Blocked Sewer in Greenwich
1000+ five-star reviews
A blocked sewer stops every fixture in the house at once, because each drain feeds the one line. Your Plumber Greenwich clears choked mains, diagnoses the true cause on camera and repairs the pipe so the backup does not return in three months.
If waste is coming back up right now, Greenwich locals know who answers, and the van carries the gear for exactly this fault.
- $0 Call Out Fee
- Lifetime Labour Warranty
- Licensed & Insured
- Lic #275278C
- Licensed & Insured
- $0 Call Out Fee
- Lifetime Labour Warranty
- On-Site Fast, 24/7
- 1000+ five-star reviews
- Real Humans Answer, Day or Night
- Lic #275278C
- Licensed & Insured
- $0 Call Out Fee
- Lifetime Labour Warranty
- On-Site Fast, 24/7
- 1000+ five-star reviews
- Real Humans Answer, Day or Night
- Lic #275278CNSW plumbing licence, fully insured, water and gas
- $0 Call Out FeeIt costs nothing to get us to your door
- Lifetime Labour WarrantyIf it's not right, we come back. No questions. No cost.
- 1000+ five-star reviewsSydney homeowners have rated us five stars over a thousand times
When the main stops, the whole house stops with it
Water and waste have nowhere to go but back up, and they always arrive at the lowest fixture first. A gurgling floor waste, a shower pooling while the washing machine drains, a toilet rising instead of emptying: these are main-line symptoms, not separate faults.
Call (02) 9072 0504 and describe what you can see, and we will tell you within minutes what you are likely dealing with and what to stop using until we arrive.
Why sewer mains fail differently on this peninsula
The point's sewers are mostly original: salt-glazed earthenware laid before the war under Federation and interwar homes.
- Shifted joints invite roots in A century of ground movement has moved the earthenware joints just enough for fine roots to find, and once inside they thicken until the line chokes.
- The falls add their own character Waste drops steeply from the River Road ridge toward the harbour on both sides, so long private runs carry load over more distance than the same house would on flat ground.
- Low junctions wear hardest Down in the Gore Creek corridor, storm surcharge can push back into low connections after heavy rain, which is why some blockages appear only in wet weather and clear themselves a day later.
Those wet-weather mains are worth diagnosing properly rather than poking at, because the pattern always has an underground cause.
Sewer services we provide: diagnosis, clearance and permanent repair
Every main-line job starts with finding out what is actually in the pipe, because the right fix for roots is not the right fix for a collapsed junction. Here is how we handle the work, as part of our full drainage service.
High-pressure main clearing
Jetting strips the whole pipe wall clean instead of punching a tunnel through the choke, removing root mass, silt and grease in one pass, which matters on the peninsula's steep falls where a partial clear washes downstream and reblocks at the low junctions.
CCTV sewer diagnosis
A camera pass through the cleared line records exactly what caused the choke, where it sits and how badly the pipe is damaged, and you watch the footage yourself, so any repair quote rests on evidence rather than a guess about conditions underground.
Root cutting and pipe relining
Intruding roots are mechanically cut back, then a structural liner seals the cracked joints that invited them, repairing the pipe from inside without trenching, which suits the tight setbacks and established gardens around the older Federation and interwar blocks on the point. More on that method sits at pipe relining.
Excavation and replacement
Where a run has collapsed or displaced beyond what a liner can bridge, we dig only at the marked fault location, swap the failed earthenware for modern PVC and backfill cleanly, shoring and grading deep harbour-side runs so the replacement outlasts the house.
Two housing types, two very different sewer jobs
- Detached houses on the deep blocks Homes off the older streets run long private mains through their own gardens, so a choke sits entirely on the owner's side of the boundary and gets fixed on the owner's timetable, usually the same day we are called.
- Strata blocks near the highway edge Shared mains mean one household's flush can back up into a neighbour's bathroom, so we coordinate with the owners corporation and clear the common line before anyone starts assigning blame.
What a failing main looks like before it floods
Sewers rarely fail without warning; they send signals first.
Gurgling from the lowest fixtures
Air trapped behind a narrowing choke escapes upward through floor wastes and pan seals, and the gurgle grows louder each week as roots thicken inside the pipe, so a downstairs bathroom making noises deserves a look before it becomes an overflow.
Several fixtures misbehaving together
One slow basin points to a branch, but a toilet, shower and laundry acting up at once means the shared main is choking, and this signal usually precedes an actual overflow by only a short window, so treat it as urgent rather than annoying.
