Blocked Drains Hills District: Why It Keeps Blocking

The Hills has two kinds of blocked drain. In Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, Winston Hills and Glenhaven it is usually tree roots in 40-year-old earthenware pipe. In Kellyville, Rouse Hill and Box Hill it is usually wipes, fat and a badly graded builder’s drain. Both keep coming back until the cause is found. This page explains why, what actually fixes it, what a proper clear includes and what it costs.

Overflowing now? Skip the reading: 1300 301 354 or book online. You get an arrival window on the phone and a fixed price before any work starts. $0 call-out fee.

Stop the overflow first

• Stop using water in the house.
• If sewage is coming up a floor waste or the outdoor gully, keep people and pets away from it.
• Pour nothing down the drain. Below is why.
• If the outdoor overflow gully is running over, the block is in the main sewer line, not one fixture. That needs a plumber, not a plunger.

9 reasons Hills District drains keep blocking, and the one fix that stops it coming back

1. Tree roots in earthenware or old PVC joints. The number one cause in the older Hills suburbs, where the gum trees and liquidambars are now bigger than the houses.
2. Cracked or collapsed earthenware pipe in homes built before the mid 1980s.
3. Wipes, which do not break down.
4. Fat, oil and grease from the kitchen.
5. Hair and soap scum.
6. A sag in the pipe where fill has settled, common on the cut-and-fill blocks of the newer estates.
7. Undersized or badly graded pipework from a renovation or a rushed build.
8. Foreign objects.
9. Stormwater getting into the sewer in heavy rain.

The one fix: a CCTV camera after the clear to find the cause, then fix the cause. Roots or a broken pipe mean relining or replacing that section. Anything else is a clear you will pay for again.

5 things people pour down a blocked drain that make it worse

1. Caustic soda or supermarket drain cleaner: rarely reaches the block, sits in the pipe, and burns whoever opens the line next.
2. Boiling water into a toilet or PVC waste: cracks porcelain and softens joints.
3. Bleach: kills the smell for an hour, does nothing to the block.
4. Acid cleaners: dangerous with whatever is already in the pipe.
5. More water “to push it through”: that is how a slow drain becomes an overflow on the floor.

Jet blast or snake? What a proper clear includes

An electric eel cuts a hole through the block; fine for a one-off object. A high-pressure jetter scours the full pipe, cuts roots and flushes fat to the sewer; the right tool for roots and repeat blocks. A proper clear includes the clear, a flow test at every fixture, a camera inspection to find the cause, and a plain explanation with the footage if you want it.

CCTV drain camera: worth it?

If it has blocked more than once, yes. It turns “we might have to dig” into “the break is 4 metres from the gully, 900 deep, and it can be relined.”

3 questions before anyone digs

1. “Have you put a camera down it, and can I see the footage?”
2. “Can it be relined instead of dug up?”
3. “What is the fixed price for the dig, the pipe and the reinstatement of the ground or paving?”

Landlord or tenant: who pays?

In NSW a blocked or broken toilet and a serious drainage fault are urgent repairs the landlord has to fix. A block caused by what a tenant put down the drain can be passed on. A camera report settles it fairly: roots and broken pipes are the property’s problem, wipes and fat are usage.

Drain callout fee, revealed

$0 call-out fee. A fixed price to clear the drain before we start, and a separate fixed price for a camera inspection if you want one. If it needs the jetter rather than the eel, you hear that before we start.

Blocked again in a month? Why

The block was cleared and the cause was not found. If a drain we cleared blocks again inside the warranty period for the same cause, we come back under warranty. If it is roots in a broken pipe, you will have seen that on camera and have the permanent fix quoted.

Your local Hills District plumber

Our depot is in Seven Hills, a few minutes down Old Windsor Road from Baulkham Hills, which is why we can give real arrival windows across Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, Kellyville, North Kellyville, Rouse Hill, Bella Vista, Norwest, Glenhaven, Dural, Cherrybrook, West Pennant Hills, Beaumont Hills, Box Hill, Kenthurst, Annangrove and Winston Hills. Twenty years of jobs in these streets means we know the two kinds of Hills house: the 1960s to 1980s homes around Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills and Winston Hills with earthenware drains, big trees and 40-year-old copper, and the newer estates at Kellyville, Rouse Hill, North Kellyville and Box Hill where the usual failures are flexible hoses, pressure valves and builder shortcuts.

Book a same-day drain clear in the Hills: 1300 301 354 or book online. You get an arrival window on the phone and a fixed price before any work starts. $0 call-out fee.

Who you are dealing with

All Day Plumbing & Maintenance Pty Ltd is a Sydney plumbing company based in Seven Hills, run by a licensed plumber with 20 years on the tools. NSW Contractor Licence 339748C. Fully insured. Every job comes with an upfront price before we start, a $0 call-out fee and a warranty on the work. You can check any NSW plumbing licence, ours included, on the NSW Fair Trading licence check (search “verify licence NSW”).