‘Blocked drain’ covers a range of completely different problems with completely different solutions. Recognising which one you've got is the first step to fixing it properly rather than just shifting the symptom for a few weeks.
Local internal blockage — kitchen sink draining slow, single bathroom basin not clearing, shower tray pooling. Cause is almost always grease, hair, soap scum or food waste in the trap or first metre of pipework. Cleared with a hand auger or plunger in 20–40 minutes. £85 typical.
Toilet blockage — flush water rising rather than going away, possible overflow into the bowl. Usually paper, wipes (even ‘flushable’ ones — they aren't), or sanitary products lodged in the trap or just past it. Cleared with a closet auger or rods. £85–£140 depending on how far down the obstruction sits.
Whole-property slow drainage — multiple fixtures (bath, basin, kitchen sink) all draining slowly, sometimes with water backing up between them. The blockage is downstream of the individual traps, in the main soil stack or external drain. Bigger job — usually rods plus possibly a jetting head. £140–£280.
External drain overflowing — gully or manhole pooling, sewage smell outside, water rising up through ground-floor toilet or shower. The blockage is in the underground run or close to the boundary. Sometimes the property's responsibility, sometimes Thames Water's — Clive checks before any chargeable work starts.
The structured approach to clearing a blockage matters because the wrong tool used in the wrong place can make a problem worse — pushing a soft blockage further down, damaging old pipework, or simply wasting time on the wrong section.
Step 1: Diagnose where the blockage actually is. Quick test: run water at each fixture and see what backs up where. If only the kitchen sink backs up, the blockage is local. If the kitchen sink AND the ground-floor basin AND the shower all back up together, the blockage is downstream in the main run. If the external gully overflows when you flush a toilet, it's in the external pipework.
Step 2: Try the right tool first. Local blockages: hand auger (snake) or high-flow plunger first. Trap-and-pipe blockages: dismantle the trap, clear the trap, run an auger through the run if needed. Main-run blockages: rods (38mm or 50mm depending on pipe diameter) from the nearest accessible inspection chamber. External run: rods from the external manhole or the cleaning eye.
Step 3: Identify the cause as it clears. What comes out tells you whether it'll come back. Grease and food waste from a kitchen run? Likely a recurring problem unless habits change (advice given). Wipes and sanitary products from a toilet run? User awareness issue. Tree roots? Different problem entirely — the run may need lining or replacement, not just clearing.
Step 4: Test the system runs clear. Once the blockage is cleared, run high-flow water through every fixture upstream of where the blockage was. Flush toilets, run baths, fill kitchen sinks and let them empty. Watch every gully and inspection chamber — water should run through cleanly with no backup.
Step 5: Tell you what's likely to happen next. If the blockage was a one-off (typical paper jam, single grease build-up), there's nothing to do beyond normal use. If the blockage suggests something underlying (recurring grease, recurring root ingress, partial collapse), Clive tells you what's likely and what the options are — sometimes a CCTV survey, sometimes pipework relining, sometimes nothing more than a habit change.
Step 6: Practical advice you can act on. Specific to what was found — wipe disposal, kitchen grease handling, hair-trap fitting in showers, what to never put down the toilet. The 5-minute conversation at the end of a clearance often saves you the next callout.
Kitchen sinks block from grease and food waste hardening in the trap or first metre of horizontal run. The fix: dismantle the U-bend (bowl underneath, easier than it sounds), clean it manually, run an auger through the wall outlet if the blockage extends past the trap. Habit advice: never pour liquid grease down the sink, run hot water for 30 seconds after every use, fit a sink strainer to catch food debris.
Bathroom basins block from hair, soap scum and toothpaste residue. Smaller-bore pipework than kitchens so blockages happen earlier. Hair particularly accumulates at the pop-up plug mechanism — pulling that out and cleaning it often clears 70% of basin blockages without an auger.
Baths and showers block from hair predominantly, accumulating at the trap or in the first vertical drop to the soil stack. Showers in particular have small-diameter waste runs (40mm versus 50mm for baths) so they block faster. Hair-traps in the shower drain prevent most blockages from forming in the first place.
Toilets block from too much paper, wipes (always — every ‘flushable’ wipe gets stuck somewhere), sanitary products, kitchen roll, baby wipes, dental floss, hair, and occasionally objects flushed accidentally (toys, phones, jewellery). Closet auger usually clears in 10 minutes; sometimes the toilet has to be lifted off the pan to access the trap directly.
External drainage problems are bigger jobs than internal. Different equipment is needed (drain rods of varying length and head, sometimes high-pressure jetting), and the responsibility question is more important.
Property boundary rule. Anything inside your property boundary is your responsibility. Anything outside the boundary that serves only your property is also yours. Anything that serves multiple properties (a shared sewer running between back gardens, for instance) is typically Thames Water's responsibility under the Water Industry Act 1991.
Before doing chargeable work on what looks like an external blockage, Clive checks: is this run on the property side or Thames Water side? If it's Thames Water's, you don't pay Clive — you call Thames Water on 0800 316 9800 and they attend free.
