Blocked sink, bath or shower? We'll find where it's stuck
Kitchen grease, bathroom hair or a shower tray that won't empty. We trace it to the trap, the waste pipe or the gully outside.
- Sinks, baths and showers from £80
- No call-out fee
- A fixed price agreed before any work starts
- If the same drain blocks again within 30 days, we come back free
- Engineers from Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, usually within 60 minutes
Signs of a blocked sink, bath or shower
A blocked sink starts as a slow one. By the time the bowl stands full, the pipe has usually been narrowing for weeks. Look out for:
- Water takes minutes to leave the bowl, or doesn't leave at all.
- A glugging noise as it finally goes down.
- Bits of food or grey water come back up the kitchen plughole when the dishwasher empties.
- A musty or eggy smell from the plughole.
- The shower tray fills around your feet while the shower is running.
Blocked kitchen sink: fat, food and what builds up
Fat, oil and grease go down the plughole as liquid, then cool and set as they travel. Over months they form a waxy lining inside the waste pipe, and rice, pasta, coffee grounds and bits of peel stick to it. Washing-up liquid doesn't stop this. It only carries the fat a little further before it sets.
Kitchen waste pipes make it worse. They are narrow, often run several metres along a wall, and turn a few corners before they reach a gully outside. Every bend is somewhere for fat to collect.
To keep a blocked kitchen sink from coming back:
- Wipe greasy pans with kitchen roll before washing them.
- Let fat cool in a jar or old tin, then bin the lot.
- Empty plate scraps into your food waste caddy, and fit a strainer in the plughole.
Blocked bathroom sink and bath: hair and soap
In the bathroom the culprit is hair. It wraps round the pop-up plug and the rod that lifts it, then soap, toothpaste and shaving foam bind it into a grey mat. Bathroom basins have smaller waste pipes than kitchens, so it doesn't take much.
A blocked bath often isn't the pipe at all. Many click-clack plugs unscrew from the top, and cleaning the hair from underneath one can fix a slow bath in a few minutes. Baths also have an overflow pipe that joins the trap, and gunk can collect where the two meet.
Blocked shower drain and shower traps
A shower tray sits on a shallow trap, because there's little room under the tray. That shallow trap has less space to hold hair, so it fills quickly.
Most modern shower wastes can be cleaned from above. Lift off the cover, pull out the inner cup (sometimes called a dip tube), clear the hair and refit it firmly, as a loose cup lets smells through. Wet rooms use a floor gully or a long channel drain, usually with a removable hair catcher.
If water pools in the tray, suspect hair. If water appears on the floor around the tray or through a ceiling below, suspect a leaking seal. That's a job for a plumber, not a drain engineer.
Is it the sink, or the drain outside?
Where the water backs up tells you where the blockage is.
| What you notice | Where the blockage usually is |
|---|---|
| One sink, bath or shower is slow, everything else is fine | The trap or waste pipe from that fitting |
| The kitchen sink and washing machine are both slow | The shared waste pipe, or the gully outside |
| The gully under the kitchen pipe is full of greasy water | The gully or the drain beyond it |
| Sinks, bath and toilet are all slow, or the toilet gurgles when the sink empties | The main drain |
If the gully or main drain is the problem, clearing the sink won't help for long. Our pages on the blocked outside drain and the blocked toilet explain the signs of a drain blockage in more detail.
Dishwasher and washing machine connections
Dishwashers and washing machines usually empty into the sink trap through a side spigot, or into a standpipe next to the sink. That connection causes a lot of confusion:
- Dirty water appears in the sink when a machine drains. The trap is part blocked, so the pump pushes water up instead of away.
- The dishwasher smells or has water in the bottom. Its hose may be missing the high loop that stops sink water running back into the machine.
- The washing machine won't drain after a new sink was fitted. New traps come with a plastic blanking cap in the spigot. If nobody removed it, the machine can't empty.
- The standpipe overflows. Lint and fabric conditioner build up inside it over time.
If a machine won't drain but the sink empties normally, the fault is probably the machine's filter or pump. That's one for an appliance engineer.
How we clear a blocked sink
- Every outlet on the pipe checked
We run the sink and any machine on the same pipe, and look in the gully, to see how far the blockage reaches.
- Trap off and cleaned
With a bucket underneath, we take the trap apart, clear it and check the plug mechanism. That alone fixes many bathroom basins.
- Waste pipe cleared through to outside
A hand auger or small drain machine runs along the pipe. Kitchen pipes lined with set fat get drain jetting instead.
- Gully emptied and flushed
We scoop out the gully under the kitchen pipe and check it runs freely into the drain.
