Blocked Drains Perth

Blocked drain? We find the exact cause with a CCTV camera, then clear it with high pressure jetting. No call-out fee, upfront quotes.

CCTV Drain Camera | High Pressure Jetting | Air Snake | Rigid Snake | Root Locating

No Call-Out Fee
Fixed Price Before We Start
Lifetime Workmanship Guarantee

Over 10 years clearing blocked drains, sewers and stormwater lines across Perth. We locate tree root intrusion to the metre, so the drain that blocked this winter is not the same drain you are calling about next winter.

UNBLOCK MY DRAIN

0493 085 350

Clear First, Confirm With Camera

A camera cannot get past a full blockage. We clear the line first, then run the camera through to confirm the cause and check the fix has held.

No Call-Out Fees

You get an upfront quote before any work starts. No surprises on the invoice.

7:30am-4pm Mon-Fri. After-hours call-outs may incur a fee.

Same Day Response

Sewage backing up is not a wait-until-Monday job. We get someone to you fast.

Roots Located To The Metre

Sonde and locator tech marks the exact spot and depth on the surface.

Blocked Drain & CCTV Services Across Perth

One van carries the camera, the jetter and the mechanical gear, so the blockage gets diagnosed and cleared in the same visit instead of over three.

CCTV drain camera head inside a sewer pipe

CCTV Drain Camera Inspection

A self-levelling camera head cannot get past a full blockage, so it goes in once the line is running again, or on its own for a drain that is slow rather than fully blocked. It sends live video back to the reel and shows us cracked earthenware, collapsed sections, bellied pipe holding water, misaligned joints, grease build-up and root masses. That is what tells you why a drain blocked and whether it needs anything more than a clear, and it is also how we check a fresh clear has actually worked all the way through.

Book an inspection

Tap Tech hydro jetter reel set up beside an open drain access point in Perth

High Power Hydro Jetting

Our high pressure jetter drives water through the line at a pressure that shears roots off at the pipe wall and strips out the fat, silt and scale that a cable just punches a hole through. Different nozzles for different jobs: a penetrating head to break the plug, then a flushing head to scour the pipe back to its full bore. No chemicals go into the ground.

Get a jetting quote

Air Snake

A burst of compressed air fired into the line to shift a soft blockage without pulling anything apart. It is quick, it is clean, and on smaller waste lines such as basins, laundry troughs and floor wastes it will often clear a slow drain in minutes. Handy in units and townhouses where there is no room to set up a jetter.

Ask about the air snake

Rigid drain snake set up ready to clear a blocked sewer line

Rigid Snake & Electric Eel

When the blockage is hard, packed or a long way in, a rigid cable machine with a cutting head chews through it. This is the tool for heavy root balls and compacted debris in older sewer lines. We often run the eel first to open a path, then jet behind it so the pipe is left properly clean rather than merely flowing again.

Book a drain clear

Tap Tech plumber using a RIDGID locator wand to pinpoint tree roots on a Perth lawn

Locator Technology For Tree Roots

A sonde in the camera head transmits a signal that we track from above ground with a locator wand. That gives us the position and the depth of the fault, marked on your lawn or driveway in paint. Instead of digging a trench and hoping, you get one small hole in one right spot, which is the difference between a morning's work and a wrecked garden.

Locate my blockage

Blocked Toilets, Sewers & Stormwater

Gurgling toilet, water rising in the shower, a gully overflowing in the side yard, or a stormwater pit that turns your patio into a pond every time it rains. They are all symptoms of the same thing, a line that has lost its fall or its bore. We clear the immediate problem, then tell you plainly whether it is a maintenance job or a pipe that needs replacing.

Get it cleared today

Drain Backing Up Right Now?

Sewage in the shower or the yard is a health issue, not a tomorrow issue. Call and talk to a licensed plumber, not a call centre.

Call 0493 085 350 Request a call back

Six Signs Your Drain Is About To Fail

A drain rarely blocks without warning. It usually tells you for weeks first, and the warnings are cheap to act on compared to what happens when you ignore them.

Gurgling toilet or drain

Air being forced back past a partial blockage. It means the line is restricted but still passing water. This is the cheapest possible moment to deal with it.

Shower or bath draining slowly

Usually grease, hair and soap scum narrowing the pipe, or roots catching debris further along. One slow fixture is local. Several is the main line.

More than one fixture backing up

If flushing the toilet raises water in the shower, the blockage is past the point where those two lines join. That is a main line problem, not a plunger problem.

A smell outside near the gully

The overflow relief gully in the side yard is designed to release sewage outside rather than inside. If you can smell it, it is already doing its job.

Water pooling in the yard or driveway

Either a stormwater line or soakwell that has stopped taking water, or a cracked sewer leaking into the surrounding ground. Both get worse, neither fixes itself.

