Blocked Drain Cost in Canberra: What Clearing a Drain Actually Costs

A blocked toilet cleared as an emergency callout runs $150 to $350. Inside business hours the callout fee is $80 to $200, and a simple blockage cleared with a hand tool or a drain machine is not much more than that fee. Everything above that comes down to three things: how far down the line the blockage sits, what it is made of, and whether anyone can get to an inspection opening.

We do not publish a flat price for jetting, camera work or excavation, and you should be sceptical of anyone who does over the phone. The length of the run and the access change those jobs by hundreds of dollars, and the honest version is that a plumber has to see it. What we can tell you is which method your blockage needs, what pushes a job from one tier to the next, and where the money actually goes.

Which drain clearing method does your blockage need?

Most Canberra jobs finish at the second or third row. An eel clears the line, the drain runs, and you are done in an hour. The reason to know the rest of the table is that a plumber who only owns an eel will keep selling you the same visit twice a year.

Why do tree root jobs cost more in older Canberra suburbs?

Houses built before the 1990s generally have earthenware or clay sewer lines. Clay cracks at the joints, roots find the water, and the established suburbs have the mature street trees to supply them. Our post on what causes blocked drains goes through the mechanics of it.

The cost consequence is specific. Cutting roots out with an eel clears the drain but does nothing about the crack that let them in, so the same blockage comes back in six to eighteen months. At that point you are choosing between a clearing visit every year or so, or paying once to reline or replace the section. The clearing is cheap and the repair is not, which is why plenty of people keep paying the small number for years. That is a reasonable decision if you are selling soon and a poor one if you are staying.

Is a CCTV drain inspection worth paying for?

Not on a kitchen sink that cleared in ten minutes. It earns its cost in four situations: the blockage keeps returning, you are about to spend money on excavation, you are buying the house, or somebody else may have to pay and needs evidence.

The camera does not clear anything. What it buys is a measured location and a reason, which means the trench goes in the right place the first time. Digging a metre either side of the actual fault is a far more expensive mistake than the inspection was. We show you the footage rather than describing it, and the same CCTV drain inspection and clearing gear goes out on every van.

Who pays if the blockage is in Icon Water's sewer rather than your pipe?

This is the question that decides whether you have a bill at all, and almost nobody knows to ask it.

Icon Water maintains the public sewer network, and that includes the sewer tie where your internal plumbing joins their network at the lease boundary. As the property owner you are responsible for the sanitary drain on the private side of that tie. Their blocked pipes guidance sets out the split.

Before you ring anybody, find the inspection shaft. It is usually a capped riser within a few metres of your front boundary. Open it and look:

• If it is filling with water, the fault is likely in Icon Water's network. Ring their faults and emergencies line on 02 6248 3111. If the problem is theirs, they fix it at no cost to you.
• If it is empty, the blockage is on your side of the tie and you need a licensed plumber.

There is a second half to this worth knowing. If you have already engaged a plumber and that plumber identifies the fault as being in Icon Water's network, Icon Water reimburses the plumber's cost under its published plumbing reimbursement arrangements. To claim it you need an itemised invoice describing the scope, the property address and an Icon Water job reference number showing they attended. Ask your plumber to write the scope properly on the invoice at the time. Nobody enjoys reconstructing that a month later.

Does an after-hours blocked drain cost more?

It does, and the loading is the same as any emergency plumbing job in Canberra:

Three blockages genuinely cannot wait: sewage backing up into the house, every fixture in the house blocked at once, and the only toilet in the house out of action. Everything else will still be blocked on Monday morning and will cost you less then. The full breakdown sits in our guide to emergency plumber costs in Canberra.

What makes a blocked drain quote go up?

• Length of the run. Clearing a blockage two metres from the gully is not the same job as one twenty metres out under a driveway.
• Access. If there is no inspection opening, or a deck, a shed or a paved courtyard has been built over it, someone has to make access before anyone clears anything.
• What the blockage is. Wet wipes and grease give way. A solid root mass has to be cut back in stages.
• Pipe condition. A partly collapsed line limits what can safely be pushed through it, and sometimes the clearing job turns into a repair quote on the spot.
• Stormwater versus sewer. Stormwater blockages often trace back to gutters and downpipes, which is roof and gutter work rather than a drain clearing job.
• A second visit. Clearing and repairing are usually separate visits, and the quote should say which one you are agreeing to.

Can you clear it yourself and save the callout?

Sometimes. A plunger will shift most single toilet blockages, and a two dollar drain strainer prevents most shower blockages ever happening. Both are worth doing.

Skip the chemical drain cleaners. They are hard on older pipes, they do nothing about roots or a collapsed section, and on a blockage that keeps returning you are buying the same disappointment monthly. If the blockage returns, or more than one fixture is affected, the drain is telling you something a bottle will not fix. Our post on how to prevent blocked drains covers the habits that keep the line clear.

We clear drains right across the ACT, including the older earthenware lines through Woden and Belconnen where the root jobs cluster. You get the price before we start, and if it turns out to be Icon Water's pipe we will tell you that instead of clearing it and invoicing you.