Blocked Sewer Drain: every fixture backing up, the gully overflowing, fixed today

A blocked sewer drain is the one that stops the whole house. The toilet gurgles when the shower runs, the sinks and shower all drain slowly at once, there is a sewer smell in the yard, and sooner or later grey water comes up through the overflow relief gully outside. That is the main line, not one fixture, and it does not clear itself.

We clear blocked sewers across South West Sydney with a camera and a high-pressure jetter, show you the footage, and quote any repair from what the camera shows. No call-out fee, the price before we start, and the same rate at 2 am as at 2 pm.

How to tell it is the sewer and not the sink

One slow fixture is a local blockage: hair in the shower, grease in the kitchen trap, paper in the toilet. Two or more fixtures slow at the same time, a toilet that bubbles when the washing machine empties, or water at the overflow relief gully (the grated drain outside, usually near the laundry or kitchen) means the blockage is in the main sewer line below the house. Everything upstream of it is backing up, and the gully is doing its job by overflowing outside rather than inside.

If the gully is overflowing and you are in a unit or townhouse, the block may be in a shared line and the neighbours will be backing up too. Tell us when you ring and we will check the shared section first.

What to do before we arrive

Stop running water. No showers, no washing machine, no dishwasher, and keep flushing to a minimum; every litre you put down the drain comes back up at the gully. Keep kids and pets away from the overflow. Do not pour drain cleaner into a fully blocked sewer: it sits in the line, does nothing to roots, and makes it dangerous for whoever opens the pipe. If you can see the inspection opening cap near the gully, leave it alone; opening it under pressure lets sewage out where you are standing.

If a Sydney Water main is blocked in the street the whole street backs up, not just you, and Sydney Water clears it at no cost. Ring them on 13 20 90 if the neighbours have the same problem. The Sydney Water diagram shows where their pipe ends and yours starts, and the camera settles it either way.

How we clear a blocked sewer drain

Paul opens the gully or the inspection opening and runs the jetter up the line to the blockage. Roots are cut back to the pipe wall, grease is stripped off it and wipes are flushed through to the main. Once the line is running the CCTV drain camera goes down to find the cause and locate it from the surface, and you get the footage on your phone the same day. Most clears take one to two hours including the camera.

If the camera shows a collapsed joint, a belly holding water or roots at a joint that will not stay clear, you get a written price to fix that section properly, and a straight answer on whether it can wait. Repairs are dug and replaced with our own excavator; where a specialist reline under a driveway or slab would be the better spend, we say so. See sewer and stormwater drainage for the repair side and jet blasting blocked drains for why we jet rather than snake a sewer.

What blocks sewers in South West Sydney

Tree roots in earthenware sewers are the big one across Liverpool, Fairfield, Cabramatta and Campbelltown, where the pipes are fifty or sixty years old and the joints have opened. Wipes and sanitary items, which do not break down the way the packet says, come second. Grease from the kitchen builds up slowly until a line that has narrowed for years finally closes. In the new estates around Austral, Leppington and Oran Park it is builder rubbish never flushed from the line, or a shallow pipe crushed by a truck during the build. The camera tells us which, and the fix is different for each; tree roots in sewer pipes and our blocked drains page cover them in detail.

Blocked sewer in a rental

A blocked or broken toilet, or a blocked sewer that stops the toilets working, is on the NSW list of urgent repairs, which is why property managers across the Liverpool area have our number. Tenants get a same-day response, and the owner gets the footage and an itemised invoice with photos, which also settles whether the cause was wear and roots (the landlord) or something put down the drain (the tenant).

Blocked sewer cost

Quoted on inspection, with the price confirmed before the jetter starts. What moves it is access, the length of the run and whether the camera finds damage that needs its own quote. For reference, Sydney 2026 price guides put a standard blocked drain clear at $180 to $450 and a clear with camera and jetting at $400 to $1,025. There is no call-out fee, the rate is the same day or night, and seniors and pensioners get 10% off labour.

Blocked Sewer Drains: questions we get asked

Page updated 2 October 2026.

Where we do this work

Across Austral, Liverpool, Fairfield and the Macarthur region, see all service areas, Liverpool, Fairfield, Campbelltown, Mount Pritchard, Cabramatta, Moorebank.