One visit that clears the blockage, shows you what caused it on screen, and leaves the run flowing before we pack up, so you are not paying for the same drain twice.
14 years in Hampshire drainage · answered 24 hours a day · fully insured
A blocked drain is a below-ground pipe run that has lost its fall, its flow or its bore, usually because something has built up inside it, something has grown into it, or something structural has moved. The water backing up in your gully, your toilet or your manhole is the symptom. The cause sits somewhere along the run, often several metres from where you noticed the problem.
So Drainage Solutions clears domestic and commercial blockages across Southampton, Romsey and the surrounding Hampshire towns. The job starts by lifting the nearest chambers and working out which direction the run is holding water, then putting a CCTV camera down the line. Only once the obstruction has been seen is it cleared, by rodding, by high-pressure jetting, or by wet vacuuming out the standing water and silt first if the chamber is surcharged.
The difference that makes is simple. A rod pushed blindly down a pipe can shift enough of a fat build-up to get water moving for a fortnight. It does nothing about the root mass, the displaced joint or the collapsed section that let the build-up form in the first place. Seeing the pipe means the clearance is aimed at the real cause, and it means you get told honestly whether this is a clean-and-go or the early stage of something that needs repair.
A blocked drain is not a problem that holds still. Once flow stops, the run behind the obstruction fills with waste water, and everything suspended in that water, grease, silt, paper, wipes, settles against the blockage and packs it harder. What could have been cleared in an hour becomes a solid plug the length of a pipe section.
At the same time the pressure has to go somewhere. It goes up through the lowest fixture in the building, out through a chamber cover, or into the ground through any joint the pressure can find. That last one is the expensive version, because saturated ground around a drain run undermines the bedding the pipe sits on, and an unsupported pipe is a pipe that cracks.
The lowest fixture becomes the overflow point. Ground floor showers, downstairs toilets and basement gullies are where sewage comes back into a property, and the clean-up cost is a multiple of the drainage cost.
Standing sewage sat against a blockage attacks joints and mortar, and the ground around a leaking run washes out. A drain that only needed clearing in March can need excavating by autumn.
Root ingress and displaced joints get worse every time they trap debris. Caught on camera early, many are patch-lined. Left alone, they become dig-and-replace jobs across a driveway.
For food premises and care settings, a surcharging drain is an immediate hygiene issue that can close a kitchen. For homes with children or pets, contaminated standing water is not something to leave over a weekend.
Tell us your postcode, which fixtures are affected and what you can see outside. Photos through the estimate form help. The phone is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Chambers are lifted and the direction of flow established, so we know which side of the property the run is holding on and where the obstruction sits.
A camera goes down the run. You are shown what is there, fat, silt, roots, a displaced joint, a collapse, and told in plain terms what it will take to clear it before anything starts.
Rodding, high-pressure jetting or wet vacuuming, chosen for what the camera found. Standing water and silt are vacuumed out rather than pushed further down the system.
The run is flushed and watched flowing. Where the cause needs it, the camera goes back down after clearance to confirm the pipe wall is clean and the run is sound.
Waste is vacuumed and taken away by us, covers are reseated, and you are told exactly what caused the blockage and what to watch for.
A drain backing up at 11pm on a Sunday is answered on the same number as one at 11am on a Tuesday. No answering service, no callback queue.
The camera goes down before the decision is made. You find out whether this is a build-up or a structural fault, and you find out on the first visit.
Survey, jetting, wet vacuuming, waste removal, repair and excavation are all done in house. No handing you between contractors and no second wait.
Clearing the cause rather than the symptom is what stops the same drain blocking every few months. That is cheaper over a year than a cheap rodding call.
14 years of Hampshire drainage, fully insured, City & Guilds qualified and WJA qualified for jetting work.
Waste vacuumed and removed, chambers reseated, hard surfaces washed down. The drain runs and the site does not look like a job site.
Different blockages behave differently, and the right clearance method depends entirely on what is in the pipe. This is what we most commonly find on Hampshire properties.
The most common cause in kitchens, pubs and takeaways. Warm fat pours as a liquid and cools inside the pipe, coating the wall and catching everything that passes. It hardens into a ring that narrows the bore until nothing gets through. Rodding punches a hole in it; high-pressure jetting scours it back to the pipe wall, which is why jetting is the right answer for a greasy run.
