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15 years of plumbing in Kempton Park
Drain Unblocking
Kempton Park
Drain unblocking in Kempton Park: the blocked section is found, cleared and run with water, and you see what came out before the invoice is written.
Six sections of a house drain, each cleared its own way
Where the water rises tells you which section is blocked, and that decides the tool.
Kitchen sink branch
Fat, starch and food scraps set in the trap and in the pipe that runs to the yard gully. The trap is opened, the branch rodded and then flushed through.
Toilets
Wipes, nappies and sanitary products jam the toilet trap or its branch. An auger goes in first, and the pan is lifted only if the object will not pass.
Basins, baths and showers
Hair and soap collect just past the waste outlet. They are cleared at the trap or with a hand rod, then the fitting is run until it drains freely.
Yard gully
The open trap outside where the kitchen and laundry pipes discharge. It overflows first when anything beyond it blocks, so it is often the way in.
The main line to the street
The pipe that carries everything from the house to the City's connecting sewer. Rods or a high-pressure jetter go in from a rodding eye or the gully.
Lines that keep blocking
Roots, a sagging section or a cracked pipe catch debris again soon after clearing. A camera shows which it is before more rodding is paid for.
Where an overflowing Kempton Park drain ends up
The Swartspruit rises in Isando and runs to Rietvlei Dam, which the Kempton Express describes as one of the major dams supplying water to Pretoria. A 2006 study of the area's rivers found that the stream drains Isando, Spartan, the Kempton Park CBD and Witfontein. Hartebeestfontein Water Care Works discharges into it as well. According to ERWAT, which runs the works, it treats sewage from Kempton Park households and effluent from the industries of Spartan and Isando.
Sewage that reaches the works is treated before it goes into the stream. Sewage that overflows on the way never gets that far. In July 2023 the Kempton Express reported the stench of sewage from the Swartspruit in many Kempton Park communities, with Edleen among the areas affected, and named sewer blockages, overflows and foreign objects among the causes. The City told the paper that it follows preventative maintenance plans to stop sewer overflows polluting water bodies.
Ekurhuleni is clear about what blocks its sewers. It handles about 5,000 sewer complaints a month across the metro and names foreign objects as the main cause, from oil and disposable nappies to plastic bottles, rocks and clothing. Sewer blockages were one of only three problems listed for the Kempton Park Customer Care Area at the City's April 2025 IDP consultation. Its Water Services By-laws forbid letting grease, oil, fat or solid matter build up in a drainage installation until it blocks.
An overflowing yard gully is a small sewer spill on your own property. The by-law allows nothing other than stormwater into a stormwater drain, a watercourse or the street, which rules out hosing the overflow down the driveway into the gutter. Water sent that way joins the stormwater rather than the sewer, and the stream that drains central Kempton Park, Isando and Spartan is the Swartspruit. The overflow is better stopped where it starts: water off in the house, the line cleared, then the yard rinsed back into the cleared gully.
The by-law puts the drain itself on the owner as well. A drainage installation is maintained at the owner's expense, and a blockage is removed "by or under the supervision of a qualified plumber". Clearing it properly means taking the blockage out and naming what it was, rather than pushing it further down toward the City's sewer. A cause you can see, such as fat from the kitchen or wipes from a toilet, is a cause you can stop.
When a gully overflows, stop running water in the house and keep the spill out of the gutter and the stormwater drains. Once the line is clear, rinse the yard back into the gully it came from.
Where the water rises, and what that points to
Read across each row: the first sign, the section most often behind it, and how it is cleared.
Drain blockages, Kempton Park homes
| What you notice | What it usually is | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen sink empties slowly, then not at all | Fat and food set in the trap or the branch to the gully | Trap opened, branch rodded, then flushed through with hot water |
| Toilet water rises on flushing; other drains run | Wipes, paper or an object in that toilet's own branch | Auger through the pan first, lifting it only as a last resort |
| Yard gully floods when the washing machine empties | The line beyond the gully is blocked | Rods or a jetter from the gully toward the street connection |
| Toilets gurgle and every drain is slow | A blockage in the main line near the boundary | Main line cleared from a rodding eye, then run from every fitting |
| Cleared recently, blocked again within weeks | Roots, a sag or a cracked section catching debris | A camera down the line before another clearing is paid for |
Sewage rising from a municipal manhole in the street is a City fault. The emergency plumber page explains how to report it.
Four rules every drain clearing follows
Each answers a complaint that turns up again and again in reviews of plumbers: the price moved, or the drain blocked again and nobody answered.
The price before the rods
The phone-back covers what the visit costs and what you owe if you say no. Clearing is priced once the blocked section is found, and starts only when you agree.
