You pry open your eyes and drag yourself to the bathroom to begin your morning routine, moments later you flush the toilet only to witness the gurgling pool of water rising back up and realise it is totally and utterly blocked. Does this sound familiar?

Blocked drains are one of the most common problems many homeowners face at some point. The worst part is they always seem to happen at the most inopportune times; when you have friends or family coming to stay, you’re throwing a party and the guests are about to arrive, or in the middle of the footy grand final and your favourite team is playing.

As common occurrence as this is, most mishaps do not appear out of the blue. There are a number of different reasons drains become blocked and they can differ from suburb to suburb. Sometimes it’s tree roots or wet wipes, other times its towels, shoes or the kid’s toys. You name it, we’ve seen it and likely pulled it out of a drain.

What are the most common causes of blocked drains?

There’s a whole bunch of reasons drains become blocked and we see all sorts of things causing blockages. Sometimes it’s not easy to determine what the issue is, so we use our CCTV drain inspection cameras to get the inside story on what might be stuck in your pipes. Usually it’s an easy fix, sometimes we need to go to greater lengths to unblock a drain. Either way, here are the main causes of blockages, in certain areas, we find when we visit your home.

Tree Roots

This is by far the most common cause of blocked drains in Australia. Even if the area directly above your drains is free of trees, tree roots are always looking for water, so they spread their roots out further and further and typically extend out as far as their branches do. Over time tree roots work their way through hairline cracks or breaks in your pipes looking for water and nutrients, until they infest the pipe and trap any items that are flushed down the drain, eventually causing a blockage.

Fat, Grease and Oils

Typically, these types of blockages occur in the kitchen, where fat or oil is poured down the sink during the dinner wash up. Rather than pouring it down the sink, the best way to deal with grease is to let it cool and throw it away with the rubbish. Many people think that because heated oils or fats are liquid when they’re poured down the sink that they will stay liquid and be flushed away by water or detergents, however, this isn’t true. Once these fats and oils cool, they will solidify, creating “fatbergs” in your drains, which begin restricting the flow and then totally block your drain.

Food Waste

Also found to be an issue in the kitchen, people often scrape or rinse their plates into the sink without using a sink strainer. Before washing your dishes in the sink, make sure you have disposed of all the food waste, and if you are using a dishwasher, remember to remove all food waste before stacking the plates inside the dishwasher. Any food waste that does make it into your drains will build up and eventually create a blockage that will need to be removed.

Hair

Be it human or pet, hair is often a common contributor to blocked drains, especially in the shower, laundry, bathtub and basins. It is particularly bad because hair can bind itself to oils, fats and other foreign objects in your pipes and cause blockages. The easiest way to make sure you don’t get clogged drains from hair is to stop the hair from going down the drain by installing a drain catcher.

Kids Toys

This may sound far-fetched, but you would be surprised at how often we see blockages because the kids have been curious and want to see how many tennis balls, cars or barbie shoes they can fit down the drain.

Wet Wipes

Even if they say flushable, they don’t belong in your drains. Wet wipes, paper towel, nappies and sanitary items all attach themselves to the pipes, expand and quickly block your drains.

Signs of blocked drains

Typically, blocked drains produce early warning signs before they block completely and cause a plumbing disaster. If you are aware of the signs and symptoms you can recognise the issue and get some expert help before it develops into a serious problem.

The most common signs of blocked drains are:

Slow draining

One of the most obvious signs of blocked drains is your sink, bath or shower emptying abnormally slow. This problem will typically increase and become worse over time.

Bad Smells

Once something blocks your drains; water, hair and debris will continuously accumulate behind whatever is causing the block. When the water becomes stagnant and solids start to decompose a pungent odour can spread through the air and be detected in the area around your sinks, shower, bath and toilets.

Gurgling Sounds

A blocked drain will often cause any affected fixtures to gurgle as the water drains.

Changes in flush

Having a blocked drain can make the water level in your toilet rise higher when you flush, or it could affect filling and mean that the water level lowers in the bowl.

At Pipe Doctor we have specialised equipment to help locate and eliminate blocked drains, including high-pressure water jet cleaning and CCTV drain inspection cameras. If you have the signs of a blocked drain, call the experts and get it fixed fast.



When you have a drainage disaster you can count on us to get you back up and running.

“Nuck, Nuck, Pipe Doctor” 1300 747 337

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