The same drain blocking again

The clearest signal of the lot. A drain that blocks twice in a year has a structural cause that clearing does not touch. This is the one to put a camera down.

Recognise Two Or More? Book An Inspection

Tree roots growing through a cracked earthenware sewer pipe

What Is Actually Blocking Your Drain

In Perth the answer is usually tree roots, and usually in a pipe that was never going to keep them out forever. Homes built before the 1980s were typically plumbed with vitrified clay, laid in short lengths and sealed at every joint. Those joints move, they weather, and eventually they weep. A weeping joint in dry sandy soil is the most attractive thing in the neighbourhood to a thirsty root system.

Root tips only need a half-millimetre gap to get in. Once one is through it thickens inside the pipe, catches paper and fat on the way past, and what started as a slow-draining shower becomes a full blockage months later. Figs, gums, melaleucas and paperbarks, jacarandas, poplars, willows and liquidambars are the names that come up again and again, and the tree responsible is very often not the one nearest the drain.

The other regulars we pull out of Perth lines:

Cooking fat and soap scum that has set hard around the pipe wall
Wet wipes sold as flushable, which do not break down
Sand and silt washed into stormwater pits and soakwells
Bellied or back-fallen sections where the ground has settled
Cracked or collapsed pipe after roadworks, paving or a new extension

Which one it is changes the fix and it changes the price, and you cannot tell them apart from the surface. That is the whole argument for putting a camera in before anyone quotes you on digging.

Tap Tech technician using a locator near tree roots to mark a pipe for repair

When It Keeps Coming Back: The Long-Term Fix For Roots

Clearing a root-blocked drain gets the water moving again. It does not stop the roots finding their way back through the same gap, which is why the same section can block again eight, ten, twelve months later even though nothing on your end has changed.

If the camera shows the same joint or crack causing it more than once, clearing it again is not the answer. Locating and repairing that section of pipe is. We use the sonde in the camera head and a locator wand from the surface to mark the exact position and depth of the fault, not the tree, the pipe itself.

That gives you one small, targeted dig instead of a trench on a guess, a short section of new pipe in, and roots can no longer get back in through a joint that no longer weeps.

Camera confirms roots are the cause and where they are entering
Locator marks the exact position and depth on the surface
One small, targeted excavation instead of a trench on a guess
Short section of pipe replaced and properly sealed at the joints
The repeat call-outs stop because the entry point is gone

Stormwater, Soakwells And The Perth Winter

Perth does not send its stormwater to the sewer. It goes into soakwells in your own ground, which works beautifully right up until the day it does not. Sand and leaf litter wash off the roof and settle in the pit, the surrounding soil silts up, and the well stops taking water at the rate it used to. You will not notice through summer. You notice in the first serious June downpour, when the driveway ponds and water tracks toward the house.

Where you live changes the failure too. The coastal sand belt drains freely, but that same loose sand migrates straight into any crack in a pipe and washes out the bedding underneath it, leaving voids and sagging sections. Further east on the heavier Guildford clay the ground swells and shrinks with the seasons, and rigid pipe joints get levered apart by the movement.

One more Perth habit worth mentioning. Inspection openings get paved over, bricked in, or buried under liquid limestone during a landscaping job. It looks tidy. It also means that when something does block, the access point everybody needs is under your new courtyard. If you know roughly where yours is, tell us on the phone.

Open soakwell pit silted up with sand in a Perth backyard

How We Clear A Blocked Drain

Four steps, and you know the price before anything gets cleared.

Talk And Book

Tell us what is happening and where. We give you an arrival window and send an ETA text when the van is on the way.

Upfront Price To Clear

Based on what you tell us and what we find on site, we give you a fixed price to clear the blockage before any work starts.

Clear The Line

We use the right tool for the job, jetter, rigid snake or air snake, to get water flowing again. A camera cannot pass a full blockage, so this comes first.

CCTV Confirms The Cause

With the line running, the camera goes through to show you what caused it and confirm it is clear. If it is something structural, we give you a straight answer and a price for the long-term fix.

Tap Tech Plumbing and Gas technician beside a fully equipped service van in Perth

About Tap Tech Plumbing & Gas

We are a Perth plumbing and gas business that has spent more than ten years on local drains, and drains are where the guesswork in this trade usually happens. Plenty of operators will clear the symptom, take the money and leave you to find out in six months that nothing was actually diagnosed.

Our approach is the opposite and it is not complicated. A fixed price before the tools come out. The right piece of equipment for that specific blockage, whether that is the jetter, the eel or a burst of air. Then the camera goes through to confirm the cause and check the line is properly clear, and a straight answer on whether the drain needs anything further.

We work across the Perth metro area, from the northern coastal suburbs down through the river suburbs to the southern corridor, on houses, units, strata blocks, rentals and commercial sites. Everything we do is backed by our Lifetime Workmanship Guarantee.

