Blocked drains, toilets and sinks unblocked in Christchurch

Blocked toilets

A blocked toilet is either the pan itself or the line past it, and telling the two apart takes about a minute.

• Only the toilet is affected and it clears slowly or not at all — the blockage is usually in the pan or just past it. Wet wipes, too much paper at once, sanitary products, or something a small child posted in there.
• The toilet and another fixture play up — the shower gurgling when you flush, or the bath backing up — and the problem is in the shared waste line, not the toilet.
• Water rising to the rim and draining away slowly means a partial blockage. It will block completely, usually at the worst possible moment.

What to try first: a proper plunger with a real seal, using steady pushes rather than violent ones. What not to do: pour boiling water down it — the thermal shock can crack the pan, and a cracked pan is a far more expensive morning than a blocked one. Caustic drain cleaners do very little in a toilet and make the job unpleasant for whoever opens it next.

We clear blocked toilets, and where something has been flushed that should not have been, we get it out rather than pushing it further down the line to become a bigger problem.

Blocked sinks, basins and showers

Different fixtures block for different reasons, and the reason tells you whether it will come back.

• Kitchen sinks block on fat and grease. Warm oil pours away happily and then lines the pipe as it cools, catching everything that follows. A kitchen sink that has slowed over months is almost always this.
• Bathroom basins and showers block on hair and soap scum, usually right at the trap or the waste grate.
• Laundry tubs collect lint and detergent build-up, and a washing machine emptying into a partly blocked waste will overflow the tub before it tells you anything is wrong.
• Several fixtures at once means the shared waste line rather than any one trap.

Most single-fixture blockages are in the trap or close to it, and they are a quick job. We clear the blockage and tell you what came out, because that is what tells you whether to expect it again in six months.

The signs, in the order they usually show up

Drains rarely block all at once. They tell you first, and the earlier you call the cheaper the job:

• A shower or bath that drains slower than it used to. The first symptom, and the one most people live with for months.
• Gurgling. A toilet that burps when the washing machine empties means air is being pushed past a partial blockage further down the line.
• Smell. A drain or sewer smell around a gully trap or outside a bathroom wall usually means water isn't moving the way it should.
• Two fixtures affected at once. If the shower and the toilet both play up, the problem is in the shared line, not the fixture.
• Water pooling around the gully trap outside. That's the overflow point doing its job — it's telling you the line past it is full.

Why Christchurch drains block more than most

Two things make this city different, and both of them matter for how a blockage gets fixed.

Old earthenware and clay pipework. A lot of housing through St Martins, Opawa, Beckenham, Sydenham, Woolston and Spreydon still runs on original clay laterals laid in short sections with jointed collars. Those joints are exactly where fine tree roots get in — they follow the moisture, then thicken and hold everything else back. Clearing the roots fixes it for a season; understanding whether the pipe itself has failed is what fixes it properly.

Ground movement. The earthquakes moved a lot of ground, and drainage runs on gradient. A lateral that's dropped, bellied or pulled apart at a joint will keep collecting silt and paper at the low point no matter how many times it's cleared. If a drain in an older eastern-suburbs property has blocked repeatedly, it's worth finding out whether the pipe itself is the problem rather than paying to clear it every winter — and that's the point where a drainlayer and a camera earn their money.

What we actually do

1. Establish where the blockage is. If it sits in the gully trap, the internal wastes or the spouting and downpipes, it is ours to fix and we get on with it. If it is out in the underground line, that tells us straight away it is a drainlaying job.
2. Work out why. Roots, fat and grease, wet wipes, a section holding water, or something that fell in. What comes back out tells you a lot.
3. Tell you what we found and what it means. Including when the honest answer is "this will block again in six months unless the pipe itself gets sorted".
4. Hand it on where it belongs. Where the blockage is out in the underground sewer or stormwater drain, or the pipe has failed, dropped or needs jetting and a camera down it, we refer it to a registered drainlayer or a technician with that equipment rather than pretending it is ours.

Spouting, downpipes and stormwater

Rainwater is the other half of this work, and it fails in its own way. Blocked spouting overflows down the wall and into soffits and framing; a blocked downpipe backs the whole run up and puts water where the cladding was never designed to take it. In Christchurch, leaf fall through autumn and built-up silt are the usual culprits.

We clear gutters, spouting and downpipes, and we will tell you what filled them — whether it is a tree you could trim, a missing leaf guard, or spouting that has lost its fall and holds water along the run. Where the run itself needs repairing or replacing, that is on our spouting, gutters and downpipes page.

Where the downpipe discharges into the ground and the blockage is below that point, the problem is in the buried stormwater line, and the same rule applies as for the sewer: that is drainlaying work, and it needs jetting and a camera rather than guesswork.

What you can safely try first

Some blockages genuinely don't need a plumber, and we'd rather tell you that than take the callout:

• A plunger, used properly. Cover the overflow, get a real seal, and use steady pushes rather than violent ones.
• Boiling water and dish soap down a kitchen sink that's slowed from fat build-up. Not on a fully blocked line, and never on a toilet — thermal shock can crack the pan.
• Clean the gully trap grate. Leaves and silt sitting in the outside grate cause a surprising number of "blocked drain" calls.

What we'd steer you away from: caustic drain chemicals. They rarely shift a real blockage, they sit in the line, and they make it considerably less pleasant for whoever opens that pipe next — which might be us.

Preventing the next one

• Fat and cooking oil go in the bin, not down the sink. Warm oil pours; cold oil lines the pipe.
• Wet wipes — including the ones labelled flushable — do not break down. Neither do cotton buds or dental floss.
• Hair traps in the shower cost a few dollars and prevent most bathroom blockages.
• If you have mature trees near the drain run, expect roots and plan for periodic maintenance rather than waiting for the overflow.