5 Signs Your Drain Is Blocked (and What to Do First)

Most blocked drains give you plenty of warning before they back up across the bathroom floor. The trick is knowing what to look for, because catching a blockage early usually means a quick, cheap clear instead of an after-hours emergency.

Here are the five signs worth acting on, and what to do the moment you spot them.

1. Water drains slowly or pools

A sink, shower or bath that empties slower than it used to is the most common first sign. Water that sits and pools around your feet in the shower means the blockage is already partway formed. It rarely fixes itself, it only gets worse.

2. Gurgling sounds

If your sink, toilet or shower gurgles when water goes down, air is being forced back up past a partial blockage. A toilet that bubbles when you run the washing machine or empty the bath is a classic sign that the problem is further down the shared line, not just the one fixture.

3. A bad smell around the drains

A rotten-egg or sewer smell near a drain usually means waste is sitting in the pipe instead of flowing away. In kitchens it is often built-up grease and food; in bathrooms it is hair and soap. Either way, the smell is the blockage telling you it is there.

4. More than one fixture affected

If the kitchen sink and the laundry are both slow, or the toilet and shower act up together, the blockage is in a main line that several fixtures share. This is past the DIY stage, a single plunger on one fixture will not reach it.

5. Water backing up in the wrong place

The clearest warning of all: you flush the toilet and water rises in the shower, or you run the sink and the floor waste bubbles up. That is waste with nowhere to go, and it is the last warning before a proper overflow. Stop using water and call a plumber.

What to do first

Before you call, there are a couple of safe things to try:

• Stop using the affected fixtures. Every flush or sink-full adds to what has nowhere to go.
• Try a plunger on a single slow fixture. A good seal and a dozen firm plunges will shift a minor blockage close to the surface.
• Clear the obvious. Pull hair from the shower drain, scrape food out of the sink strainer.
• Skip the chemical drain cleaners. They rarely shift a real blockage, and the caustic ones can damage older pipes and make the eventual repair harder. We explain why on our drain jetting page.

If the blockage is back within a day, or more than one fixture is affected, the problem is further down the line. That is where a CCTV drain camera earns its keep, we find the exact cause and location instead of guessing.

When to call us

In Newcastle’s older suburbs, tree roots growing into clay pipes are the number-one cause of recurring blockages, followed by grease, wet wipes (they do not break down, no matter what the packet says) and the odd kids’ toy. None of those clear themselves.

If you are seeing any of the signs above and a plunger has not fixed it, give us a call. We are a 24/7 local service, we quote a fixed price before we start, and we leave the place clean. Better to clear it now than mop it up at midnight. See blocked drains for how we do it.