Blocked Drains Christchurch

A blocked drain does not clear itself. Water that sits in the shower tray or creeps up around the gully trap means something further down the line has filled, shifted or broken. Leave it and the next step is usually wastewater on the bathroom floor, a smell through the house or a soggy patch of lawn.

We clear blocked drains in houses, flats and businesses across Christchurch, from Papanui and Redwood to Sumner, and out to Rolleston and Kaiapoi. You get the price before we touch anything, we find out why it blocked as well as clearing it, and if the line needs a repair the unblock comes off the bill.

Pricing: quotes are free, and every job gets a fixed price before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Blocked Drains Jobs We Handle Across Christchurch

• Drain unblocking
• Blocked toilet
• Unblock toilet drain
• Blocked shower drain
• Gully trap overflowing
• Blocked kitchen sink

Signs the drain is blocked, not just the plug hole

One slow basin is usually hair and soap close to the waste. When several fixtures play up at once, the blockage is in the shared pipe further down. These are the signs worth acting on quickly: If the drain is still flowing but slow or smelly, routine drain cleaning is usually the better booking.

• Water rising in the shower or bath when the toilet is flushed
• Gurgling from the basin or gully trap after the washing machine empties
• The gully trap overflowing or leaving a ring of debris around the grate
• A sewage smell inside, usually worst in the bathroom or laundry
• The toilet bowl filling higher than usual before slowly draining
• Wet, sunken or unusually green strips of lawn along the drain line

What blocks drains in Christchurch homes

Inside the house the causes are the same everywhere. Wet wipes and paper towels are the big one in blocked toilets, because they hold together in water instead of breaking up like toilet paper. In kitchens it is fat and food scraps that set solid once they cool in the pipe.

Outside, tree roots find their way into older earthenware drains through the mortar joints, and established suburbs such as Riccarton and Beckenham have plenty of mature trees close to old lines. Ground movement is the other Christchurch factor. Much of the flat city sits on land that liquefied in 2010 and 2011, and a drain that has sagged or opened at a joint leaves a lip where waste catches. New subdivisions in Halswell, Wigram and Rolleston have their own issue: building debris and concrete slurry left in the line during construction.

How It Works

How we clear the blockage

We start at the easiest access point, normally the gully trap or an inspection cap, so the toilet stays where it is unless it has to come up. Most household blockages clear in one visit with an electric drain machine and the right cutting head. Where grease or roots have packed the pipe solid, we switch to hydro jetting.

Once the water is running we test flush the affected fixtures and, if the cause is not obvious, run a CCTV drain inspection. A drain that keeps blocking is telling you something, and clearing it without looking is how people pay for the same callout three times.

What a blocked drain costs

If we find a broken or root-filled pipe and you go ahead with drain repairs, we waive the unblocking charge.

The price moves with access (a drain under a deck or a concrete patio takes longer), the type of blockage (roots and set fat take more work than a wipe), and whether a camera is needed to find the cause. Whatever the job, you get the price before we start, not an hourly meter running while you watch.

Your pipe or the council's?

On a gravity drain in Christchurch, the owner looks after the private lateral on their land, and Christchurch City Council owns the main, the connection and roughly the first metre of the lateral inside your boundary. If our camera shows the blockage is in the council's section, we give you the footage so you can report it rather than paying for their fix.

Not every property drains by gravity. Since the earthquakes, some areas have been switched to pressure sewers, where a small pump in a tank on your section pushes wastewater into the main, or to vacuum sewers, as in Shirley, Aranui and Prestons. On a vacuum system, call the council first. On a pressure system, the pipe from the house to the tank is yours, and who looks after the tank depends on who installed it. In Waimakariri, the district council reimburses plumber or drainlayer costs caused by a fault in its own wastewater pipes.

Why Choose Cheeky's Plumbers for Blocked Drains

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Blocked Drains Near You

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Blocked Drains Guides

• Vacuum Sewers in Shirley, Aranui and Prestons: What Not to Flush

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