Common external causes. Tree roots — particularly into clay or pitch-fibre pipework on older Ealing properties. Grease build-up over years of kitchen waste, accumulating to a tipping point. Wipes and sanitary product accumulation. Foreign objects — broken brick, gravel washed in through a damaged manhole cover, lost items. Partial pipe collapse — old clay pipework cracking under root pressure or ground movement.
What clearance involves. Manhole cover lifted (50mm-deep cover, key needed). Rods passed through with the appropriate head — corkscrew for soft blockages, plunger for compressed blockages, scraper for grease. Once cleared, water tested through to confirm flow. If the cause was roots or partial collapse, that's a CCTV survey job to see what's down there.
The drain unblocking market across London has its share of horror stories — £400 to clear a kitchen sink, £600 minimum charges, ‘hourly rates’ that escalate the moment a van appears. That's not Clive's pricing model.
£85 standard callout covers most internal blockages — kitchen sinks, basins, baths, showers, toilets. The first hour on-site is included. Clearing rarely takes the full hour.
£140–£280 for main-run or external blockages requiring rods or jetting through the soil stack or external runs. Quoted in writing once the diagnosis is done.
£180 for a CCTV drain survey with written report — recommended only if recurring blockages or signs of structural problems suggest something underlying that just clearing won't fix.
Pipework relining or replacement is quoted on inspection. These are bigger jobs (£800–£3,000+ depending on length and access) and Clive will give you a properly itemised quote in writing rather than a rough verbal number.
No callout markup, no minimum charge beyond the quoted work, no hourly billing once the work is quoted. If the diagnosis reveals it's actually Thames Water's responsibility (shared sewer, public side), you don't pay — Clive tells you, you call them, they attend free.
£85 for most internal blockages (kitchen sink, basin, bath, shower, toilet) — first hour on-site included. £140–£280 for main-run or external blockages where rods or jetting are needed beyond the first hour. £180 for a CCTV drain survey with written report. Pipework repairs or relining quoted on inspection. No callout markup, no minimum charge beyond the quoted work.
For a slow-draining sink with hair or soap scum, sometimes — products like Mr Muscle or HG can shift soft blockages without a callout. For an actually-blocked drain (water sitting, not draining), chemical cleaners are usually a bad idea — they sit in the standing water without reaching the blockage, can damage older pipework, and make the next professional clearance less pleasant. If chemical hasn't worked within an hour, stop and call.
Don't. They aren't. The fatberg problem across London is overwhelmingly caused by ‘flushable’ wipes that don't actually break down in sewer flow. Clive removes wipes from blocked toilets every single week — they bind together with grease and accumulate at any pipe junction or bend. Toilet paper is the only paper product that should go down the loo. Everything else (wipes, sanitary products, kitchen roll, dental floss) goes in the bin. Other plumbing work Clive covers from the same Ealing base: emergency plumbing, pipework and repipes, tap and outlet installation, water tank installation, leak detection, toilet installation, white goods plumbing, kitchen plumbing, radiator installation, hot water cylinder installation and bathroom installation.
Anything inside your property boundary is yours. Anything outside the boundary that serves only your property is also yours. Anything that serves multiple properties — typically the lateral sewer running along the back of terraced gardens, or shared drains between semi-detached houses — is Thames Water's responsibility under the Water Industry Act 1991. If a blockage is on Thames Water's side, you don't pay Clive — you call Thames on 0800 316 9800 and they attend free. Clive checks which side the blockage is on before any chargeable work starts. Gas-side services David also handles: boiler installation, boiler servicing, boiler repair, central heating installation, central heating repair, gas safety checks, gas leak detection, gas cooker installation, gas fire servicing and power flushing — all Gas Safe registered, all run from the same Ealing base.
Recurring blockages in the same place suggest something underlying — typically root ingress through a cracked pipe, a partial pipe collapse, or a long-standing build-up at a specific junction. The right answer is a CCTV survey to actually see what's down there before throwing more clearance work at it. £180 typical for a residential survey with written report and video. Once the cause is identified, the fix is targeted — pipework relining (no-dig), section replacement, or sometimes just a different clearance method. Repeat clearances on a structural problem just delay the inevitable. Other plumbing work Clive covers from the same Ealing base: emergency plumbing, tap and outlet installation, water tank installation, leak detection, toilet installation, white goods plumbing, kitchen plumbing, radiator installation, hot water cylinder installation and bathroom installation.
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For drain unblocking and drainage work anywhere in drain unblocking in Ealing, drain unblocking in Acton, drain unblocking in Hanwell, drain unblocking in Greenford, Northolt, Perivale, Southall, drain unblocking in West Ealing, Park Royal, drain unblocking in Pitshanger, Brentham, North Ealing, drain unblocking in South Ealing or anywhere else across the W postcodes — phone Clive directly on 07794 400 786.
Clive also covers drain unblocking across the rest of the borough — drain unblocking in Boston Manor, drain unblocking in Brentford, drain unblocking in Ealing Common and drain unblocking in Northfields — all served from the same Ealing base, same engineer, same fixed-price quotes.
Standard process: phone call to describe what's happening, on-site diagnosis to find where the blockage actually is, clearance with the right tool for the job, system tested clear, practical advice on preventing recurrence. £85 callout covers most internal jobs, bigger work quoted in writing.