Filmed before a method is chosen, because the soft blockages and the ones that have gone off hard need completely different tools and only one of them is quick.
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Most of what we clear is soft. Wipes lead by a distance, then fat and hair. They gather in a line, a cable goes through them, the fixture runs again and the visit is short.
The other kind arrives after somebody has been working on the house. Plaster and render washout, tile adhesive, grout slurry, concrete washout, paint. All of it pours down a drain without complaint and all of it then does exactly what it is designed to do, which is set.
A cable is the wrong tool for that. It cuts soft material and it cannot cut cured material, and spun against a hard build-up it can burnish the inside of it rather than remove it. The line looks marginally better for a fortnight and then closes again, and the second visit starts from a smaller hole than the first one did.
It is also usually not where people expect. Washout goes down whatever tub or gully was closest at the time and settles at the first change of direction, which is rarely the fixture that is now slow. So we film it, then choose between jetting, a cutting head, or being honest that a section needs replacing.
Say so when you ring, even if it was months ago and even if it was somebody else. It changes what comes off the van.
Wipes, fat and hair give way against a cable and the visit is short. The line was never damaged, something was simply in it, and once it is out the drain works exactly as it did before.
This is the majority of what we clear and it is worth saying so plainly. Most blocked drains are not a fault in the pipe and do not need anything beyond clearing.
The reason the rest of this page exists is that the minority behaves completely differently, and telling the two apart on the phone changes what comes off the van.
Plaster, tile adhesive, grout, render and concrete washout do not sit in a drain waiting to be pushed along. They cure. What is in the pipe by the time anybody rings is a solid with the shape of the pipe.
It gets in during building work, almost always through a floor waste, a laundry tub or an external gully that somebody used to rinse tools or a mixing bucket. Nobody does it maliciously and most people do not realise it matters.
Seven Hills sees more of this than most suburbs, because there is a great deal of renovation work going through housing of this era and a working industrial estate on the doorstep. It is the local version of a common problem.
Spun against cured material, a cable polishes rather than removes. It burnishes the face of the blockage smooth, and a smooth face is harder to break than the rough one it started as.
It can also do damage. Enough torque against something that will not move has to go somewhere, and on an older line that somewhere is occasionally a joint.
So the first question is what the material is, not how hard to push. If a bathroom or a driveway was being worked on in the weeks before, say so, because that single fact changes the method entirely.
Washout goes down whatever fixture was nearest and travels until the line turns, then stops. Bends, junctions and the base of a stack are where it accumulates, because that is where the water slows enough to let a heavy slurry drop out of it.
Which means the blockage is frequently a long way from the fixture that looks like the problem. Working from the fixture is why a first attempt sometimes finds nothing at all.
The camera settles where it actually is before anybody chooses a machine, and on set material that is not an upsell, it is the difference between one visit and three.
Jetting is what shifts set material. A jetter cuts with water rather than pushing with steel, and the correct head will break down cured slurry that a cable simply rides over.
It is not unlimited. There is a point at which the honest answer is that the affected length has to come out, and a plumber who will tell you that is worth more than one who keeps billing for attempts.
That point is identified on camera, not by feel. If two jetting visits have not fixed it, the third one is not the answer either.
Wash tools into a bucket, let the solids settle, tip the water on the garden and put the residue in the bin. That is the whole method and it takes no longer than rinsing into a gully.
It is worth saying to a tradesperson working on your property, and most will not mind being asked. The ones doing it properly already have a bucket.
If you are managing a renovation, this is the single cheapest instruction you can give. A cleared and relined drain costs considerably more than the twenty seconds it saves.
Away from building work, the list is the same as everywhere. Wipes are the largest single cause of what we cut out of house drains, whatever the packet claims about flushability.
Kitchen fat is the slower one. It cools onto the pipe wall, narrows the bore a fraction at a time, and then starts collecting whatever comes past it.
A drain that has been getting steadily worse over a year is usually fat rather than an object, and it responds to jetting rather than to cabling.
On a first blockage that clears easily, it is optional and we will say so. On a second or third in the same year, it is the only thing that answers the question, and clearing again is buying the same afternoon repeatedly.
The footage is yours whatever it shows. A recording of a clear pipe is as useful an answer as a recording of a defect, and it is the one that stops you spending.
Where it does find something, a rough or scoured length after a clean-out is frequently the thing collecting material, and that has a repair rather than a schedule of visits.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Wipes, fat and hair, through an existing access point.
Which on this suburb is what decides the method rather than confirming the price.
For build-up that a cable will not move.
Depending on how much there is and where in the run it sits.
What it was, where it was, and whether the line came out of it intact.
Which fixture, how long, and whether anything has been renovated or washed out. That last answer usually decides the visit.
Because on this one, guessing at the method is how a job takes three visits instead of one.
Cable for soft material, jetting or a cutting head for anything that has gone off hard.
So you can see the line is genuinely open rather than merely flowing today.
Ring and a licensed plumber picks up. We can be moving toward you while you are still talking.
Call 1300 381 569Because it changes the diagnosis completely. Plaster and render washout, tile adhesive, grout slurry, concrete washout and paint all pour down a drain easily and then set hard inside it. If any of that has happened at the property, we are probably not dealing with an ordinary blockage.
Because a cable is designed to cut through soft material. Wipes, fat and hair give way against it. Cured plaster or adhesive does not, and a cable spinning against it can polish the inside instead of removing it. You end up with a smaller opening, a bill, and the same problem in six weeks.
High pressure jetting will remove a lot of it. Where a build-up has gone off hard, a cutting head is the tool. And occasionally the honest answer is that a section has to be replaced, which we would rather tell you from footage than after three failed attempts.
Rarely in the fixture that is now slow. Washout goes down whatever was nearest at the time, so it is frequently a laundry tub, an external gully or a hopper, and it settles at the first place the line changes direction. That is another reason the camera comes first.
Wipes, comfortably ahead of everything else, then fat and hair. Those are the soft ones and they are a straightforward job.
Nothing that sets goes down any drain, on any job, at any time. Wash brushes, tools and buckets into a bucket, let it settle, and put the solids in the bin. It costs nothing and it prevents the most expensive blockage there is.
Clearing an ordinary blockage is $150 to $400. A camera inspection is $250 to $450. Jetting is $400 to $700. Cutting out set material is $500 to $1,100 depending on how much and where.
Tell us which fixture, how long, and whether there has been building work. Nobody is in trouble for the answer, it simply changes the tool that comes off the van.
Filmed, cleared with the method the footage calls for, and filmed again.
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