- Tested with the machines running
We run hot water, put the dishwasher or washing machine through a drain cycle, and check every joint under the sink is dry.
Blocked sink prices
- One blocked sink, basin, bath or showerfrom£80
- Sink and outside gully blocked together£80 to £200
- Kitchen waste pipe jetted to shift set fatfrom£150
Included: clearing the trap, waste pipe and gully, a test with any connected appliance, and a dry cupboard when we leave.
What changes the price: pipes boxed in behind a fitted kitchen with no access panel, a cracked trap that needs a replacement part, or two fittings blocked separately.
All prices include VAT. The same price day, night, weekends and bank holidays. See every rate on the full price list.
What sink unblocking can and can't fix
It can fix fat, food, hair and soap in the trap and waste pipe, a gully packed with grease, and a machine connection that has clogged up.
It can't fix a leaking trap or joint under the sink, a shower tray that leaks at the seal, or a faulty appliance pump. It also can't cure a waste pipe laid without enough slope. Water sits in the flat section and the blockage comes back, so the pipe needs refitting, and we'll show you where it dips. A smell from a sink that's rarely used is often just a dried-out trap: run the tap for a minute and it usually goes.
Renting? Who pays for a blocked sink usually depends on what caused it. Our guide on who is responsible for blocked drains explains how landlords and tenants normally split it.
Recent sink and shower jobs
Kitchens, bathrooms and showers our engineers have cleared lately, with the cause of each blockage.
Real, dated jobs from the job log appear here: town and postcode district, the problem, what was done, and a photo. Nothing shows until real jobs are logged. Service: blocked-sink.
Our guarantee on sinks, baths and showers
- If we can't clear it, you don't pay.
- If the same drain blocks again within 30 days, we come back free.
Kitchen sinks come with one honest caveat: if more fat goes down after we leave, a new blockage isn't covered. Everything else is on our guarantee page.
Areas we cover for blocked sinks
Our engineers work from Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch and unblock sinks, baths and showers across Dorset and Hampshire.
Blocked sink FAQs
Why is my kitchen sink blocked?
Almost always because of fat and food. Grease sets as it cools inside the waste pipe, and scraps of rice, pasta, coffee grounds and peel stick to it until the water can't get past. Less often, the gully outside is packed with fat or leaves, or a new trap has been fitted with its machine spigot still capped.
Is a blocked kitchen sink an emergency?
Usually not. A blocked kitchen sink is a nuisance, but it rarely damages the house. It becomes urgent if dirty water is overflowing onto the floor, if the toilet or another fitting is backing up too, or if you run a food business that can't wash up. Otherwise, stop using it and book a visit at a time that suits you.
Can a blocked drain affect a washing machine or dishwasher?
Yes. Most machines empty into the sink trap or a standpipe beside it, so a blockage anywhere past that point stops them draining. You may see dirty water rise in the sink as the machine pumps out, or the machine may stop mid-cycle with an error code. Clearing the sink waste usually sorts both.
Does caustic soda unblock drains?
It can shift a thin layer of fat in a sink trap, because it turns grease into a soapy liquid. It won't touch hair, food scraps or a solid blockage, and it's dangerous to handle. It can splash back, burn skin and eyes, and harm some pipes and seals. If you've used it, tell the engineer before they start.
Will a kettle of boiling water clear a blocked sink?
It's not a good idea. A kettle of boiling water melts some fat, but only carries it a few metres further along the pipe before it sets again, often somewhere harder to reach. It can also soften plastic pipe joints. Hot tap water and a plunger over the plughole are safer first steps.
How do I unblock a shower drain full of hair?
Lift off the cover, pull out the inner cup or hair catcher, and pull the hair out with gloved fingers or a plastic drain claw. Rinse it, refit it firmly, and run the shower to check. If the tray still fills, the hair has gone further into the waste pipe, and the trap may need taking apart from below.
Why does my bathroom sink smell?
A bad smell usually comes from a film of soap, hair and toothpaste inside the trap and overflow, or from a trap that has dried out so drain air comes straight up. Cleaning the trap and running water fixes most cases. A smell that stays after that can point to a problem with the drain or a vent.
How much should unblocking a sink cost?
Our price for a single blocked sink, basin, bath or shower starts at £80, and there's no charge just for turning up (No call-out fee). Expect more if the gully outside is blocked as well, or if set fat has to be jetted out of a long kitchen waste pipe. The figure is fixed on the phone or at the door. All prices include VAT.
Get your sink draining again
Call 0800 246 5347 or send a photo of the sink and the pipes underneath with a callback request, and you'll get a fixed price straight back.