Blocked drains: what you can clear yourself

Worth trying yourself: sink and basin traps

Fat, coffee grounds and toothpaste collect in the U-bend right under the plughole. Put a bucket underneath, unscrew the trap by hand, empty it and rinse it out. Refit finger-tight only, over-tightening splits plastic threads.

Worth trying yourself: shower and bath waste

Nine times out of ten it is hair caught just below the grate. A plastic drain claw from any hardware shop pulls it out. Follow with very hot water and washing-up liquid rather than caustic crystals, which sit in the trap and burn skin when we open it.

Worth trying yourself: an outside gully

Leaves and silt clog the grid where the kitchen waste discharges. Lift the grate, scoop it out with a gloved hand and flush with a hose. If water still backs up, the blockage is further down the run.

Call us for these

Some blockages are a sign of something structural, and rodding them blind can push the problem further along or damage old clay pipework.

• Toilets that fill and drain slowly across more than one bathroom
• Sewage smell inside the house or a manhole running full
• Drains that block again within weeks of being cleared
• Anything you cannot see the end of, including shared runs between terraces

How we clear the stubborn ones

We rod first, then jet if the run needs it, and put a camera down afterwards where a blockage keeps coming back. That last step is what finds root ingress, a collapsed section or a bellied pipe, the reasons a drain will not stay clear no matter how often it is cleaned.