Blocked drain in Streatham? We clear blockages right across SW16 and SW2, from Streatham Hill down to Streatham Vale, at any hour. You get a local engineer, high-pressure jetting, CCTV surveys and no-dig repairs, with a clear price before any work starts.
Streatham is mostly Victorian and Edwardian houses, and a lot of the bigger ones were split into flats years ago. That leaves old clay drains carrying far more than they were ever built for, which is a big reason blockages here are so common. Add in the mature street trees, the London clay that shifts in a dry summer, and one of the longest high streets in the city, and SW16 and SW2 keep us busy. These are the blockages we clear most weeks:
| Common cause | Why it happens in Streatham |
|---|---|
| Fat, oil and grease | The takeaways and restaurants along Streatham High Road put a heavy grease load into the sewers, and it sets like candle wax in the cooler pipe runs. |
| Tree roots | The big street trees on roads like Leigham Court Road push fine roots into the joints of old clay pipes, and wipes and debris then snag on them. |
| Ageing clay pipes | Most SW16 and SW2 homes still drain through their original Victorian clay pipework, which cracks and drops at the joints as it ages. |
| Heavy rain | The lower streets near Streatham Vale sit on the old River Graveney line, so the combined sewers can surcharge and back up in a downpour. |
From a slow kitchen sink to a collapsed main sewer, this is everything we handle in Streatham, with upfront pricing and no call-out fee.
Sinks, toilets, gullies and blocked main drains, cleared fast. We start with a plunge or a set of rods, and if the blockage is stubborn we bring in the high-pressure jetter to cut through fat, silt and roots. Most household blockages in Streatham are cleared on the first visit, often within the hour. You get a fixed price before we lift a single cover, so you know the cost up front, and there is never a call-out fee. If the same drain keeps blocking, we tell you why rather than just clearing it again. The A23 restaurant grease is the usual culprit along Streatham High Road, so we jet the fat out rather than just rodding through it.
When a drain blocks more than once, clearing it is only half the job. We push a high-resolution camera through the line in Streatham and watch it on screen, so we can see exactly what is wrong: a crack, a root intrusion, a displaced joint or a collapse. You get the recorded footage and a plain-English report, with the fault located and its depth marked. It is the same survey that mortgage lenders, insurers and home-buyers ask for. Knowing the real cause means you fix the problem once instead of paying to rod it every few months. Useful on the older SW16 terraces where root-cracked clay keeps re-blocking the same run.
Not every drain fault means digging up your garden or driveway. Where the pipe is still sound enough, we repair it from the inside: a localised patch over a single crack, or a full liner that forms a new pipe within the old one. This no-dig approach is faster, cheaper and far less disruptive than excavation, and it suits the older clay pipes under Streatham. Where a run has genuinely collapsed we do excavate, but we replace only the section that has failed, not the whole line. Everything is quoted before we start.
Drains do not wait for office hours, and neither do we. We cover Streatham around the clock, every day of the year, and for a flooding drain, an overflowing manhole or sewage backing up indoors we aim to have an engineer with you within the hour. The van carries jetting, rodding and pumping kit, so most emergencies are dealt with there and then rather than left overnight. We work nights, weekends and bank holidays at fair, agreed rates. One phone call gets someone moving toward you.
Blocked shared sewers, backing-up manholes and septic tank problems need more than a set of rods. We jet and clear main sewer runs, deal with backups that affect more than one property, and empty, inspect and unblock septic tanks and cesspits. Just as important, we tell you honestly whether the fault sits on your private drain or on the public sewer that Thames Water looks after, so you do not pay for work that is not yours. Where the sewer is the water company's, we help you report it. Where it is yours, we fix it properly.
Before an extension, a house sale or a repair, you often need to know where the drains actually run, and old plans are rarely reliable. We trace and map hidden and unrecorded drains across Streatham using a sonde and dye testing, then mark the route and the connections clearly. That means nobody builds over a live pipe, and any repair is aimed at the right spot first time. It is also the quickest way to prove which property a shared drain belongs to. You get a simple drainage plan you can keep.
Fantastic company. Farhad came to unblock our drains in Croydon. He arrived on time, was very polite and explained everything really well, then carried out a CCTV inspection to make sure everything was cleared.
Latif · Google review
Inside your property boundary the drains are yours. The shared lateral drain in the road and the main public sewer are Thames Water's. If you are not sure which side of the line the blockage sits on, we check it on a CCTV survey before any paid repair.
The A23 has one of the longest runs of restaurants and takeaways in south London. Fat, oil and grease from commercial kitchens goes down the sink warm and sets solid in the sewer, and it is the single most common cause of blockages along the SW16 stretch.
No. We give you a price for the work before we start, so there is no separate call-out charge and no surprise when the job is done.
Yes. That is the whole of SW16 (Streatham, Streatham Common, Streatham Vale, Streatham Park and Furzedown) and SW2 (Streatham Hill), plus the SW12 edge towards Balham.
Often, yes. The old street trees along Streatham's Victorian roads send fine roots into the joints of clay pipes looking for water. Once they are in, wipes and grease catch on them until the pipe blocks. We cut the roots out with a high-pressure jet and can reline the pipe so they do not grow back.
We are based in south London and cover Streatham 24/7, usually with an engineer at your door within the hour for an emergency.
A slow drain today is a flooded one next week. Get a Streatham engineer out fast, with a clear price upfront and no call-out fee.
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