So-called flushable wipes do not break down like paper. They snag on any rough surface, a joint lip, a root hair or a scale patch, and build into a fibrous mat. These are usually found close to the point where a branch joins the main run, and they come out cleanly once the run is jetted and vacuumed.
Hampshire has plenty of mature trees near older clay runs. Roots find a hairline crack or an open joint, follow the moisture in and grow into a brush that catches everything. Roots can be cut out and jetted, but the entry point is a defect. Once the camera has shown where it is, patch lining or a short excavation stops it returning.
Common in yard gullies, channel drains and any run downhill of a driveway or building work. Silt settles in the invert, reduces the fall and eventually holds water. Wet vacuuming removes it properly rather than pushing it into the next chamber.
A pipe that has moved, cracked or collapsed does not block once: it blocks repeatedly, because the step or the void catches everything. This is why clearance alone is the wrong answer for a structural fault, and why the camera survey matters. Depending on what is found, the fix is a patch repair, a full reline, or excavation and replacement of the failed section.
Domestic blockages are typically 100mm foul runs from the house to the boundary, with a limited number of chambers and predictable causes. Commercial sites bring larger bores, longer runs, interceptors, grease traps, multiple connected units and yard drainage. On commercial work the priority is usually keeping the site trading, so clearance is planned around service hours where the situation allows.
Where a run serves more than one property before it reaches the sewer, it may be a shared or public lateral. We tell you honestly what we find and where the fault sits relative to your boundary, so you are not paying for work that belongs to the water authority.
Rainwater runs and foul runs are separate systems on most Hampshire properties. Standing water on a driveway after ordinary rainfall usually means a silted surface water run or a blocked gully, not a foul problem. Confirming which system is affected is part of the first ten minutes on site.
Based on Cutforth Way in Romsey, covering Southampton, Romsey and the surrounding towns and villages. If your postcode is not listed, ring and ask; it is usually still within reach.
The phone is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including nights, weekends and bank holidays. We are based on Cutforth Way in Romsey and work across Southampton and the surrounding towns, so travel times across the coverage area are short. Ring and you will get a straight answer about when we can be with you.
It depends on what is causing it and how far along the run it sits, which is exactly why the camera goes down first. You are told what is there and what it will take before any work begins, so nothing is priced on a guess and nothing starts without you agreeing to it.
A straightforward build-up in an accessible run is usually cleared within a single visit. Heavy fat, root masses or a run that has to be vacuumed out before it can be jetted take longer. If what the camera shows is structural, clearance restores flow and the repair is discussed separately.
Yes. So Drainage Solutions operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Emergency drainage does not keep office hours, so neither do we.
That depends entirely on what caused it. A one-off obstruction cleared properly does not return. A greasy run jetted back to the pipe wall stays clear far longer than one that has simply been rodded through. Where the cause is structural, roots, a displaced joint, a collapse, clearance is temporary until the defect is repaired, and we tell you that on the day rather than after the third visit.
It is not advisable on a run that is already surcharged. The chemical sits on top of the standing water rather than reaching the blockage, and it leaves a hazard for whoever opens the pipe next. It also does nothing about roots or structural faults.
Yes. Both, from a blocked toilet in a family home to gully, channel and interceptor runs across a managed commercial site.
The business is fully insured, City & Guilds qualified and WJA (Water Jetting Association) qualified for high-pressure jetting work, with 14 years in the trade.
Yes. Wet vacuuming and waste removal are handled in house, not subcontracted, so the silt and standing water leave with us rather than going into the next chamber.
The run is flushed and you see it flowing before the job is closed off. Where it is warranted, the camera goes back down after clearance so you can see the pipe wall.
Ring for anything urgent; the phone is answered any hour. Or send your postcode and a short description and we will come back to you.
Call 07940 156407Rodding punches a hole through a blockage. Jetting removes it, fat, silt, scale and root growth cut away and flushed out, so the run keeps flowing long after we have gone.
Read moreA camera down the run turns a guess into a fact: you find out exactly what is wrong, where it is, how deep it sits, and what it genuinely takes to put right.
Read moreNights, weekends and bank holidays on the same number, answered by the person who turns up: drain cleared, water vacuumed away and the cause explained before we leave.
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