Why Does My Drain Keep Blocking?

Getting the water moving is not always the end of the job

Rods can punch through a soft obstruction and restore the flow while leaving grease or deposits on the pipe wall. Those deposits narrow the bore and create a rough surface that catches more material. High-pressure cleaning may remove more of that build-up.

If it blocks in the same place, find out what is catching the waste

Roots, displaced clay joints and intruding connections can all form a ledge inside the pipe. Paper passes through for a time, then catches and builds into another blockage. The recurrence may therefore be remarkably consistent in location.

When a camera survey starts to make sense

Once the drain is clean, look for a defect that matches the blockage point. A small open joint high on the wall may be irrelevant; a stepped joint or root entry across the bottom of the pipe is much more convincing.

Remember where the blockage was found

Keep the details from each visit: which chamber was full, where the rods or jet went in, the distance to the blockage and what came back. If the same distance appears on several visits, the next camera survey has a precise place to concentrate on.

If previous CCTV footage exists, keep it. Comparing old and new footage can show whether a defect is stable, whether roots have returned or whether a once-minor displacement is changing.