Service

Blocked drain plumbers

Blocked toilets · Blocked sinks · Blocked sewer · Slow showers · Overflowing gully

We find out why it blocked, not just clear it.

Most blocked drains are a symptom of something else: tree roots at a cracked joint, a bellied pipe holding water, or years of fat and wipes. Clear the blockage and ignore the cause and you will be calling someone again in three months.

How it works

✓ Licensed & insured ✓ 24/7 emergency ✓ Price before we start

Book a blocked drain

Three quick steps. Every enquiry answered within 12 hours. If it's urgent, call.

Thanks. We've got it, and we'll come back to you within 12 hours. If it's urgent, call Luke on 0423 213 079 or Zach on 0402 273 744.

24/7 Emergency

Sewage backing up?

Luke0423 213 079 Zach0402 273 744

The short answer

A blocked drain is water backing up because something is restricting the pipe. If only one fixture is affected, the blockage is usually close to that fixture. If several fixtures are slow, or water is rising in the outside gully, the main sewer line is blocked and it needs clearing from an access point rather than a plunger. Stop using the affected fixtures, do not pour drain chemicals down, and call a licensed plumber. We cover The Hills, the North Shore and the Northern Beaches 24 hours a day.

How to tell how bad it is

Before you call, have a quick look at these. What you tell us changes what we bring and how fast we need to get there.

One slow fixture, everything else fine. The blockage is probably in that fixture's own waste line. Common in kitchens, where fat and food build up in the trap and the branch.
Two or more fixtures slow at once. The problem has moved to the line they share. This is the point where a plunger stops being the answer.
Gurgling from a toilet or shower when you use another fixture. Air is being pushed back past a partial blockage. It usually gets worse, not better.
Water rising in the gully or overflow relief gully outside. The main line is blocked. That gully is designed to spill outside so that sewage does not come up inside the house. Treat it as urgent.
Sewage on the floor, or a smell you cannot place. Stop using water in the house and call. This is a health issue, not just a plumbing one.
It blocks in the same place every few months. Something structural is wrong with the pipe. Repeat clearing is money spent on the symptom.
It blocked right after heavy rain. Stormwater may be getting into the sewer, or a bellied section is filling. Worth telling us, because it changes where we look.

If sewage is coming up inside, or every drain in the house has stopped, do not wait on the form. Call Luke on 0423 213 079 or Zach on 0402 273 744.

How it works

How we clear a blocked drain

We ask what is actually happening

Which fixtures, how long, whether it has happened before, and whether it followed rain. Two minutes on the phone often tells us whether this is a branch line or the main sewer, which decides what we load on the ute.

We find the access point

Every property has one. On most homes it is the inspection opening or the overflow relief gully outside. On older places it can be buried or paved over. We work from there rather than through your bathroom.

We clear the blockage

Depending on what it is, that is a drain machine to cut through it or high pressure water to scour the line back to the pipe wall. Roots and hardened fat need the water. A plunger and a bottle of chemicals do not.

We put a camera down it

This is the part most people have never had done. A camera inspection shows whether the pipe is sound or whether there is a crack, a root mass, an offset joint or a belly holding water.

We tell you what we found

If the pipe is fine, that is the end of it. If it is not, you get a straight answer about whether it needs relining, a repair, or just a jet clean on a schedule, and what each costs before you commit.

We leave it clean

Drain work is filthy. Boots off, drop sheets down, the area hosed and disinfected before we go.

What a blocked drain costs, and what changes it

We do not publish a set rate for blocked drains, and be wary of anyone who does. Two identical-sounding jobs in the same street can be a fifteen minute clear and a full line replacement. These are the things that actually move the price:

Where the blockage is. A kitchen branch line is a small job. The main sewer under a driveway is not.
Whether there is a usable access point. If the inspection opening has been paved or gardened over, finding it comes first.
What is causing it. Fat and wipes clear quickly. A tree root mass at a cracked joint takes a cutting head and time.
Whether the pipe is sound. Clearing a blockage is one job. Fixing a broken pipe is another, and we will tell you which one you have before we start it.
The hour. Two in the morning on a public holiday costs more than Tuesday at ten. Every plumber charges that way. We tell you the number before we start either way.
Access. Steep block, tight side passage, or a unit on the third floor with no lift all add time.

We look at the job, tell you the price, and you decide. Nothing happens that you have not agreed to, and we do not start a bigger job than the one you called about without asking you first.

Where we work

Blocked drains across Sydney's north

Not listed? Call Luke → Call Zach →

Questions

Blocked drain questions

Tree roots. They find the smallest gap at a pipe joint or crack, get in looking for water, and then keep growing until they fill the line. That is especially true across the older parts of the North Shore and the Hills where the sewer lines are earthenware and the trees are large and old. After roots, it is fat and food in kitchen lines, and wet wipes in toilets.

No. They pass through the toilet but they do not break down like toilet paper does, so they catch on anything rough inside the pipe and build up. A lot of the toilet blockages we clear are wipes bound together with fat. The only things that should go down a toilet are the obvious two and toilet paper.

