Quick answer: across the UK, a straightforward drain clearance usually falls somewhere around £80 to £250. Stubborn or hard-to-reach blockages run higher. What decides it is how bad the blockage is, how easy the drain is to get to, what it takes to shift it, and what time you need someone out. Those are typical market ranges, not quotes, and they vary by job and by company, so get the price confirmed before anyone starts work. At Drains 4 Brighton the price is agreed with you on the phone, and there is no call-out fee.
How much does it cost to unblock a drain?
There is no single fixed price, because no two blockages are the same. Honest UK market guidance looks roughly like this:
- A simple, easy-access blockage, say a gully or something shallow that clears on rods: often £80 to £150.
- A moderate blockage that needs more time or more work: commonly £150 to £250.
- A stubborn or deep blockage needing high-pressure jetting or awkward access work: £250 and upward.
Treat those as approximate. A gully choked with leaves and a bit of silt is ten minutes' work. A run that has been slowly furring up with fat for six years, under a paved-over inspection chamber, at half past eleven on a Sunday night, is not. Both are "a blocked drain" as far as a price list is concerned, which is the trouble with price lists.
The way to actually know is to have someone assess your job and confirm the price first. We tell you the price for your specific blocked drain clearance before we begin, never at the end.
Call 07404 434534 and describe what you are seeing. It takes a couple of minutes.
What affects the price?
When you ring, these are the things being worked out:
- How bad it is, and how far down. A blockage sitting near the surface shifts quickly. One compacted deep in the run takes longer and needs heavier kit.
- Whether we can get to it. An open inspection chamber in the middle of a lawn is a different job from a cover that has been decked over, or a gully wedged between a wall and a shed.
- What it will take to shift. Some blockages come out on rods in minutes. Grease and hard-packed silt need jetting, which means more equipment and more time, and usually more money.
- What time you need us. A booked daytime job is the standard rate. Three in the morning on a bank holiday is not, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
- Whether the drain is even yours. If it is a shared drain or a public sewer, the cost may not be yours at all. See below.
These combine differently on every job, which is why the number comes from a conversation and not a table.
Unblocking, clearance, jetting: are you paying for different things?
Three words for what is largely the same call-out, and the difference is method rather than marketing.
Drain unblocking and drain clearance are used interchangeably by most firms, including us. Both mean getting a blocked run flowing again, whatever it takes on the day. If one company quotes for "clearance" and another for "unblocking", you are comparing like with like, so compare the numbers and what is included rather than the wording.
Jetting is a specific method, not a separate service. A high-pressure hose is fed into the run and scours the pipe wall, rather than a rod poking a hole through the middle of the blockage. It costs more because it means bringing a jetter and spending longer, and it is worth it when the alternative is clearing the same drain again in a fortnight.
The trap to watch for is a quote for "unblocking" that turns into a bigger number once jetting is mentioned on site. Ask upfront what happens if rods don't shift it. We tell you the price for the job, and if it needs jetting, that is in the number you agreed before we started.
How much does drain jetting cost?
Expect it at the upper end, so £250 and upward as a market range, because it is the answer to the blockages that rods can't fix rather than a routine first step.
What you are paying for is the equipment and the time. Setting up a jetter, working the hose down the run, and jetting back towards the chamber takes longer than twenty minutes with a set of rods. The pipe comes back to full bore instead of keeping a narrowed channel through the middle of whatever caused the problem.
It is the right call for hardened fat and grease, compacted silt down a long run, and root ingress, and it is usually the cheaper option over a year if the same drain has already blocked twice. It is the wrong call, and an unnecessary expense, for a gully full of leaves that would come clear with a pair of gloves.
What does it cost to clear an outside drain?
Usually less than people expect, because a good share of outside drain problems are the gully pot itself silting up rather than anything underground. That is a short job at the bottom of the range.
It climbs once the blockage is in the buried run past the gully, and climbs again if the inspection chamber has been paved or decked over and has to be found and lifted first. Access does more to the price here than the blockage does. Before you ring anyone, it is worth lifting the grid and emptying the pot yourself, which is set out step by step in clearing a blocked outside drain. If that fixes it, you have saved the call entirely.
Do you charge a call-out fee?
No.
There are two common models in the trade. Some firms charge a fixed fee just for attending and add the work on top, and occasionally you pay that fee even if nothing gets fixed. Others quote for the clearance itself and nothing else.
Drains 4 Brighton is the second kind. No attendance charge, no hidden extras, and the price agreed before any work starts. If you want a price for your situation, ring and we will talk it through. You are not committing to anything by asking.
Call 07404 434534
Is a blocked drain my responsibility or the water company's?
Worth checking before you pay anyone, including us.
Drains within your property boundary that serve only your home are usually your responsibility. Shared drains serving more than one property, and public sewers, are usually the water company's, and Southern Water may well clear them at no cost to you.
It is not always obvious which one you have got, and it changes the answer completely. We go through how to tell in Who is responsible for a blocked drain?
If it does turn out to be yours, we are here around the clock across Sussex, price agreed upfront, no call-out fee.
Call 07404 434534