How much does a plumber cost to unblock a drain?

If you’ve just watched the water in your sink or shower stop moving, the first question is always the same: what is this going to cost me? Here’s the straight answer, before anything else: in Johannesburg and Pretoria, a plumber charges between R950 and R2,500 to unblock a drain, depending on which drain is blocked and what’s causing it. On top of that, we charge a R300 call-out fee to get a technician and equipment to your property.

That’s the short version. But “R950 to R2,500” is a wide range, and if you’re comparing quotes you deserve to know exactly where your job falls in it, and why. This guide breaks down the price for every type of drain — kitchen, bathroom, sewer and stormwater — what pushes the price up or down, and how the work is actually done, from a simple rod-through to cutting tree roots out of a sewer line. By the end you’ll know what a fair price looks like before you pick up the phone.

Drain Unblocking Price List (2026)

These are our actual fixed prices, not estimates we adjust once we arrive. You get the exact quote before any work begins.

What Affects the Cost of Unblocking a Drain?

Two blocked drains that look identical from the plughole can be completely different jobs underground. These are the five things that actually move the price:

• Which drain is blocked. A bathroom or kitchen blockage usually sits within a few metres of the fixture and can be reached with hand rods or a small machine. A main sewer line runs deeper, further, and carries everything from every toilet and sink in the house — which is why sewer work starts at R1,500 instead of R950.
• What’s causing it. Hair and soap scum push through easily. A wad of wet wipes takes more work. Tree roots that have grown into the pipe joints need cutting equipment. Sand and silt packed into a stormwater line has to be physically flushed out, metre by metre.
• How far down the line it sits. A blockage right at the trap is a 30-minute job. One that’s 20 metres down the sewer line, past two bends, takes longer to reach and longer to confirm it’s fully cleared.
• The equipment needed. If rods and a drain machine will do it, you pay the standard fixed price. If the blockage is compacted grease, roots or scale, it needs high-pressure jetting at R1,600 per hour — the jetter physically cuts and flushes the material off the pipe walls rather than just poking a hole through it.
• Whether it keeps coming back. If we clear the same line for the third time in a year, the problem isn’t the blockage — it’s the pipe. That’s when a CCTV drain survey pays for itself, because it shows exactly whether you’re dealing with roots, a bellied pipe or a collapsed section, instead of paying to clear the symptom every few months.

Cost by Drain Type: Kitchen, Bathroom, Sewer and Stormwater

Kitchen sink drains — R950 to R1,500

Kitchen blockages are almost always fat. Braai grease, pan oil and food scraps go down the sink warm and liquid, then cool and set inside the pipe like candle wax. Each layer catches rice, coffee grounds and bits of food until the pipe closes completely. Pouring boiling water down helps for a week, then it’s back.

That’s why our kitchen sink service includes a high-pressure flush as standard, not just a push-through. Punching a hole through a grease plug leaves the rest of the fat on the pipe walls, and the blockage re-forms within weeks. Flushing the line clean is the difference between fixing it and renting the problem.

Bathroom drains — R950 to R1,500

Showers and baths block on hair bound together with soap scum; toilets block on the things that were never meant to go down them — wet wipes (including the ones labelled “flushable”), earbuds, sanitary products, and children’s toys more often than you’d think. Most shower drain and toilet blockages are cleared the same day, in a single visit.

One warning sign worth knowing: if the toilet gurgles when the bath empties, or more than one bathroom fixture is slow at the same time, the blockage usually isn’t in the bathroom at all — it’s further down the main line, which moves the job into sewer territory.

Sewer drains — R1,500 to R2,500

This is the big one, and the price reflects what’s involved: main sewer work includes proper diagnosis, unblocking, and high-pressure jetting to leave the full line clear — not just flowing for now.

In established suburbs around Johannesburg and Pretoria, the most common culprit is tree roots. Older homes often have clay sewer pipes with joints every metre or so, and roots — jacarandas are notorious for it — find the moisture at those joints and grow into the pipe, forming a net that catches everything passing through. Roots can’t be plunged or dissolved; they have to be mechanically cut out with a root cutter or sheared off the pipe wall with a jetting nozzle.

Stormwater drains — R1,600 to R2,000

Stormwater lines don’t block on grease or wipes — they block on what the weather puts in them. One good highveld thunderstorm washes sand, soil, leaves and lawn cuttings into the gullies, and it settles in the underground pipe as a dense, waterlogged layer. Because sand doesn’t float away like a soft blockage, it has to be flushed and drawn out of the line section by section.

The real cost of ignoring a blocked stormwater drain isn’t the drain — it’s the flood. When the next storm hits and the water can’t get into the drain, it goes into your garage, under your doors, or pools against the foundations. Clearing the line for R1,600–R2,000 is cheap insurance against a water-damage claim.

How Plumbers Actually Unblock Drains

“Unblocking a drain” covers half a dozen very different jobs. Here’s what each method involves and when we use it — so when a plumber tells you what your drain needs, you’ll know whether it makes sense.

