- Phone answered 24/7, including nights, weekends and bank holidays
- Drainage across London, with plumbing alongside
Some drainage problems can wait until Monday. Sewage coming back into a property cannot. The phone is answered 24 hours a day, every day, and you will speak to the person who does the work rather than a call centre taking a message.
The main drain is blocked and waste is backing up through the lowest opening. Stop all water use immediately.
Wastewater heading for a door, airbrick or lightwell. Urgent, because water inside is a much bigger job than water outside.
A single-WC home or a business with customers on site. Treated as urgent.
A drainage failure can force food premises to stop trading, so time matters.
A collapsed drain washing ground away. Keep everyone off it and call.
If levels are still rising after you have stopped using water, something downstream is fully blocked.
Before you do anything else, stop water going into the system. That means no taps, no toilets, no showers, and check that the washing machine and dishwasher are not part-way through a cycle or set to start on a timer. Everything that goes in has to come out somewhere, and right now that somewhere is your floor.
Keep people and pets away from anything that has come out of a foul drain. It carries bacteria, and it is not something to walk through or clean up in bare hands. If wastewater is heading towards a doorway, an airbrick or a lightwell, tell us when you call. That moves the job up the list.
Not everything needs a call at two in the morning, and we will tell you honestly if yours can wait until the morning at a lower cost. What genuinely cannot wait is wastewater entering a property, a drain overflowing near a door or a basement, a commercial kitchen or food premises that has to close, a property with no usable toilet at all, or a collapse leaving a hole in the ground.
Things that usually can wait: a single slow-draining sink, a smell with no overflow, or a gully backing up in heavy rain that clears once the rain stops. Call anyway and we will tell you which yours is.
In a converted flat or a block, drainage emergencies get complicated quickly, because the pipe causing your problem may not be on your demise and the cost may not be yours. If you are a leaseholder, take photographs and tell your managing agent, but do not wait for them before stopping the water going in.
We will tell you what we find and where the blockage sat, which is the information your freeholder or agent needs to sort out who pays. We would rather do that than let a bill land on the wrong person.
Sewage flooding from a public sewer, or from a shared or lateral drain that Thames Water is responsible for, is theirs to deal with, and they run their own 24-hour line for it. If the evidence points that way, we will tell you to call them rather than charging you for work that should not be yours. It costs us a job, and it is still the right answer. Our guide to who pays explains how responsibility is usually split.
Tell us the symptoms and your postcode. We will tell you what it sounds like, what it is likely to cost and whether it is even your responsibility.
If the blockage is on a shared drain or beyond your property boundary, it may be Thames Water’s to deal with rather than yours to pay for.
The things people ask most about emergency drainage. If yours is not here, just call and ask.
Yes. Nights, weekends and bank holidays. You will get a person who can tell you what to do right now and when we can be there, not a message service.
Out-of-hours work costs more than the same job on a weekday, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. We will tell you the basis of the charge on the phone before you commit to anything, so you can make the decision with the number in front of you.
If sewage is flooding and you suspect a public sewer or a shared drain, call Thames Water first, because it may be theirs to deal with. If you are unsure, call us and we will help you work out which it is. We are not going to charge you for a job that is not yours.
Often, yes, and that is frequently the sensible approach. Get the water moving and the property usable, then look properly at the cause in daylight when a camera survey can be done and a repair planned without pressure.
Many home policies cover damage from escape of water and some cover drainage, but cover varies and we cannot tell you what your policy says. Photograph everything before you clean up, keep any report we give you, and speak to your insurer early.
Sinks, toilets, gullies and main drains cleared, with the cause identified rather than guessed.
Overflowing gullies and blocked manholes or inspection chambers, cleared and explained.
Cracked joints, root damage and collapsed sections, repaired without digging where the pipe allows.
Call and speak to the engineer, 24 hours a day, including tonight.
