A new white PVC drainage pipe laid in a fresh gravel trench between earth walls, golden afternoon light.
Service 04 — Drainage & maintenance

Slow drains, smelly gullies, downpipes that overflow when it rains.

Clearing, locating, and the dig-and-replace work for a section of pipe well past its decade. Most blockages are clearable in a single visit; the ones that aren't usually have a story I'll find on camera before I quote replacement.

What I cover

Most of the work is finding the cause, not just clearing the symptom.

Drains block for a reason. Sometimes the reason is a one-off — a wipe, a build-up of fat, the wrong thing flushed once. Sometimes the reason is a pipe with a crack, a tree root in the joint, or a fall that's gone the wrong way over twenty years.

Either way, the symptom is the same: water that won't drain, or water that drains but smells. The right fix depends on what's actually going on. So I clear it first, then find out why.

  • Blocked sinks, basins, baths, showers. Trap and waste line clearing — usually fast, sometimes a sign of a bigger story upstream.
  • Blocked toilets & soil pipes. Clearing without taking the pan off where I can; lifting it where I have to.
  • Mainline drain blockages. The big one — when nothing in the house is draining. Usually a job for the high-pressure jet and the camera.
  • Gully trap problems. Slow gullies, smelly gullies, gullies overflowing in heavy rain. Usually fixable; occasionally telling you something serious about the system downstream.
  • Stormwater & spouting. Downpipes that overflow, spouting that's pouring into the wrong place, stormwater drains that can't keep up in a heavy event.
  • CCTV pipe inspection. When a blockage keeps coming back, I'll camera the line and show you exactly what's there before quoting a replacement.
  • Pipe replacement. Targeted excavation and replacement of failed sections. New PVC, properly bedded, properly fallen, photo-documented before backfill.
A clean cast iron drain grate set into a concrete patio, golden hour light.
When it keeps blocking

The same drain blocking twice a year isn't bad luck.

If you're calling someone every few months for the same blockage, the line is trying to tell you something. Usually it's a tree root, a partial collapse, a settled section, or wrong-way fall. All of these are findable.

Camera first, dig second.

If a drain has blocked twice in a year, the cost of a CCTV inspection is well under what you'll save by not having a third clearance call. The camera tells me where the problem is, what it is, and how much pipe needs to come out.

I share the camera footage with you. You see what I see. The quote is for the actual problem, not for “a section” of unspecified size.

The right repair, not the biggest repair.

I won't quote a full driveway dig-up if a 2m spot repair will solve it. But I also won't quote a spot repair if it's going to fail again in three years and you'll be paying a second time.

Where I find a real problem, I'll show you the options — repair, partial replacement, full replacement — and tell you what each one buys you in years. Then you decide.

Maintenance & the older Auckland house

Old houses, old pipes — a quick conversation about what's worth watching.

A lot of East Auckland homes are 30 to 60 years old. The drainage in those houses tends to be a mix of original earthenware (gone brittle), PVC sections added by various tradespeople over decades, and one or two surprises around the boundary.

If you're moving into a house, planning a renovation, or just want to know what state your drainage is actually in — I'll do a CCTV inspection and a written report. No surprise quote attached. Just a clear picture of what's there.

Also

The rest of the work I take.

  • 01

    Same-day callouts for bursts, blocks, and hot-water failures.

  • 02

    Cylinder replacements, repairs, pressure issues, slow recovery.

  • 03

    Renovation rough-ins, fit-offs, single-fixture swaps.

Phone first

Drain not draining? I'll be on it.

Most blockages are clearable in a single visit. If yours isn't, you'll be the first to know — and you'll see the camera footage before I quote anything bigger.

Call Ben