Frequently asked questions

Yes. We’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends and bank holidays. Phone 020 3670 7648 at any time and you’ll speak to us about your problem. Emergency plumbing and drainage faults rarely happen at convenient times, so our callout service doesn’t keep office hours either.

We’re based at 24 James Street in Covent Garden and cover Central London’s EC and WC postcodes, including Covent Garden, Soho, Holborn, Bloomsbury, Strand and Aldwych, Fitzrovia, Clerkenwell, Farringdon and the City of London. If you’re just outside these areas, call us anyway and we’ll tell you whether we can help.

We usually unblock drains the same day, and emergency callouts are prioritised around the clock. Exact arrival times depend on where you are, the time of day and Central London traffic, so we’ll give you an honest estimate when you call rather than a promise we can’t keep. Call 020 3670 7648.

Yes. We work for homeowners, tenants and landlords, and for restaurants, bars, shops, offices, hotels and residential blocks across Central London. For businesses we can work before opening, after closing or overnight to avoid lost trade, and we can provide notes and CCTV footage for managing agents and insurers.

No. Quotations are free. Tell us what’s happening by phone, WhatsApp or the quote form and we’ll explain the likely cost. Where we need to see the problem first, we’ll confirm the price on site before any work starts, so you can decide whether to go ahead without any obligation.

It depends on where the blockage is, what’s causing it and whether it needs rods, high-pressure jetting or a CCTV camera to find. A blocked sink is a different job from a blocked main sewer. We give you a free quote before starting, so you know the cost before you commit to anything.

Not without your agreement. We agree the price before we begin. If we uncover something that genuinely changes the job, such as a collapsed pipe under a blockage, we stop, show you what we’ve found and explain the options and costs. Nothing extra is done or charged without you saying yes.

A drain carries waste from a single property. A sewer collects waste from more than one property. The difference matters because it decides who’s responsible: since October 2011, most shared sewers and lateral drains in England belong to the water company, which in Central London is Thames Water, while private drains are the owner’s.

Jetting uses a hose with a specialist nozzle that fires water at high pressure, forwards to cut through a blockage and backwards to pull the hose along and scour the pipe wall. It removes fat, scale, silt and roots more thoroughly than rodding, so drains stay clear for longer. It’s safe for sound pipes.

Repeat blockages usually mean something in the pipe is catching waste: a crack, an open joint, root ingress, a sag holding water, or a build-up of fat. Clearing it again only treats the symptom. A CCTV drain survey shows the cause so it can be repaired, often without digging, using no-dig relining.

Turn off the water at the stopcock, usually under the kitchen sink. Switch off the boiler or immersion heater, then open the cold taps to drain the system. If water is near electrics, switch off the power at the consumer unit. Move valuables, catch what you can, take photos and call 020 3670 7648.

Yes, our heating engineers repair radiators, valves, pumps, pressure loss, leaks and hot water faults. Tell us the symptoms and your boiler’s make and model if you know it. Any work on a gas appliance must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and we’ll tell you straight away if your fault is on the gas side.

Use them sparingly, if at all. Strong caustic or acid cleaners can damage older pipes and seals, and mixing different products can release dangerous fumes. They rarely clear blockages caused by wipes or fat further down the drain. If a plunger doesn’t work, stop and call us rather than adding more chemicals.