Waste smells indoors or in the garden
A smell of waste inside, or a damp patch tracking the sewer line across the yard, means joints are leaking or venting where they should not, and that moisture draws roots faster, so the leak and the choke feed each other until failure.
Why a choked main is never a wait-and-see problem
A choked main is not a fault you can schedule around, because the whole household depends on the one line, and the failure mode arrives uninvited. Here is what waiting actually costs:
Overflow goes where you least want it
A backed-up main discharges through ground-floor bathrooms and laundries, and contaminated water on floors or near the kids' play areas is a health issue, not just a cleaning job.
Every week narrows the pipe further
Roots thicken and silt settles until a partly choked line blocks outright, often during the next storm when the whole street's run-off is heading downhill at once.
The pipe keeps deteriorating
Cracked earthenware does not heal, and each backup shifts the joints a little more, turning a relinable pipe into an excavation job if left long enough.
How it works
Our process for a choked main, step by step
- 01
Call and tell us
Ring (02) 9072 0504 and describe what's happening, and a licensed plumber, not an answering machine, will tell you what it likely means, what to stop using, and when we can realistically be there.
- 02
Quote before work
Your plumber inspects the job properly, runs whatever diagnosis it genuinely needs, and hands you a single fixed written price covering the complete fix, with a $0 call out fee and nothing added afterwards.
- 03
Clear, inspect and repair
We jet the choke, cut back intruding roots and camera-check the cleared line, then seal shifted joints by relining or replace a collapsed section, showing you the footage before any repair decision is made.
- 04
Backed for life
Everything we complete is covered by our Lifetime Labour Warranty, the promise that outlasts the job itself: if it's not right, we come back. No questions. No cost.
Why choose Your Plumber Greenwich
Fixed prices, kept
Every job is priced upfront in plain writing before any work starts, the invoice always matches that number, and weekend or late-evening timing changes nothing, because overtime rates simply don't exist here.
Licensed and insured
Your Plumber Greenwich works under licence #275278C with full insurance behind every job, and the compliance certificates that protect your home's paperwork trail arrive with the invoice, without you ever needing to ask for them.
Lifetime Labour Warranty
Workmanship here is guaranteed for life under our Lifetime Labour Warranty rather than for a warranty card's fine-print window, which says more about how the work is done in the first place than any advertisement could.
Genuinely local response
We work these streets constantly rather than commuting in from across Sydney, so the van reaching you has usually just left a job nearby, stocked for the faults the local houses actually develop.
Choked mains are the fault where diagnosis matters most, and the camera never argues with us.
Where we work
The streets and suburbs our vans cover
Sewer work reaches across the peninsula and out to Northwood, Wollstonecraft, St Leonards, Longueville and Waverton, with the same camera-first diagnosis and fixed written pricing applied to every main we clear, whether the house sits up on the ridge or down on the lowest foreshore blocks.
Good questions, straight answers
Questions about choked sewers, answered for Greenwich locals
How do I know it is the sewer and not just a branch drain?
Several fixtures gurgling or backing up together, especially the lowest ones in the house, points to the shared main rather than a single branch, and a camera pass confirms it quickly.
Are tree roots really the most common cause here?
On the peninsula they are, because mature figs and brushbox along the older streets send roots straight into pre-war earthenware joints that have shifted across a hundred years of service.
Will you have to dig up my garden?
Not always, because where the camera shows an otherwise sound line we reline the failed section from an access point, and excavation is reserved for runs that have collapsed outright.
What should I do while the main is backing up?
Stop using every fixture and hold off the washing machine and dishwasher, because every litre you send down adds to what must come back up through the lowest points in the house.
Who is responsible for the sewer between my house and the main?
The homeowner carries the private line all the way to where it connects with Sydney Water's main, and we diagnose and repair everything on the private side of that boundary line.
How long does clearing a choked main take?
Most chokes clear within a single visit once the access point is found, though a collapsed or badly displaced run needs diagnosis first and a quoted repair before any work begins.
A blocked sewer in Greenwich? Call now, day or night
Call (02) 9072 0504 now and speak straight to a licensed plumber, day or night. The call out fee is $0, the price goes on paper before a tool comes off the van, and every repair is backed by our Lifetime Labour Warranty.
Every drainage fault we handle, from blocked drains to CCTV drain inspections, is listed at home.