worth trying first?
Generally not. They struggle with roots and grease, they damage older pipes, and if the blockage is solid you end up with a pipe full of caustic liquid. A plunger on a single slow sink is fine. Beyond that, ring someone.
What can I put down the drain to stop it blocking?
Nothing beats not putting the wrong things in. Fat and cooking oil in the bin rather than the sink, a hair catcher in the shower, and nothing flushed except what’s meant to go down there. Wet wipes are the single most common cause we see.
My whole house is draining slowly, what does that mean?
That’s the main sewer line, not any one fixture. It needs clearing before it backs up inside the house. See blocked sewers.
Do you clear stormwater drains too?
Yes. Blocked stormwater drains, overflowing pits and flooded driveways, which is most of Sydney after a decent storm.
Are you licensed?
Yes. Licence No. 299307c, licensed and insured in NSW.
Not Urgent? Send Us Your Details
We’ll call you back. If the drain is backing up right now, ring us instead — it’s faster.
Blocked Drains Cleared, Sydney Wide
Licence 299307c · 5.0 from 50 reviews · Serving Sydney since 2016