Blocked drains cleared
across Fairfield

Not on the spot, and this is worth saying plainly. There is nothing wrong with a tradesman knocking, but nothing underground becomes an emergency in the hours it takes to get a second opinion, and urgency is the standard way unnecessary work gets sold. Ask for the licence number and write it down. Ask for the quote in writing. Say you will ring back tomorrow. A genuine plumber will not mind that at all, and how someone reacts to it tells you most of what you need to know.

Ask for the footage, and do not accept a description instead. A drain camera records what is in the pipe, and there is no reason for a plumber to keep it. We hand it over on every inspection whether you go ahead with anything or not, so you have something you can look at, keep, and show to another plumber if you want a second opinion. A fault you can see on a screen is a very different conversation from one you are being told about.

Usually not, and we will say so. Something went down the drain, we clear it, that is the job. A camera earns its money on a drain that has blocked before, because then the question is whether something is wrong with the pipe itself rather than what went into it. Being sold a camera inspection on a first, simple blockage is a reasonable thing to push back on.

No. They clear the bowl, which is all the label really promises, then fail to break down the way toilet paper does. They catch on anything slightly rough inside the line and build from there. They are the single most common avoidable cause of the blockages we attend, and the bin costs a great deal less than the call-out.

Rarely, and they can make things worse. They sit on top of the blockage rather than passing through it, they generate heat, and in older pipework they attack the pipe about as readily as the obstruction. They also leave us working in caustic water. If someone has already poured one down, please say so when you ring rather than after we open the line.

Then it is not your bill, and we will tell you. The line from your house to the boundary is yours; past that it is generally the water authority's. We locate where the fault actually sits and put it in writing, so if it is outside your boundary you have something concrete to hand over rather than paying for a section that was never your responsibility.

A standard clear through an existing access point is $150 to $400, agreed in writing before we start. A camera inspection is $250 to $450 with the footage handed to you. A jetter on a stubborn line is $400 to $700. If we think clearing will only hold for a few months, you will hear that before you pay, not afterwards.