Most drain failures are local. One pipe has cracked, one join has pulled apart as the clay soil dried out, or one section has been crushed under a driveway or split by a root. The rest of the line may be fine. Clearing the blockage buys time, but the damaged piece is still down there, catching waste and letting roots in, and it blocks again.
Blockage Bros repairs drains by finding the damage first. The CCTV camera goes down the line and shows the break on screen. The locator then pinpoints that spot and its depth from the surface, and that is where the dig happens: one small hole, not a trench across the yard. The damaged section is cut out, a new length of pipe goes in, and the line is tested so we know it holds.
Sometimes the footage shows damage at joint after joint along an old clay line, not just one spot. Patching one section of a drain like that leaves the next crack waiting to fail. In that case the quote also prices replacing or relining the whole run, so you can weigh one repair now against fixing the entire line once and moving on.
Signs your drain needs a repair, not another clean
- It blocks again a few weeks after being cleared
- A soft or sunken patch has appeared over the drain
- The camera showed a crack or a broken section
- Water seeps up through the lawn near the gully
- Roots keep coming through the same spot
How is a broken drain repaired?
Every repair is found, marked and checked before the shovel comes out.
- Camera down the line to find the damage
- Locator marks the spot and the depth on the ground
- One dig at that spot only
- Damaged section cut out and new pipe joined in
- Line tested, then the hole is filled back in
Why do drains break?
Across Melbourne's western plains, reactive clay soil shrinks in dry summers and swells in wet winters, and the pipes move with it. Older homes often have clay pipes with mortar joins that crack under that movement. Cars parked over shallow lines, heavy bins and old pits add load. Roots finish the job, growing into any gap they find.
Repair one section or replace the whole run?
It comes down to what the camera shows. One break in an otherwise sound line is a repair. Cracks along the length point to relining or replacement. Both go in writing with prices, and you decide.
Drain repairs and replacements across Melbourne's west and beyond
Blockage Bros repairs and replaces drains across Melbourne's west and north-west, Geelong and the Surf Coast, Ballarat and Kyneton, with someone on call 24/7.
Melbourne's west: Melton, Bacchus Marsh, Caroline Springs, Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Point Cook, Tarneit, Sunshine, Footscray, Williamstown, Altona.
Melbourne's north and north-west: Sunbury, Essendon, Brunswick, Craigieburn, Epping, Reservoir, Preston.
Geelong and the Surf Coast: Geelong, Lara, Torquay.
Ballarat and the Macedon Ranges: Ballarat, Kyneton.
Related drain services
- Pipe Relining: Roots and cracks keep wrecking a drain that runs under the lawn, the driveway or the slab. Relining puts a new pipe inside the old one without a trench through the yard.
- Sewer Repairs: Water coming up the shower or a sewer smell in the yard usually means the drain between the house and the sewer connection is cracked, full of roots or collapsed.
- Stormwater Drain Repairs: When the yard floods, downpipes back up or a pit overflows in rain, the stormwater line is usually blocked, crushed or collapsed somewhere between the roof and the outlet.
- Blocked Drains: Water sitting in the shower, a sink that will not empty or a gully trap spilling over? Blockage Bros clears the drain, then shows you on camera what caused it.
- Blocked Toilets: Toilet will not flush, or the water rises to the rim and sits there? Blockage Bros finds out whether it is the pan or the main line, and clears it.
- Drain Cleaning & Hydro Jetting: Grease, fat, sludge and roots narrow a drain long before it blocks. Blockage Bros cleans the whole pipe with high-pressure water, not just the spot that stopped.
