How Much Does It Cost to Clear a Blocked Drain?

Our drainage rates

Drainage, CCTV and jetting are charged at £145 per hour between 7:30am and 5pm, £195 between 5pm and 7pm, £250 between 9pm and 7:30am, and £250 on Sundays and bank holidays. All rates exclude VAT.

There is no call-out charge on top and no emergency premium: out-of-hours work is simply charged at the published rate for that time band. A CCTV survey carries an additional £75 in the first hour only, which includes the survey report you would need for an insurance claim or a dispute with a water company or neighbour.

What affects the cost

• Where the blockage is — an internal sink trap is minutes, a blockage out in the main run is not
• What is causing it — fat and soap respond to rodding, tree roots and collapsed pipework do not
• Whether jetting is required, which is more effective but takes longer than rodding
• Whether a CCTV survey is needed to find the cause or to evidence a claim
• Time of day, since out-of-hours work is charged at the published band rate
• Access to the chamber, which occasionally has to be located and uncovered before work starts

Rodding, jetting and CCTV: what you are paying for

Rodding is the first line of attack for most simple blockages and can clear soft obstructions in accessible runs quickly. High-pressure jetting cuts through hardened fat, scale and root intrusion and cleans the pipe wall properly rather than just punching a hole through the blockage, which is why a jetted drain tends to stay clear longer.

A CCTV survey is worth paying for when a drain blocks repeatedly, when you need to know whether the pipe itself is damaged, or when someone else may be liable for the repair. Without footage, a claim about a collapsed or root-damaged pipe is very hard to substantiate.

Who pays: you, your neighbour, or the water company

This matters financially and it is regularly misunderstood. You are responsible for the drains inside your property boundary that serve only your home. Since 2011, most shared drains and lateral drains running to the public sewer have been the responsibility of the water company, which in this area is Thames Water.

So a blockage in your own gully or the run under your garden is your bill; a blockage in the shared run beyond the boundary usually is not. If there is any doubt, a CCTV survey establishes where the problem sits, and that report is what you send to the water company. Many home insurance policies also include drain cover, so it is worth checking your schedule before authorising significant work.

How to keep the bill down

• Do not pour cooking fat or oil down the sink, however much hot water follows it
• Fit strainers on kitchen and shower wastes and clear them regularly
• Flush nothing but the obvious, wet wipes included, whatever the packet says about being flushable
• Clear leaves and silt out of external gullies a couple of times a year
• Deal with slow drainage early, before it becomes a full blockage at 11pm on a Sunday
• Have repeat blockages surveyed once rather than cleared four times

When it is genuinely urgent

Sewage backing up into the property, multiple appliances draining slowly at once, or waste water surcharging from an external chamber all indicate a blockage in the main run rather than a single trap, and they need dealing with promptly for health as much as convenience.

A single slow basin, by contrast, will keep until the morning and will cost you less at the daytime rate. We would rather tell you that on the phone than charge you the night rate for something that can wait.