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Why Choose Us?

The things customers actually notice, which are rarely the things plumbers advertise.

No call-out fees
Upfront quotes before work starts
10+ years experience
Reliable and clear communication
We keep your home tidy
We send an ETA text so you are not waiting all day
Licensed and insured plumbers and gas fitters
Committed to being the only plumber you will ever need

Suburbs We Clear Drains In

Based in East Victoria Park and working right across the Perth metro area, north and south of the river. If your suburb is not on the list, call anyway, it almost certainly still is.

Alkimos
Applecross
Ardross
Attadale
Banksia Grove
Beaconsfield
Beldon
Bibra Lake
Bicton
Booragoon
Butler
Carine
City Beach
Claremont
Cockburn
Como
Craigie
Dalkeith
East Fremantle
East Victoria Park
Fremantle
Heathridge
Hillarys
Hilton
Iluka
Joondalup
Kardinya
Lake Coogee
Melville
Mosman Park
Mullaloo
Nedlands
North Perth
Ocean Reef
Padbury
Palmyra
Quinns Rocks
Riverton
Salter Point
Scarborough
Shelley
South Perth
Spearwood
Trigg
Wembley Downs
Winthrop
Woodvale
Victoria Park

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a sewer, a stormwater drain and a soakwell?

The sewer carries wastewater from your toilets, showers, basins and laundry. Stormwater is rain coming off the roof and paving, and in Perth it does not go to the sewer at all, it goes into soakwells buried in your own ground where it soaks away. They are separate systems with separate problems. A blocked sewer smells and backs up inside the house. A failed stormwater line or silted soakwell shows up as water pooling in the yard or against the house after heavy rain. Worth knowing which one you are describing when you call, though we will work it out either way.

What is a CCTV drain inspection?

A small self-levelling camera on a push rod travels down the drain and sends live video back to a screen at the reel. It cannot get past a full blockage, so it goes in once we have cleared the line, or on a drain that is running slow rather than fully blocked. It shows exactly what is in the pipe and what condition the pipe itself is in, so you get a straight answer on whether it was a one-off, a root problem that will return, or a section of pipe that has failed and needs repair.

What is the difference between hydro jetting, a rigid snake and an air snake?

They solve different problems. High pressure jetting uses water to shear roots off at the pipe wall and scour out fat, silt and scale, so the pipe is returned to its full bore rather than just given a hole to drain through. A rigid snake, or electric eel, drives a steel cable with a cutting head into hard, packed or distant blockages, which is the tool for heavy root balls. An air snake fires a burst of compressed air to shift a soft blockage in a smaller waste line without any dismantling, and it is ideal in units where there is nowhere to set up a jetter. Often the right answer is a combination: eel first to open a path, jetter behind it to clean properly.

Will high pressure jetting damage my pipes?

Not when the operator matches the pressure and nozzle to the pipe. We base that call on what you tell us on the phone, the age of the property and what we see on site, running a lower pressure on older or questionable pipe as a matter of course. The camera goes through afterwards to confirm the line is clear and show us the actual condition of the pipe. If it turns out to need anything further, we will tell you plainly and talk about the repair options rather than quietly having a go.

Which trees cause blocked drains in Perth?

Figs are the worst offenders, with roots that travel well beyond the canopy. Gums, melaleucas and paperbarks, jacarandas, poplars, willows and liquidambars all turn up regularly too. The important thing to understand is that the culprit is frequently not the closest tree. Roots follow moisture, and a large tree ten metres away will happily reach a weeping joint that a shrub beside the drain never touched. Where practical, keep the big species well clear of the sewer line.

Why does my drain keep blocking in the same spot?

Because something structural is causing it, and clearing the blockage does not fix the cause. Usually it is a root entry point at a joint, a section that has lost its fall and now holds water, or a crack that keeps catching debris. Cut the roots out and they grow back through the same gap. That repeating cycle is the clearest signal that the fix is locating and replacing that section of pipe, not paying for another clear every eight months.

Do you have to dig up my garden or driveway?

Most jobs need no excavation at all. The camera and the jetter both work through existing access points. When a repair genuinely does need the pipe exposed, the sonde in the camera head lets us track the fault from above ground and mark its position and depth on the surface. That means one small targeted hole in the right place instead of a trench dug on a guess.

What does it cost to clear a blocked drain?

It depends on what is causing it, where it is and how far in, which is why we will not quote a number down the phone and then revise it in your driveway. There is no call-out fee between 7:30am and 4pm, Monday to Friday. Outside those hours a call-out fee may apply. Either way, we assess what is happening and give you a fixed price to clear it before anything starts. If the camera turns up something structural once the line is running, we will tell you plainly and price that separately. You are never stuck with a bill for a decision you did not make.

Is a blocked drain an emergency?

