Home/Drain Unblocking
Drain unblocking in Brackenfell that ends with an explanation, not just a flowing gully. We clear the line by rod or high-pressure jetter, then show you what came out of it, because that is what decides whether you will be calling again.
Tell us which drain and what it is doing. We will give you a written price before we start.
From a single slow basin to a main line backing up into the yard.
Grease and food waste built up in the trap and the first few metres of pipe, cleared and flushed hot.
Wipes, sanitary products and objects removed from the pan outlet or the branch behind it.
Hair and soap clogs in the trap and waste pipe, cleared without chemicals that eat old fittings.
Blockages in the line from the house to the municipal connection, cleared by jetter from the nearest access point.
The yard gully is where a blocked line shows itself first. We find where the blockage actually is.
A drain that blocks again within months needs a look inside. See CCTV drain inspection.
In the 2024/25 financial year the City of Cape Town cleared 110,598 sewer blockages and spent R228 million doing it. Zahid Badroodien, the Mayco member for water and sanitation, said that up to 60% of them were preventable and caused by misuse: rags, building material, fats and oil going where they should not. On the City’s own average, that is one misuse blockage every eight minutes.
Those are blockages in the public sewer, but the causes do not change at your boundary. The rag, the wet wipe and the pan of cooled fat that block a municipal main pass through a private drain first, and most of them stop there.
That is why clearing a drain is only half the job. A jetter will open almost any line, but if the thing that blocked it is still going down the sink every evening, the blockage will be back. Fat is the worst offender, because hot water carries it just far enough to set further down the pipe.
So after every clearance we tell you what we pulled out and where it was sitting. If it was fat, you will know where it collected. If it was wipes, you will know which toilet. If it was roots or a broken pipe, you will know it is a repair and not a habit.
Wipes go in the bin, whatever the packet says, and cooled fat goes in a sealed container. Those two habits prevent most of the blockages on this page.
What came out, and where it was sitting.
The clearance price in writing before the rods come out.
Gullies, floors and paving cleaned after the job.
If the block is in the municipal sewer, we tell you and you report it free.
A single fixture cleared by hand is the smallest job; a main line needing the jetter costs more. You get the price in writing before we start. See the plumber prices page.
If the municipal manhole in the street is overflowing or several neighbours are affected, report it to the City. Its WhatsApp line for sewer problems is 060 018 1505. If only your house is affected, the blockage is usually in your own line.
Either the same thing keeps going down it, or the pipe has a defect that catches debris: a root, a dip or a broken joint. A camera inspection tells you which.
Strong acids and caustics can damage older pipes and fittings and are dangerous to whoever opens the drain afterwards. We would rather you did not.
A dry trap, a failed seal, a vent problem or a partial blockage holding waste. Each has a different fix, and we find which one first.
Yes, on main lines and greasy kitchen runs. It scours the pipe wall rather than just punching a hole through the blockage.
Yes. Roots find their way into joints and cracks. Jetting clears them for a while, but the pipe usually needs repair to stop them coming back.
That can mean roof water is running into the sewer, which the City’s wastewater by-law does not allow. Our CCTV drain inspection page explains how to check.
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Blocked drain in Brackenfell, Kuils River or Kraaifontein? Say which drain is playing up and a written clearance price follows.
