What an emergency actually looks like
A full blockage announces itself. Waste water rising from a manhole, nothing draining anywhere in the building, foul water appearing in a ground-floor shower or bath, or a strong drain smell indoors. At that point every further litre of water used has to come back out somewhere, which is why the first thing we say on the phone is to stop using water entirely.
Storms produce a second kind of emergency: a gully surcharging because the combined sewer serving the street is running full. That is a capacity problem rather than a blockage inside your boundary, and the response is different.
What to do before we arrive
- Stop using water throughout the property, including appliances on a timer
- Keep people and pets away from any standing waste water, and treat contaminated ground as a health matter
- Clear access to the drain covers if you can, moving bins or planters off them
- Note which fittings are affected and which are still draining, because that tells us where to start
How the visit works
The priority is making the property usable again. The second priority, which matters just as much, is establishing whether there is an underlying fault, because an emergency that repeats every three months is not really an emergency, it is an unrepaired defect.
- Make the property safe and stop further discharge into the blocked run
- Locate the blockage by working through the chambers along the line
- Clear it by jetting or mechanical clearance, whichever suits the cause
- Prove the flow by running water through every affected fitting
- Report what caused it and whether the pipe needs more than clearing
Our vans carry jetting at a range of pressures, mechanical clearance, a camera with a locator and the protective equipment needed to work safely around foul water. Carrying all of it is what lets the engineer who arrives finish the job rather than book a return visit for the right kit.
Response times, honestly
Our average response is 75 minutes and we are typically 60 to 90 minutes from any address in Greater London. On the call you get a realistic time rather than an optimistic one, because a family waiting with a flooded bathroom deserves to know whether it is one hour or three.
Traffic, time of day and where the previous job finished all affect it. If we cannot get to you quickly we say so, rather than accepting the job and leaving you waiting.
What it costs at 3am
The same as at 3pm. Drain unblocking starts at a fixed £120 plus VAT and there is never a call-out charge, on any day of the year including bank holidays. Urgency can affect the price of the work itself, and whatever that figure is, you have it before we start.
We quote fixed prices rather than hourly rates specifically so that a difficult job at an inconvenient hour does not turn into an open-ended bill.