Blocked drain: warning signs and the fix
A blocked drain warns you before it stops: water drains more slowly each day, plugholes gurgle and start to smell. Early on, a plunger or cleaning the trap under the sink usually clears it. If water comes back up, appears in another drain or nothing works, the blockage is deeper and needs professional equipment.
Warning signs of a blocked drain
A blockage rarely appears overnight. It builds up inside the pipe and gives signs for weeks. Catch them early and you can often sort it yourself.
Water drains more slowly every day
The sink takes ages to empty, the shower water reaches your ankles, the toilet bowl fills higher than usual before it goes down. It is the easiest sign to ignore, because the water always goes in the end.
Gurgling and bad smells
A gurgle in the plughole is air getting past where water no longer flows freely. The smell comes from dirt built up in the pipe. If the flat has been empty for a long time, it may just be a trap that has dried out: run the tap and see if it goes.
Water comes back up or appears somewhere else
You flush the toilet and water rises in the shower tray, or the sink fills when the washing machine empties. The blockage is now in a pipe shared by several fixtures. If water also appears at the flat below, the problem may be in the building riser, the vertical pipe the whole building drains into.
When it looks like a blockage but is not
If the toilet drains normally but the cistern gives a weak flush or keeps running, the pipe is fine. What you need then is toilet repair in Porto.
What blocks the drains in a home
- Kitchen: grease and food scraps. Grease goes down with hot water, cools further along and sticks to the pipe.
- Bathroom: hair and soap in the shower, bath and basin drains.
- Toilet: wet wipes, cotton buds and sanitary products. Wet wipes do not break down in water the way toilet paper does.
- Old and outside pipes: limescale in older buildings, roots and soil in the inspection chambers of houses with a garden.
What you can try before calling anyone
If only one drain is affected and the water still goes down, there are things you can safely try.
- Use a plunger. Cover the overflow hole of the basin or bath with a wet cloth and give it several firm pushes.
- Clean the trap, the curved pipe under the kitchen sink or basin, with a bucket underneath before you unscrew it.
- Pull the hair out of the shower drain. Very often the plug sits right at the top.
- Pour hot tap water down the kitchen sink. Never pour boiling water into the toilet.
What to avoid
Supermarket drain products do not reach a grease plug further down and they attack older pipework. Never mix products, and do not plunge after pouring one in, because it can splash back. Wire and coat hangers scratch the bowl and can puncture old pipes.
When to call a professional and how the job goes
Call for help when water comes back up, when it appears in more than one fixture or when the plunger and the trap did not work. The blockage is beyond what you have at home, and pushing harder only drives it further in.
This is when people start searching for drain cleaning or a clogged drain service near them. What clears it is drain unblocking in Porto with an electric snake or high pressure jetting, depending on the pipe, through the access points that already exist: the toilet, the drain or the inspection chamber. We cover Porto and all of Greater Porto, from Gaia to Maia and Póvoa de Varzim.
You call or send a message
A person answers. We ask for your address, where the blockage is and what you have tried. A short video on WhatsApp helps. We tell you how long we will take and agree payment while still on the phone.
We find the blockage
The technician tests the fixtures one by one. If the blockage is in the riser or a shared pipe, we tell you before any work starts, so the bill does not land on the wrong owner. If you rent, pass this on to your landlord.
You get the quote before we start
We tell you what needs doing and what it costs. The quote is free and nothing goes ahead without your approval.
We clear the drain and test it with you
The pipe is cleared along its whole length, not just where you could see the water standing. At the end we run water through every fixture on that pipe, in front of you.
You keep the invoice
The invoice lists the work and the materials separately. That document is your guarantee and what entitles you to complain if anything fails.
How to stop the drain blocking again
- Let grease from pans cool and put it in the bin, not down the sink.
- Use a strainer in the kitchen sink and the shower.
- Only toilet paper goes in the toilet. Wet wipes, cotton buds and sanitary products go in the bin.
Blocked drain questions
Do supermarket drain products work?
On hair at the top of a drain, sometimes. On a grease plug further down, no, and they attack older pipework. If you have already poured something in, tell us on the phone.
Is the blockage in my flat or in the building?
If water backs up in more than one fixture, or appears at the flat below, the problem is probably in the building riser. We check on site before any work.
Do you come out at night, in Maia or Póvoa de Varzim?
Yes. We answer 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in every municipality of Greater Porto, Maia and Póvoa de Varzim included.