If wastewater is coming back up into the shower, the toilet or the yard, treat it as one. That is contaminated water inside your living space and it will not improve on its own. A slow-draining basin or a gurgling toilet is not urgent in the same way, but it is an early warning that something is restricting the line, and dealing with it then is a great deal cheaper than dealing with it after it fails completely.

Do you clear stormwater drains and soakwells as well as sewers?

Yes. Perth disposes of stormwater on site through soakwells rather than into the sewer, and they silt up with sand and leaf litter over time. If your driveway ponds or water tracks toward the house every time it rains hard, that is a stormwater problem rather than a sewer one, and it gets a different approach. We handle both.

I am renting, or I manage the property. Who arranges it?

We work with owners, tenants, property managers and strata regularly, so tell us the arrangement when you call and we will work to it. Owners generally carry drain repairs; how the call-out itself is handled comes down to the lease and the cause. Because the camera identifies the actual fault and the quote is itemised and fixed, everyone in that chain can see what was found and what it costs, which tends to shorten the conversation about who signs off.

Are your plumbers licensed and insured?

Yes. Tap Tech Plumbing & Gas is a licensed and insured Perth plumbing and gas business with more than ten years behind it, and every job we do carries our Lifetime Workmanship Guarantee. If something we did fails, we come back and fix it at no cost to you.

Book Your Blocked Drain Job

Tell us what the drain is doing and we will call you back with a time. No call-out fee, and you get an upfront price before any work starts. Every job is covered by our Lifetime Workmanship Guarantee.

Call 0493 085 350

Or fill in the form below and we will come back to you.

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Testimonials

Tap Tech Plumbing & Gas

Based on 132 reviews

Review us on

Tap Tech's service was very good. They came to our office within 2 hours and fixed the issue right away. Highly recommended

Ashish Shetty

A job well done 👍 and very well organised. Nay was courteous, right on time. This was a small job but Nat checked all our other tapes and pipes around the unit. That’s really helpful and needed. Will definitely call... read more them again.

Swirlwind Shirl
The guys turned up on time, were polite and did a very professional job. Were good at explaining my options, worked fast, for a good price, No complaints and will use again (have already booked them for another job). Very... read more

Daniel McNamara

So happy with the prompt service. Nay was friendly, professional, efficient and left no mess. I was very pleased with my experience with Tap Tech and will use them again.

Nellie
I had a great experience with Tap Tech Plumbing and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again. Caiden was honest from the first phone call, letting me know my leak wasn’t an emergency and suggesting I book during the week rather... read more

Gemma G

Very professional and helpful.

Adelel Salleo
Had an issue that needed to be fixed quickly. Jaimi was very helpful with scheduling and Nay came out to complete the work. Nay completed the free plumbing safety inspection and identified an issue that was better rectified then and there. We... read more

M C

Good service and workmanship by Nav from Tap Tech Plumbing and Gas. He is very knowledgeable in fixing my toilet cistern. I will recommend him to anyone requiring plumbing work.

George Chi
Awesome plumbers! Quality service and second to none, highly recommended 👍

Anthony Rowell

Efficient, clear communication and friendly

Samuel Vyimes
Strongly recommend Caiden and the team at Tap Tech! We recently paid $400 for a "call out/investigation" fee from another plumber, only to receive an exorbitant quote for the work. After asking Caiden for a second opinion, he confirmed it only needed... read more

Cleon Kartawiria

Caiden has done several jobs for me over the past few months & I've found him to be professional, prompt, friendly and reasonably priced. He carried out CCTV inspection of the drainage system & installed new stormwater pipework. He also... read more

Maureen Campbell
I am very happy with the prompt, efficient and affordable service provided by Jaimie, Caiden and Nay. I needed a new spout in the bathroom and a new kitchen mixer tap, both of which were installed by Nay at a... read more

Deepti Azariah

Thanks team, really happy with quality of service. Our HWS is running smoothly. Cheers

Bel White
Caiden completed a number jobs for me in a very professional manner. A very personable tradesman, Caiden's work and ethic was very impressive. Thanks Tap Tech.

Steve Lushey

Excellent service by Caiden. Communication great. Kept me informed at all times and sorted the problem I had. Would definitely recommend! 👍

Leeanne McKie
Leaky pipes repaired, great fast service. Definitely recommend.

Keef Guessin

Highly recommend Tap Tech Plumbing & Gas! Caiden responded quickly to a burst pipe and had the problem fixed efficiently and professionally. The inspection was thorough, and they took the time to explain everything clearly, giving me confidence that the... read more

Merryn ryde
Very reliable and competent plumbers. Punctual, good communicators and polite. Would readily recommend this business.

Joseph Martis

Great service received once again today from Caiden at short notice. Genuinely the best service I have encountered in a long time across a few jobs whilst renovating a house

David Masters