WELLINGTON DRAIN RELINING
Blocked drains, cleared across Wellington
If your drain is blocked right now, clearing it is the first job and we will get it flowing. What we will also do is put a camera down afterwards, because a drain that blocks repeatedly is telling you something a rod will not fix.
Serving Wellington City, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and the Kāpiti Coast.
How we clear a
blocked drain
Hydro jetting. High-pressure water that strips the pipe wall rather than just punching a hole through the blockage. Fat, silt, scale and soft root matter all come out, and the pipe is left properly clean rather than merely flowing again.
Mechanical root cutting. Chain flails and root cutters for established root masses that jetting alone will not shift.
Camera check afterwards. Always, and at no extra charge on a clearing job. It takes ten minutes and it is the difference between knowing you have a clean pipe and hoping you do.
What we clear
Blocked toilets, gully traps, shower and sink wastes, sewer laterals, stormwater lines, downpipes, yard drains and commercial drainage.
Managing a commercial site or a body corporate?
What causes blocked drains in Wellington
- Tree roots. The most common cause here by a wide margin, particularly in older suburbs with mature street trees. Roots enter through a crack or an open joint and thicken until the drain closes.
- Cracked or displaced pipe. Jagged edges catch debris, and the blockage reforms in the same spot every time.
- Fat, oil and grease. Especially in hospitality and older shared plumbing.
- Silt and soil ingress. Where a defect is letting ground material into the line, it settles in the low points and slowly takes the capacity.
- Foreign objects. Wipes, sanitary products, toys, and the occasional item nobody will admit to.
Wellington adds two of its own. Ground movement opens joints faster here than in most of the country, and steep sections mean long, deep runs where a small defect has a lot of pipe upstream of it to collect from.
One blockage, or a pattern?
This is the question worth answering, and most operators do not ask it.
A first blockage after years of trouble-free service is usually just a blockage. Wipes, fat, a bad year for leaf fall. Clear it and move on.A third blockage in eighteen months is not a maintenance issue. It is a structural fault that keeps catching debris, and every clean between now and repairing it is money spent twice. Somewhere in that pipe is a crack, an open joint or a root mass, and it will keep collecting whatever goes past it.
The camera settles it in about twenty minutes. If the pipe is sound, you have paid for a clear and you have certainty, and you can carry on calling us whenever it happens. If it is not, you now know what you are dealing with and roughly what it costs to end it.
CCTV drain
inspections
A high-definition camera survey of your drainage, with a written report and the footage sent to you. Standalone inspections run $250 to $450 depending on the property.
What you get
The footage. Recorded, sent to you, yours to keep. Not shown to you once on a screen on the back of a van.
A written report. Pipe material, diameter, condition, every defect located and measured from the access point, with our recommendation and an indicative cost.
A straight answer. Whether the pipe is sound, whether it needs a patch, whether it needs lining, or whether it needs replacing. Including when the answer is that nothing needs doing.
Buying an older Wellington property?
Get the drains surveyed before you go unconditional. This is the single most useful $400 a buyer can spend on a pre-1960 Wellington house, and it is routinely skipped.
Building inspections rarely cover underground drainage in any meaningful way. Most stop at what is visible. Meanwhile a large share of the city's older housing stock is still running on original earthenware laterals, and a failed drain discovered after settlement is entirely your problem.
A drainage report before you commit either gives you confidence or gives you a negotiating position. Both are worth having.
Selling?
The same logic runs backwards. A recent report with clean footage removes a line of attack from a buyer's negotiation, and it is a cheap way to protect an asking price. If the survey does find a fault, you get to fix it on your timeline rather than under conditional-offer pressure.
Other reasons to book a survey
- Recurring blockages with no obvious cause
- Wet patches, smells or unexplained lush growth over a drain line
- Before a renovation or extension, to locate lines and check condition
- After a slip, settlement or nearby excavation
- Body corporate or commercial condition assessment for asset planning
- Insurance and dispute documentation
What the camera can tell us
Pipe material and diameter, the exact location and depth of every defect, root intrusion and its extent, cracks and fractures, displaced or open joints, fall and any low spots holding water, junction condition, and where your private lateral ends and the public network begins.
After the job
If the camera shows sound pipe, you are done. You have a clear drain and the footage to prove the pipe is fine, and there is nothing further to buy.
If it shows cracks, root intrusion or open joints, we will quote the repair and you can decide in your own time. There is no pressure to book anything on the spot, and the report is yours regardless of what you do next.
Book a job
Looking to book in a drain relining job? Have a few questions regarding our service? Fill in the form and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
- 02 138 1382
- info@wdr.co.nz
- Wellington, New Zealand
