How much does it cost to unblock a drain in the UK?
Drain unblocking costs £100 on average in the UK. Most jobs fall between £50 and £400 per call-out. What is blocked and how it is cleared: Indoor sink or toilet blockage £50 to £90, Outside drain or gully rodded £75 to £150, High-pressure jetting of a stubborn or deep blockage £120 to £250. Prices reviewed September 2026.
Unblocking a drain costs £50 to £400 in the UK, with most call-outs around £100 including VAT. A sink or toilet cleared from inside the house sits at the bottom of the range, rodding an outside drain is the typical job, and jetting a deep blockage or doing both on one visit takes it to the top.
Drain unblocking cost calculator
Use the calculator to price your drain unblocking in 2026. Adjust the options and area for a UK cost range. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Drain unblocking cost breakdown
Typical drain unblocking costs, by option:
| What is blocked and how it is cleared | Typical UK cost |
|---|---|
| Indoor sink or toilet blockage, including baths and showers | £50 to £90 |
| Outside drain or gully rodded, standard hours | £75 to £150 |
| High-pressure jetting of a stubborn or deep blockage | £120 to £250 |
| Rodding then jetting on the same visit | £180 to £400 |
| + Evening, weekend or emergency attendance | add £40 to £120 |
| + Camera inspection to find why it keeps blocking | add £100 to £250 |
| + Descale and clean the run once it is clear | add £80 to £120 |
What's included in the price?
Typical drain unblocking prices include:
- A call-out and an engineer's time, usually under an hour for a straightforward rod and about two hours for jetting
- The method the blockage needs: a plunger, snake or trap clean indoors, drain rods on an outside gully or chamber, or a high-pressure jetting unit for fat, scale and roots
- A check that the run flows freely afterwards, by running the taps and flushing while the engineer watches the chamber
- Washing down the chamber or gully where waste has backed up, and clearing the spill
- A guarantee against the same blockage coming back, commonly three months with the national firms
- Advice on what caused it, and whether a camera survey is worth doing if it keeps happening
What changes the price?
The things that move drain unblocking prices most:
Where the blockage is, since a sink trap under the kitchen worktop is a ten-minute job and a collapsed section under the drive is not
What is causing it, because a build-up of fat, wipes or hair rods out while roots and scale need jetting
Whether you book a standard slot or need someone out tonight, since an emergency call-out fee is two to three times the standard one
Whether the firm charges a call-out plus labour or one fixed price for the job, which changes what a cheap-looking headline figure covers
Whether the blockage turns out to be on a shared or public sewer, in which case the water company clears it and you pay nothing
Your region, with London and the South East charging the most on labour and travel, and independent local traders below the VAT threshold cheapest of all
How the price is built up
Firms price one of two ways, and the total comes out much the same. Some charge a call-out of £55 to £60 in working hours, or £100 to £180 out of hours, and then the time on top, so a routine rod is the call-out plus £85 or so of work. Others charge no call-out and give one fixed price on site with the travel inside it. Either way, a sink, bath or toilet cleared indoors is £50 to £90 all in, rodding an outside drain £75 to £150, jetting £120 to £250, and rodding then jetting on one visit £180 to £400. A camera inspection to find the cause adds £100 to £250, and a descale and clean of the run once it is flowing adds £80 to £120. Every figure includes VAT, and most drainage firms quote without it. It is nearly all labour and equipment. There are no materials in a clearance beyond water, so the price is the engineer's time, the travel and the kit on the van. Rods cost the firm very little, which is why rodding is the cheap option. A jetting unit is a serious piece of equipment and its cost sits inside every jetting job, which is why jetting starts around £120 even when it takes no longer than rodding.
Ways to keep the cost down
- Ring the water company first if the blockage is in a shared drain or beyond your boundary, because that section is theirs to clear for free
- Book a standard slot rather than an emergency call-out where you can, which saves £40 to £120 before any work is done
- Try a plunger indoors or a set of rods on an outside gully yourself first, but stop if it will not shift rather than forcing it
- Ask whether the price includes VAT and the call-out, since a sole trader under the VAT threshold can be 20 per cent cheaper for the same job
- If it is the second blockage in the same place, pay for a camera inspection rather than a third rodding, because the cause is in the pipe
Does where you live change the cost?
In London, drain unblocking typically costs around £120 per call-out, about 20% above the UK average of £100. In the North, Scotland and Wales the guide figure is nearer £95.
| Region | From | Typical | Up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midlands / East (UK average) | £50 | £100 | £400 |
| London | £60 | £120 | £480 |
| South East / South West | £55 | £110 | £420 |
| North / Scotland / Wales | £50 | £95 | £390 |
Guide prices per call-out, scaled with the same regional multipliers as the calculator. Not quotes.
Drain unblocking cost in major UK cities
| City | From | Typical | Up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | £50 | £95 | £380 |
| Birmingham | £50 | £100 | £400 |
| Bristol | £55 | £110 | £420 |
| Cardiff | £50 | £95 | £390 |
| Edinburgh | £50 | £95 | £390 |
| Glasgow | £50 | £95 | £390 |
| Leeds | £50 | £95 | £390 |
| Liverpool | £50 | £95 | £390 |
| London | £60 | £120 | £480 |
| Manchester | £50 | £95 | £390 |
| Newcastle | £50 | £95 | £390 |
| Sheffield | £50 | £95 | £390 |
City guide estimates, scaled by local labour costs. Indicative averages for drain unblocking, not quotes.
