- Lic #292427C NSW plumbing licence — fully insured, water and gas
- Open All Hours, Genuinely The phone gets answered at midnight the same as at midday.
- 15+ Years on Sydney Drains Experience that shows in how quickly the real cause gets found.
- Free to Have Us Look $0 call-out fee, plus $65 off the first job we do for you.
Local Knowledge: What Blocks Drains in Mortlake
Mortlake is a pocket-sized peninsula: a tight grid of streets like Gale, Herbert and Bayard where original double-brick cottages and 1990s townhouses sit shoulder to shoulder.
The quiet, leafy, increasingly well-heeled feel above ground is real. Underground, though, much of the peninsula still runs on the pipes of its old working-village days.
The oldest of those cottages still drain through earthenware laid before 1940. Fired clay starts brittle and only gets more so, until a joint that held for eighty years lets go over one wet fortnight.
The first sign is rarely dramatic. A gurgle here, a slow shower there, a smell you only catch when you walk past the gully.
By the time anything shows at ground level, the joint below has usually been leaking quietly for months.
Rain supplies the peninsula's other pressure. Every downpour that lands on this grid has one short trip to the river, and the stormwater lines carrying it were mostly sized generations ago.
A pit that backs up here doesn't send its overflow far, either. Flat ground lets the escaping water wander across paths and garden beds instead of away from them.
Those are the two local headliners: old joints and overworked stormwater. Blocked drain repair answers the first, blocked stormwater the second.
Both start the same way, with a look instead of a guess.
Why Your Neighbour's Drain Isn't Yours
On a grid this compact, one storm can treat two neighbours completely differently. The townhouse side of a fence sails through a wet week while the cottage side backs up twice.
The difference is underground. Pipe from the 1990s rebuild is jointed to seal for decades, while original earthenware relies on connections that were old before the townhouses existed.
That's why we ask about the building's age on the phone. It changes which machine gets unpacked first, and often the figure too.
It also means quotes travel badly between addresses. What your neighbour paid for a townhouse line says almost nothing about a cottage run two doors up.
Our Blocked Drain Services in Mortlake
Everything below gets booked on this peninsula, in roughly this order.
- Blocked drain repair: rebuilds or relines the earthenware joints that have reached the end.
- Blocked stormwater: for street pits and yard lines that lose to a downpour.
- CCTV drain inspection: tells cottage pipe from townhouse pipe without lifting a paver.
- Blocked sewer: the urgent one, for a house that has stopped draining entirely.
- Drain cleaning: planned jetting that keeps older lines honest between repairs.
- Blocked toilets: cleared carefully, with the bathroom left exactly as it was.
Not sure which one you need? Don't pick; describe the symptom on the phone and we'll aim you at the right page or just come and look.
Common Drain Call-Outs in Mortlake
After joints and stormwater, two more local regulars.
- Tree roots under the established gardens. The older blocks carry decades of tree growth, and a weeping joint upstream of a thirsty root never stays sealed for long.
- Slow drainage on the reclaimed ground. Down by the foreshore the ground drains grudgingly, so blockages there build more slowly, linger longer and come back sooner if the underlying fall is marginal.
Neither pattern is a mystery on camera. Both get priced as what they are, not as worst-case guesses.
And if a marginal fall is behind a repeat blockage, we say so up front rather than charge for the same clear twice.
Emergency
A Drain Emergency in Mortlake? We Answer Day or Night
An overflow on ground this flat spreads quickly. Don't wait it out; ring (02) 9134 9067 and get ahead of it.
- Sewage surfacing at the gully outside the laundry.
- A shower drain turning into a puddle that outlasts the shower.
- Stormwater standing against the back step while it's still raining.
- Two fixtures failing within the same hour.
- A toilet sending its first flush back instead of away.
Whatever the time, the call is picked up by a plumber who can actually attend. Open 24 hours means staffed, not voicemail.
A house that won't drain anywhere is a blocked sewer job. One uncooperative bowl points to blocked toilets instead.
While you wait, keep taps off and lids down. Anything added to the pipe now comes back the wrong way.
Minutes Away, and Worth the Call
The Putney Punt runs from our side of the river to the end of Hilly Street, which makes this the one suburb we can reach with the ute on a ferry.
When the punt timetable doesn't suit, the bridge route isn't far behind it. Either way the trip is short.
This is City of Canada Bay ground we already work, with 300+ five-star reviews earned on jobs exactly like yours.
You also get the same deal as everyone on our list: no call-out fee, a straight diagnosis and a figure you approve first.
15+ years of Sydney drains means the odd layout here isn't odd to us.
Small suburb, short trip. There's no excuse for keeping you waiting, so we don't.
How We Fix a Blocked Drain for Good
Same four steps on every job, cottage or townhouse.
- Find the cause on camera. Cottage earthenware and townhouse plastic fail differently, and the footage shows which one you've got.
- Clear it with the right machine. Jetting for grease and silt, the electric eel where roots have moved in.
- Make the fix permanent. Failed joints get repaired or relined wherever the existing access allows it.
- Test, film, tidy. The line is proven clear on screen, and the yard goes back the way it was.
Where we work
Mortlake and the Surrounding Areas
One river crossing puts this peninsula on the same weekly loop as the rest of our list.
Let’s get it flowing again
Get in Touch Today
Old pipe rewards early attention and punishes patience. Call (02) 9134 9067, or line up a time online, and get it sorted while it's still a small job.
Prefer mornings, school hours or after work? Say so and we'll build the booking around it.
Good questions, straight answers
Common Mortlake FAQs
What peninsula homeowners usually ask before they book us in. For anything else, the phone beats any webpage.
Do you charge anything to come across to Mortlake?
$0, always. The trip, the look and the honest opinion are free, and the only bill is for work you've approved in advance.
How will I know what the job costs?
You'll see the cause on the footage and get one written price for the fix before we start. No hourly rates, and nothing added afterwards.
The same drain blocks every few months. Why?
Because a clear takes out the obstruction, not whatever caused it. On older earthenware the cause is usually a failed joint or roots, and only fixing that ends the pattern.
Is someone really available overnight?
Yes, we're staffed around the clock, every night of the year included. Overflowing sewage at 3am gets treated as the emergency it is.
Where else do you go besides Mortlake?
Gladesville, Ryde, Meadowbank and Macquarie Park, all on the same loop from the opposite bank. If you can see the river from your street, you're on our map.
How long until someone's at my door in Mortlake?
Often within the hour at quiet times, and almost always the same day. Tell us if it's urgent and we'll tell you honestly what's possible.