Rarely, and it makes things worse in two ways. It does nothing about roots or a collapsed pipe, which is what is usually wrong. And it sits in the line as caustic liquid, so whoever opens that pipe next, which may be us, is dealing with a chemical burn risk. If you have already poured some in, tell us. That is not a telling off, it is a safety thing.

A plunger on a single blocked toilet or sink is worth a try. A drain snake from the hardware shop can clear a soft blockage close to the fixture. Stop there. If more than one fixture is affected, if water is coming up outside, or if it keeps returning, the problem is in the main line and you need a machine and a camera, not a longer snake.

Most blockages we clear in the same visit, often inside an hour or two once we are on site with access to the line. Camera work adds a bit. If the pipe turns out to be broken, that becomes a separate job we will quote you for rather than something we spring on you on the day.

We will tell you on the phone what a callout involves before you commit to it. What we will not do is give you a firm price for the repair sight unseen, because that number is a guess until we have looked.

Because something about the pipe at that spot is wrong. The usual suspects are a root mass at a joint, a section that has sagged so water and solids sit in it instead of running through, or a crack where the pipe has cracked and debris catches. A camera will show which. Until it is fixed, you are paying to clear the same blockage on repeat.

You own the wastewater pipes and fittings up to the point where they connect to Sydney Water's system, including that connection point, and that point can sit beyond your fence line. So it is usually yours. Sydney Water's own rule of thumb is that the blockage is probably in their pipes if the overflow is visible beyond your boundary such as at a maintenance hole on public land, if your neighbours have the same problem, or if there is a continuous overflow when nobody at your place is using water. It is probably yours if the neighbours are fine, your drainage is not shared, and it only overflows when you use water. If we find it is on their side, we will tell you, because then it is not your bill.

Yes. Sewage backing up into a house is not something that waits until Monday. Call and we will tell you when we can be there.

They are two separate systems and they get confused all the time. If the water is only a problem when it rains, and it is in the yard rather than the house, it is probably stormwater. We do both, so either way you are in the right place.

Blocked drains in Sydney's north, and why they keep coming back

Clearing a blocked drain is easy. Working out why it blocked is the part that saves you money, and it is the part most callouts skip.

The pipe under most Sydney homes is older than the people in it

Homes built before roughly the 1980s were generally drained with vitrified clay pipe, often called earthenware, laid in short lengths with a joint every metre or so. Clay is strong but the joints are the weak point. Ground movement, settling and decades of tree growth open them up. Once there is a gap of any size, roots find it, because a sewer line is a reliable source of water and nutrients in a dry Sydney summer.

That is why a blocked drain in a 1960s home in Baulkham Hills or a Federation house in Wahroonga behaves so differently from one in a new house at Box Hill. In the new house it is usually something someone put down it. In the old house it is usually the pipe itself.

Three things a camera tells you that a drain machine cannot

Whether the pipe is broken. A machine punches a hole through the blockage and the water runs again, which feels like a fix. The camera shows whether you have bought three months or ten years.
Exactly where the problem is. If the line does eventually need digging up, knowing the fault is 8.5 metres from the inspection opening and 900mm down means a small hole in the right place instead of a trench across the yard.
Whether relining will work. Relining needs enough of the original pipe left to form against. A camera is the only way to know that before you commit to it.

What to do right now

Stop using the fixtures that are affected, because every litre you put down has to go somewhere and the somewhere is currently your floor. Do not flush repeatedly hoping it clears. Do not add chemicals. Have a look outside for the gully, a grate at ground level usually near the bathroom or laundry wall, and see whether water is sitting in it. Then call, and tell us what you found.

Luke is on 0423 213 079 and Zach is on 0402 273 744, around the clock. If it can wait, the form on this page gets an answer within 12 hours.

Related services

CCTV drain inspectionA camera down the line so you can see the crack, the root or the collapse instead of guessing at it. Jet blastingHigh pressure water that cuts roots and scours the pipe wall clean, rather than punching a hole through the blockage. Pipe reliningA new pipe formed inside the old one. No trench through the driveway, the garden or the paving. Sewer repairsCracked, root-filled or collapsed sewer lines. Repaired by relining where we can, excavated where we must. Stormwater & drainageWater pooling against the house, a yard that will not drain, or stormwater surcharging in heavy rain. Emergency plumberA burst pipe, no water, or sewage backing up. We answer the phone around the clock, every day of the year.

Blocked drain right now?

Call and tell us which fixtures are affected and whether anything is coming up outside. If it can wait until we call you back, send the form and you will hear from us within 12 hours.

Luke 0423 213 079 Zach 0402 273 744 admin@bmadvanced.com.au

The Hills, North Shore & Northern Beaches, NSW

We'll call you back

Three quick steps. Every enquiry answered within 12 hours. If it's urgent, use the numbers.

Thanks. We've got it, and we'll come back to you within 12 hours. If it's urgent, call Luke on 0423 213 079 or Zach on 0402 273 744.