Blocked Drains in Cleveland

Jim Monger Plumbing and Gas clears blocked drains with a jet rodder or electric eel and inspects lines with a CCTV camera, and Cleveland is in our service area for homeowners, landlords and property managers. Here, who should make the call depends on the home. Flats, townhouses, rentals and separate houses all sit in this suburb, and a slow drain in one can be a matter for the body corporate, the landlord or agent, or simply yours. If sewage is coming up right now, ring us, because emergency calls are taken 24/7. Tenants should read the renting question below first, because a blocked toilet has its own first step. Otherwise, the notes below show who looks after your line and when to call us.

Before you book anyone, ask two things: do the neighbours have the same trouble, and is it one fixture or several? If only one or a few sinks or toilets are slow, Redland City Council says the problem is most likely in your home’s plumbing, which makes a plumber the right call rather than Council.

With 19.5% of occupied Cleveland homes flats or apartments and 19.9% townhouses, terraces or semi-detached at the 2021 Census, against 4.4% and 11.4% across Redland, your first question is more likely to be whether the line is shared. In a unit complex, duplex or body corporate, Council sends sewer blockages to the body corporate, so ask a neighbour whether their drains are slow, then ring it before booking anyone. Council expects higher density housing in the Cleveland catchment to increase through infill development, and an infill townhouse may or may not share its line with the home beside it, so check with whoever manages the complex first.

Separate houses, 60.4% of Cleveland homes against 83.9% across Redland, are where the next step is usually a test outside. Find the inspection opening, usually within 1-2 metres of a boundary and the owner’s to maintain, then run an indoor tap. Council’s guide is that an opening which holds water, drains slowly or overflows may mean the main, while a dry opening points to your own plumbing. In 2021, 31.0% of Cleveland households were one person living alone, against 21.9% across Redland, and if that is you, do not leave water running while you walk outside: ring us instead.

The 2021 Census put rentals at 29.4% of occupied Cleveland homes, against 22.9% across Redland, so here the tests above may well not be your first step. If you rent, flat or house, start with the renting question below. For landlords and agents, QBCC says unblocking sanitary pipework on rentals must be performed by a licensed person, and rental plumbing maintenance is among our services.

Near Raby Bay, yard water may mean checking your own stormwater pits first, though not for a blocked sink or toilet. In January 2021 Council announced litter baskets for 272 stormwater catch pits there, saying heavy rain typically flushes debris into the canals and that palm fronds, leaves and logs are regularly found. The same fronds and leaves may land in a Raby Bay yard, and gully pits on your land are yours to maintain, so clear them before heavy rain and ring us if water still sits.

Away from the canals, the concrete lined drain running parallel to Bloomfield Street is, in Council’s description, part of Ross Creek, with almost no flow in dry weather. It is not a private drain, so a near-empty channel there says nothing about your own line.