What came out, shown to you
Fat, wipes, roots or a child's toy: you see what was blocking the line, because that decides whether it is likely to block again.
Flow proved before leaving
Each fitting on the cleared line is run and the gully is watched while it drains, so a part-cleared pipe is not left behind.
A repeat gets answered
If the same line blocks again, the follow-up goes through the same form and is arranged with you. The next step is a camera, not another guess.
How a blocked drain gets cleared
You agree the price at step three, before any tool goes into the pipe.
Send the form
Say which fitting backs up first, whether the yard gully overflows and whether this line has blocked before. Stop using water in the house until it is cleared.
Take the phone-back
A plumber phones you to work out which section is blocked and where the access points are. The visit charge is explained and a time is booked.
Locate and price
On site the blockage is located from the nearest gully or rodding eye. You hear the price for clearing it before rods or a jetter go in.
Clear, run, rinse
The line is cleared and run from every fitting, and the yard is rinsed back into the gully. The invoice names what was found in the pipe.
Related work in Kempton Park
What people ask when a Kempton Park drain blocks
Not listed? Put it in the call-out form and ask the plumber when they phone.
Before anyone comes out, how is clearing a blocked drain priced?
The call-out charge is explained when the plumber phones you back, before anyone drives to you. The clearing is priced on site once the blocked section is found, because a sink trap and a main line under paving are different jobs. Nothing is cleared until you accept that price.
The plumbing prices page explains how a call-out charge works and what a written quote should show.
Sewage is bubbling out of the gully by the kitchen. How urgent is that?
Treat it as urgent. Stop using water in the house, including the washing machine and the toilets, so nothing more is pushed into the blocked line, and keep children and pets away from the spill.
Then send the form and say that it is sewage. If the overflow is coming from a municipal manhole in the street rather than your own gully, the emergency plumber page explains how to report it to the City.
Can I hose the overflow into the stormwater drain in the street?
No. Ekurhuleni's Water Services By-laws allow nothing other than stormwater into a stormwater drain, a watercourse or the street, and sewage hosed down a driveway goes straight there.
Leave the spill where it is until the line is cleared. After that the yard can be rinsed back into the gully, which drains to the sewer and on to the treatment works.
Will a rod be enough for my line, or does it need a jetter?
It depends on what is blocking it. Rods break through a plug of paper or wipes and can hook roots or an object back out. A jetter scours the inside of the pipe with water under pressure, which suits fat that has coated a line along its length.
The choice is explained on site before the work is priced. If neither keeps the line clear for long, a CCTV drain inspection shows why.
The toilet backs up but the kitchen sink is fine. Where is the blockage?
Most likely between that toilet and the point where its branch joins the main line. If the main line itself were blocked, the kitchen and the yard gully would usually back up as well.
The toilet's own trap and branch are worked on first. Lifting the pan is kept for an object that will not come out any other way.
The same kitchen line has blocked three times since winter. What is causing that?
Fat is the first suspect on a kitchen line. Cooking fat and oil go down warm, cool in the pipe and set, and food scraps stick to them, so the bore narrows a little more each week. The by-law forbids letting grease or fat build up in a drain until it blocks, which in practice means wiping pans and binning the fat.
If the line has been cleared properly and still blocks, the pipe may be holding debris at a sag, a crack or a root. That is the point where a camera earns its cost.
What ends up blocking Ekurhuleni's sewers?
Foreign objects, according to the City, which handles about 5,000 sewer complaints a month across the metro. Its list includes oil, sanitary towels, disposable nappies, plastic bottles, rocks, shoes and clothing, and it has pulled tyres and mattresses out of sewers too.
At home the rule is short: toilet paper and human waste in the toilet, and nothing solid or greasy down the sink. Wipes and nappies go in the bin.
Will clearing the drain mean lifting my paving?
Not usually. Rods and jetters go in through the yard gully, a rodding eye or an inspection chamber, so a blockage is cleared without digging.
Paving comes up only when a pipe is broken or collapsed and has to be replaced. Before that is quoted, a camera shows where the damage is, so only that section is opened.
Where we work
Every suburb inside Kempton Park, from Birchleigh North down to Bonaero Park on the airport fence.
- Kempton Park CBD
- Allen Grove
- Aston Manor
- Birch Acres
- Birchleigh
- Birchleigh North
- Bonaero Park
- Bredell
- Cresslawn
- Croydon
- Edleen
- Esther Park
- Glen Erasmia
- Glen Marais
- Isando
- Kempton Park West
- Nimrod Park
- Norkem Park
- Pomona
- Rhodesfield
- Serengeti
- Spartan
- Terenure
- Van Riebeeck Park