London and the South East charge the most, on labour rates, travel time and parking, and the national fixed-price firms set one price for a whole region. Prices fall away from London and the big cities, and the cheapest quotes anywhere tend to come from a sole trader with a van and a set of rods who is under the VAT threshold and adds nothing on top. Rural areas can add travel time to the bill because the nearest drainage firm is further away.
Common questions
How much does it cost to unblock a drain in the UK?
Unblocking a drain costs £50 to £400, with most call-outs around £100 including VAT. A sink, bath, shower or toilet cleared from inside the house is £50 to £90. Rodding an outside drain or gully in working hours is £75 to £150, which is the typical job. High-pressure jetting for a stubborn or deep blockage is £120 to £250, and rodding then jetting on the same visit is £180 to £400. An evening, weekend or emergency call-out adds £40 to £120 to any of those.
What does an emergency drain call-out cost?
Around £100 to £180 for the call-out alone, against £55 to £60 for a booked daytime slot, and the work is then charged on top at the same rate as a daytime visit. So the emergency premium is £40 to £120 before anything has been cleared. If a toilet is overflowing into the house that is money well spent. A slow-draining sink can wait for a standard slot tomorrow and save the premium.
Who is responsible for a blocked shared or public sewer?
Since 1 October 2011 the water company has been responsible for any sewer shared between two or more properties in England and Wales, and for the lateral drain, which is the part of your own drain that runs beyond your boundary, usually under the pavement or road. The 2011 transfer moved those private sewers to the water and sewerage companies whether they run under gardens, houses or roads. You still own the drain that serves your house alone inside your boundary. So if a neighbour's drain joins yours before the pipe leaves your land, everything downstream of that junction is the water company's, and it clears a blockage there for free. Ring the water company before you pay anyone.
What do firms with no call-out charge actually charge?
A fixed price for the job, which for a routine outside blockage should land inside the same £75 to £150 rodding band or £120 to £250 jetting band as everyone else, with the travel built in. You pay nothing at all only if you turn the quote down. Dyno-Rod and Drain Doctor both work this way, quoting on site before any work starts, and Dyno-Rod backs the work with a three-month guarantee. It is a fair model, but it is not a free visit, because the engineer's time getting to you is inside the price. If the fixed price you are given is well above those bands, the call-out you were not charged is in there.
Why is the quote plus VAT?
Because VAT adds 20 per cent, so a £120 rodding job quoted plus VAT is £144 on the invoice. Drainage firms do a lot of commercial work where the customer reclaims VAT, so they quote without it out of habit. Any business with taxable turnover over £90,000 a year has to charge it, which covers every national and regional drainage firm. A sole trader under that threshold charges no VAT at all, which is a real 20 per cent saving on the same job and one reason a local one-van firm often undercuts the nationals. Ask whether a price includes VAT before you compare. Every figure on this page does.
How long does it take to unblock a drain?
Under an hour for most blockages cleared by plunging, snaking or rodding, and about two hours for jetting. A camera inspection to find the cause adds an hour or so. If the engineer finds a collapsed or badly cracked pipe, clearing it is only the first visit, and the repair is quoted and booked separately.
Can I unblock a drain myself?
For a slow sink, bath or shower, yes. A plunger, a hooked wire to pull out hair and a kettle of hot water clear most of them, and a set of drain rods from a DIY shop will clear a lot of outside gullies. Where DIY goes wrong is forcing it. Chemical unblockers do little to fat and nothing to roots, bleach clears nothing, and rods twisted the wrong way unscrew and get left in the pipe, which turns a £100 job into a camera survey to find them. If water is backing up from more than one fitting at once, the blockage is in the underground run and a professional is cheaper than a mistake.
When is a CCTV survey worth adding?
When the same drain has blocked twice, or the engineer clears it and the water still drains slowly. A camera inspection adds £100 to £250 to the visit and shows why it keeps happening: a displaced joint catching debris, roots, a dip in the pipe holding water, or scale. Paying £100 a time to rod out the symptom several times a year costs more than one survey and one repair. For a first blockage with an obvious cause, such as wipes or a fat build-up, skip it.
What causes most blocked drains?
Fat and grease poured down the kitchen sink, wipes and sanitary products flushed down the toilet, hair and soap in bathroom wastes, and leaves in outside gullies cause most of them, and none of those needs a repair, just clearing. The blockages that come back are the ones caused by the pipe itself: tree roots that have found a joint, scale in old cast iron, or a section that has dropped and holds water. Those are what a camera finds, and why a second blockage in the same place is the point to stop rodding and start looking.
Is the work guaranteed?
Commonly for three months with the national firms, which will come back free if the same blockage recurs inside that period. Some firms cover their workmanship for longer. The guarantee covers the clearing, not the pipe. If the camera shows a defect and you decline the repair, a repeat blockage is a new job. Get the guarantee period written on the invoice.
Official guidance and sources
The rules and schemes referenced on this page come from these official UK sources. The price figures are Costwise's own; see how we price.
- Water customers no longer liable for sewerage repairs GOV.UK · From 1 October 2011 private sewers shared between two or more properties, and lateral drains outside a property's boundary, became the responsibility of the water and sewerage companies; a drain serving one property inside its own boundary stays with the owner.
- Responsibility for pipes and pumping stations Ofwat · Household drains and private sewers are the householder's responsibility up to the point they connect with the public sewer, which since the 1 October 2011 transfer is usually at the property boundary.
- The Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers) Regulations 2011 legislation.gov.uk · Every adoption scheme had to vest private sewers and lateral drains in the sewerage undertaker on 1 October 2011, with private pumping stations following no later than 1 October 2016.
These are independent guide prices based on typical UK jobs in 2026. Your actual cost depends on your property, spec, access and where you live. Always get at least three written quotes before committing.