Gurgling toilet, slow sink, foul smell or backed-up manhole — we'll have it cleared today. Domestic and commercial, fully insured, no call-out fee, 35 years on the tools.
35+ years on the tools · Same-day service guaranteed · Fully insured domestic & commercial
35+
Years on the tools
Guaranteed
Same-day response
£5M PL
Fully insured
CO5 8DX
Local to West Mersea
Reactive clearance of a partial or full blockage anywhere in your drainage system — from the kitchen waste trap to the connection with the main sewer. Toilets, sinks, baths, showers, downstairs gullies, outside manholes, soakaways, septic outlets — we cover the full range, residential and commercial.
Panicked homeowners with sewage in the downstairs WC. Landlords with a 9pm tenant call. Letting and estate agents needing fast turnaround. Schools across Essex and Suffolk needing the drains running before the bell. Restaurants and takeaways with a kitchen line down at lunchtime. Insurance assessors needing same-day diagnosis on a claim.
Sewage backing up into the property, a toilet that won't flush, manhole overflowing onto a driveway, foul smell inside the building, or any blockage in a commercial property that's stopping trade. These are same-day jobs — call 07736 879575, we'll give you a realistic ETA.
Most failed DIY unblocks make the problem worse: caustic burns the pipe and traps it deeper, plungers push solids further into the run, and the wrong tool in old clay can fracture a joint. A proper unblock identifies what's causing the blockage, removes it, and confirms with a flow test or CCTV — so the same problem doesn't reappear in two weeks.
A blocked drain isn't 'just inconvenient' — it's a clock running on damage and cost. Here's what we routinely find when a job has been put off:
A blocked main run pushes waste back up through the lowest fixture — usually a ground-floor WC, shower or kitchen sink. Once it's on a carpet or oak floor, you're into a four-figure restoration job on top of the £200 unblock.
An overflowing manhole onto a driveway or patio is a Category 3 contamination event. Pets, children, surface drainage and neighbouring properties are all at risk — and you may have a reportable incident on your hands.
Aggressive plunging, hired drain rods used wrongly, or supermarket caustic poured repeatedly down a slow drain. We see fractures every month caused by the attempted fix, not the original blockage.
Landlords: a tenant with a blocked drain over a weekend is a deposit dispute waiting to happen. Letting agents managing voids: a blocked drain delays move-in and triggers rent loss.
Two-minute call with Matt to scope the symptoms, agree an ETA and confirm pricing brackets before we leave the yard. No call-out fee for the conversation.
We lift covers, run flow tests and — where relevant — drop the CCTV camera in to identify the actual cause, not the easiest symptom.
Itemised price covering parts, labour, disposal and timeline. You approve in writing before any tools come out of the van.
Work carried out cleanly: dust sheets, tool mats and bagged waste. We protect floors, gardens and driveways throughout.
Post-works flow test, CCTV verification where appropriate, photos and a written job sheet emailed within 24 hours plus our workmanship guarantee.
Most Essex and Colchester jobs done on the day of the call. Out-of-hours and weekend cover available — same engineer, same kit, same standard.
We charge for the work, not for the conversation or the drive. Get a fixed price on the phone before we set off.
Every unblock comes with a quick CCTV check to see what caused it — so we can warn you about repeat risk.
Dust sheets, tool mats, full tidy. The property is cleaner when we leave than when we arrived.
If the same blockage returns from the same cause within 30 days we come back at no charge. On the job sheet, in writing.
Photos, CCTV, invoice with itemised parts and labour — everything you need for a buildings or contents claim.
Drain unblocking is fast diagnostic work. The first ten minutes on site determine whether you're paying £180 or £1,800 — because the wrong method on the wrong pipe is what turns a blockage into a collapse. Here's how we approach unblocks across the patch.
Discuss your projectWet-wipes flushed down toilets (by far the largest single cause in 2024–26). Cooking fat solidifying in kitchen runs. Hair and soap in shower and bath traps. Tree-root ingress through old clay joints in established Colchester and Ipswich gardens. Wrong items flushed by children. Collapsed sections of pitch-fibre or clay pipe causing partial dams. Silt and grit in surface-water gullies. Foreign objects in commercial WCs (a thriving genre).
High-pressure water jetter (up to 4000 PSI) with multiple nozzles. Sectional and continuous drain rods to 60m. Electro-mechanical drain machine for heavy roots. Push-rod CCTV camera with monitor and MP4 recorder. Vacuum recovery for sewage spill. Hand augers and toilet plungers for trap-level work. Personal protective equipment — including respirators for confined-space WC and manhole work.
Typically one engineer, 60–120 minutes, £150–£350 fully fixed. We arrive, locate the blockage by working the run from the nearest accessible chamber, clear it with the appropriate tool, run a flow test, drop the camera, and email a job sheet within 24 hours. Same-day, evenings and weekends covered across Essex, Suffolk and London.
Often two engineers for larger sites — schools, restaurants, retail. The job is priced after a short site look because access, depth and pipe diameter all vary. Most commercial jobs come with a CCTV survey and a follow-up planned-maintenance proposal so the call-out doesn't repeat.
Kitchen waste run (60% of kitchen calls). U-bend / soil pipe transition (45% of WC calls). External gully or rest-bend (most outdoor smell complaints). Main run between the property and the public sewer (the expensive ones — frequently tree-root or collapse). We diagnose on site, not over the phone — but a quick description usually narrows it.
Colchester, Essex, Suffolk & London.
Call Matt direct or request a written quote — we'll come back to you fast.
Clear Drains 4 U · West Mersea, Colchester CO5 8DX · 35 years' experience