• Plunging and hand-rodding. For soft, shallow blockages — a clump of hair at the trap, paper in a toilet bend. Flexible rods are screwed together and pushed through the line until the obstruction gives. Quick, effective, and the reason simple jobs sit at the bottom of the price range.
• Drain machine (electric eel). A motorised rotating cable with a cutting head, fed down the line. It chews through compacted paper, wipes and light root growth that hand rods just bounce off. The workhorse for most household blockages.
• High-pressure water jetting. A hose with a specialised nozzle blasts water backwards and forwards at high pressure, scouring the pipe wall clean. This is the only method that properly removes set grease, scale and silt rather than drilling a hole through them — which is why it’s billed at R1,600 per hour and included in our sewer work.
• Root cutting and extraction. Mechanical cutters or root-cutting jetter nozzles shear the root mass off at the pipe wall and flush the debris out. If the roots have cracked the pipe open, cutting them buys you time, but the entry point is still there — we’ll show you the CCTV footage and give you the repair options rather than let you keep paying for repeat visits.
• Grease and oil flush-outs. For kitchen lines and grease traps: the set fat is jetted off the pipe walls and flushed out of the system entirely, then the line is run clear. Standard on our kitchen sink jobs.
• Sand and silt removal. For stormwater lines after storms or building work nearby. The compacted sand is loosened with the jetter and flushed back to an access point where it can be removed — done properly, the line takes a full storm again without backing up.
• CCTV inspection. A camera goes down the line and shows exactly what and where the problem is — roots, collapse, a sag holding water, or a foreign object. It removes the guesswork, and it’s how we justify every quote we give on a recurring blockage.
• Excavation and repair. The last resort, for collapsed or badly broken pipes that no amount of clearing will fix. If it comes to this, you’ll know why, with camera footage to prove it — never on someone’s say-so.

Can I Try to Unblock It Myself First?

Honestly? Sometimes, yes. Before you call anyone, these are worth ten minutes:

• A plunger, used properly. Block the overflow hole with a wet cloth, get a good seal over the plughole, and pump hard a dozen times. This clears a surprising number of shallow sink and shower blockages.
• Hot (not boiling) water and dishwashing liquid down a slow kitchen sink can soften a fresh grease build-up. Avoid boiling water on PVC pipes and never on a toilet — porcelain can crack.
• A bent wire or hair-removal tool down the shower plughole pulls out the hair clump that causes most bathroom blockages.

What we’d ask you not to do is pour repeated doses of caustic soda or acid drain cleaner down the line. It rarely clears a real blockage, it damages older pipes and rubber seals, and it turns the drain into a chemical hazard for the technician who eventually has to rod it — some plumbers charge extra to work on a line full of caustic soda, with good reason.

Stop and call a professional when: more than one fixture is blocked at once, sewage is coming up a floor gully or the lowest toilet, there’s a sewage smell in the yard, or the same drain keeps blocking. Those are main-line symptoms, and no amount of plunging upstairs will fix a problem 15 metres down the sewer.

Is the Blockage Yours or the Municipality’s Problem?

Here’s something most cost guides never tell you: you might not have to pay at all. Your private sewer runs from your house to the municipal connection point, usually at or near your boundary. Everything on your side is your responsibility. Beyond the connection point, the line belongs to the municipality — Johannesburg Water in Joburg, the City of Tshwane in Pretoria.

If sewage is surfacing at a manhole in the street, or several neighbours have problems at the same time, the blockage is probably on the municipal side, and you can log it with the municipality instead of paying a plumber. If we arrive and find the problem is on the municipal side, we’ll tell you exactly that and show you where — you pay the call-out, not for work that isn’t yours to fix.

Questions to Ask Before You Hire Any Drain Plumber

Whether you use us or someone else, these five questions protect you from the two classic drain rip-offs — the lowball quote that doubles on site, and the “unblock” that lasts three weeks:

1. “What is the total price, including the call-out fee?” Get one number, in writing, before work starts. Ours: R300 call-out plus the fixed job price above.
2. “Does the price include clearing the whole line, or just getting it flowing?” You now know why this matters.
3. “What happens if it’s more serious than a blockage?” The right answer involves a camera and evidence, not a bigger invoice on a verbal say-so.
4. “Are you equipped for jetting and root cutting if rodding doesn’t work?” A plumber with only a plunger and rods will clear the easy 60% of jobs and walk away from yours if it’s in the hard 40%.
5. “Do you work in my area?” We cover 24 areas across Johannesburg and Pretoria — see the full list here.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to unblock a toilet?

A blocked toilet falls under bathroom drains: R950 – R1,500, plus the R300 call-out fee. Most toilets are cleared in a single same-day visit.

How much does it cost to unblock a main sewer line?

R1,500 – R2,500, plus the R300 call-out. That includes diagnosis, unblocking and high-pressure jetting of the line — a full clearing, not a temporary hole through the blockage.

How long does unblocking a drain take?

A straightforward sink, shower or toilet blockage: 30–60 minutes on site. A main sewer with root intrusion or heavy grease: one to three hours, depending on how far down the line the problem sits and how much material has to come out.

Why is there a call-out fee at all?

Because a real drain company sends a qualified technician with a van full of rods, machines and jetting equipment — and that costs money whether the job turns out big or small. The R300 covers getting us and the equipment to you plus the on-site assessment. The job price you approve afterwards is fixed, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Is a blocked drain covered by my household insurance?

Usually the unblocking itself isn’t, but resultant damage — like water damage from an overflow — often is, and some policies cover pipe repairs once a CCTV survey proves the pipe is damaged. Check your policy wording; if you need camera footage and a written report for a claim, our CCTV drain survey provides exactly that.

What is a Drain COC and do I need one?

A Drainage Certificate of Compliance confirms your property’s drainage system complies with regulations. It’s required for property sales and bond applications in many cases. We issue them for R1,800, including the inspection.