HomeBlocked drains

Blocked Drain Clearing
in Krugersdorp

Blocked drain clearing in Krugersdorp, from a slow basin to a yard gully that overflows every time it rains. The blockage is cleared, the cause is found, and the line is checked for open joints, because a drain that flows again is not always a drain that holds.

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Wet leaves clogging a drain grate in the rain, with water running over the bars instead of through them

Where the blockage usually is

Which fittings are slow, and how, tells you a lot before anything is opened.

  • One basin or shower drains slowly. The trap or the short branch pipe under it, usually hair, soap or grease.
  • The toilet rises, then drains slowly. The toilet's own outlet, or the branch between it and the main line.
  • Several fittings gurgle or back up together. The main line between the house and the yard manhole.
  • The yard gully overflows. A blockage further down the main line, or debris and roots in the gully itself.
  • A sewer smell outside, nothing visibly blocked. A cracked line, a dry trap, or a manhole cover that no longer seals.
  • The same drain keeps blocking. A sag, an open joint or roots in the pipe, which a camera or a water test can tell apart.

Cleared is not the same as watertight

A blocked sewer fills up behind the blockage, and a full line pushes its contents out of any joint that is not sealed.

While a drain is blocked, everything flushed or poured upstream has nowhere to go but back along the pipe. The line fills, and the water standing in it is pushed on by every fitting above it. A rigid joint with a crack in it, or one that has pulled open by a few millimetres, starts letting sewage into the soil. Clear the blockage and the level drops, and the same joint looks dry again.

That is why clearing is half the job. On an erf in Mogale City's Dolomitic Overlay Zone, created by clause 23 of the Land Use Scheme, the minimum precautions for dolomite land ask for every sewer pipe to have flexible, watertight joints, for the toilet pan to have a flexible connection where it meets the outlet pipe, and for no soakaways in the sanitation at all. The Council for Geoscience names leaking services and ponding water among the triggers for sinkholes.

The same precautions set out the municipal side: sewer mains in dolomite areas checked for watertightness with an air test at intervals of no more than two years. Whatever happens in the street, the line from your house to the connection is the owner's to look after.

So after the blockage is cleared, the line is checked rather than assumed. Where a camera is used, the inside of the pipe is filmed and the picture is shown to you. Otherwise the line is tested with water while the manholes and gullies are watched. A joint that has been leaking is priced for repair with a flexible coupling, and a soakaway, if the property has one, is pointed out.

On a non-dolomitic erf the same check is still worth having. A leaking joint is often where roots get in, and roots are a common reason the same drain blocks again.

After a blocked drain is cleared, ask how the line was checked. If the only answer is that it drains now, nobody has looked at the joints.

Section through a yard: a drain pipe from the house to a manhole is blocked near the manhole. Behind the blockage the pipe fills. At a cracked rigid joint sewage escapes into the soil; at a flexible sealed joint nothing escapes. a cracked rigid joint lets sewage into the soil a flexible, sealed joint holds the line fills behind the blockage blockage yard manhole house
A drawing of a blocked line and two kinds of joint, not of any property.

How a blocked drain is priced

The price follows where the blockage is and what caused it. This is what goes into it.

Always part of it

  • Finding where the blockage sits, not just which fitting shows it
  • Clearing it, then running water through to prove it
  • Checking the line for broken or open joints
  • Leaving the gully, manhole and floors clean

What moves the number

  • A single fitting or the main line
  • Access: rodding eyes, manholes, how far the line runs
  • Roots, a collapsed section or a sag
  • A camera inspection, if one is wanted
  • Repairs to a joint, priced separately

What you get in writing

  • Where the blockage was and what caused it
  • What was done to clear it
  • Any defect found in the line, with a photo where possible, and its repair priced

How a blocked drain gets cleared

The four steps on every drain call, whichever drain it is.

  1. Tell us which drains are slow

    Name every slow fitting in the form. Which ones are affected says a lot about where the blockage is.

  2. Find the blockage point

    Manholes and rodding eyes are opened to see where the water stops.

  3. Clear it and run water

    The line is cleared and flushed, and every fitting is run to prove it flows.

  4. Check the joints, clean up

    The line is checked for leaks at the joints, what was found is shown to you, and the area is left clean.

Questions about blocked drains

The cost question first, then whose drain it is.

What will clearing a blocked drain cost in Krugersdorp?

A basin trap is a short job; a main line blocked by roots under a driveway is a long one. The price is set once the blockage point is known, and it is given in writing before the work. A camera inspection or a joint repair, if either is needed, is priced as its own line so you can say yes or no to each.

Is the blockage mine to fix or the municipality's?

The drains on your property, from the house to the point where your line joins the municipal sewer, are the owner's responsibility. The sewer main beyond that connection belongs to Mogale City. If the municipal manhole in the street is overflowing as well, the blockage is probably on their side, so report it to the municipality.

Why does my drain keep blocking?

A drain that blocks again within weeks usually has something wrong with the pipe, not just with what went into it: roots through an open joint, a section that has sagged and holds water, or a broken piece that catches everything. Clearing it again only buys time. Finding which of those it is, by camera or by testing, is what stops the return visits.

Should I try a drain cleaner from the shop first?

For a slow basin, a plunger or cleaning out the trap is safer. Strong chemical cleaners can splash, can damage older pipes and seals, and do nothing about roots or a broken pipe. If you have already used one, mention it when you book, so the plumber knows what is in the water before opening the line.

Why does the yard gully overflow when it rains?

Often because roof downpipes have been led into the sewer gully. In a storm the sewer line suddenly carries the roof's water as well and cannot keep up. Downpipes belong on the stormwater side, discharging away from the house; on dolomite land, at least 1.5 m from the walls.

What should never go down a drain?

Wet wipes, even the ones sold as flushable, cooking fat and oil, sanitary products, and builder's rubble from renovations. Fat sets as it cools in the line; wipes do not break down and collect everything else around them.

There is a smell, but nothing is blocked. What causes that?

A trap that has dried out in a basin or floor drain that is rarely used, a vent pipe that is blocked or missing, or a crack in the line letting gas out. Running water into rarely used traps fixes the first. The other two need the line looked at.

What is a soakaway, and why does it matter?

A soakaway is a pit that lets waste water drain into the ground. On dolomite land the precautions rule them out completely, because water fed into the soil is exactly what the rules are written against. If your property has one and the erf is dolomitic, the fix is to connect that waste to the sewer.

When a drain job turns into something else

A blockage can reveal a leaking line, or arrive as an emergency with sewage in the house.

Book a drain clearing

Your name, a number and the suburb are enough to start. We phone you back to hear what is wrong before anyone drives out.

We use these details only to answer this request. See the privacy notice.

Where we come out

We come to the house: there is no counter or yard to visit. Krugersdorp and the suburbs around it are the core of the area, with the outlying parts of Mogale City by arrangement.

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Krugersdorp and close by

  • Krugersdorp North
  • Krugersdorp West
  • Monument
  • Noordheuwel
  • Kenmare
  • Rant-en-Dal
  • Silverfields
  • Mindalore
  • Wentworth Park
  • Dan Pienaarville

Further out in Mogale City

  • Muldersdrift
  • Featherbrooke
  • Cradlestone
  • Kagiso
  • Azaadville
  • Magaliesburg