Cleared the same day where we can. And in a house this new we film it before we clear it, because what comes out of that drain may be somebody else's responsibility.
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Box Hill was rural until very recently. It was rezoned in 2013 and went from around 900 residents to 6,450 by the 2021 Census, so almost every house here is new enough that the usual plumbing assumptions do not apply.
The most common blockage we attend in a new estate is construction debris. Sand, mortar, render and offcuts get into open drainage while the house is going up, settle, and surface months later as a blockage nobody living there caused.
Residential building work in NSW carries statutory warranties under the Home Building Act 1989, broadly six years for a major defect and two for others, from completion. Drainage is building work, so that material may well be somebody's to answer for.
Which is why the order matters. We film the line and photograph what comes out before clearing it, and you keep all of it. Repair first and the evidence is gone. Then decide whether to raise it or just pay us. Both are fine, so long as it is a choice.
Then get it documented before it gets fixed. It costs nothing extra and it is the only version of this that keeps your options open.
Sand, mortar, render and offcuts enter open drainage while a house is being built, settle, and surface as a blockage months later.
It is one of the most common calls in any new estate and it has nothing to do with what anybody has been putting down the drain.
New fill and new slabs move over the first few years, and drainage laid at minimum fall has very little tolerance for that.
On camera it looks completely different from debris: a section that has lost fall or developed a dip rather than material sitting in a sound line.
Under the Home Building Act 1989, broadly six years for a major defect and two years for other defects, running from completion.
Plumbing is building work. For your own circumstances, NSW Fair Trading is the place to ask and it is free. We are plumbers, not lawyers.
A defect that has already been cleared is very hard to raise, because the evidence went with it.
Filming first costs nothing extra and it is the only sequence that leaves the decision genuinely open to you.
Ordinary defects are a normal part of construction and are usually fixed without much argument.
What stops people is not refusal, it is never asking, because nobody mentioned the option existed.
Photograph the fixture, the water level and anything visible at the access point, and note the date. Two minutes with a phone is the whole of it.
Then ring your builder if the house is inside its warranty period, and ring us if you need it cleared to keep living in the house. Those are not mutually exclusive.
We are plumbers rather than lawyers, and we will not tell you what your rights are. What we will do is document what we find properly enough that somebody else can act on it.
Drainage laid at minimum grade works when the ground beneath it stays where it was put. New fill and new slabs move over the first few years, and minimum grade has no margin to give up.
A section that has lost its fall holds material instead of moving it, which produces a line that blocks repeatedly in the same place for no apparent reason.
That is a grade fault rather than a blockage, and clearing it works every time and lasts about as long as the last one did.
A single slow fixture is local to it. Several, or the lowest one in the house, is the main line telling you so. On a new single-storey house the lowest point is usually a laundry tub, a shower or a floor waste.
Frequency is the other number worth keeping. Once is an event. Three times in a year at the same fixture is a pattern, and a pattern on a house this new is a defect rather than bad luck.
Write the dates down. It is a much stronger piece of information than a general sense that it happens a lot, and it is exactly what a builder will ask for.
Even on a house with a real defect in it, the thing actually in the pipe is frequently wipes. They do not break down, they catch on anything slightly out of line, and they hold everything behind them.
That matters here because a blockage caused by what went down the drain is not a construction defect, and the camera is what tells the two apart.
It is worth knowing which you have before raising anything, because a warranty claim about a wipe does not go anywhere.
Sewer and stormwater are different systems and connecting one to the other is not lawful. Trouble that only appears in heavy rain and clears when it stops is the stormwater side.
On a new estate that frequently means a pit, a downpipe connection or a rainwater tank overflow, and the tank overflow in particular runs to stormwater and blocks like anything else.
Worth saying which one you have when you ring, because the equipment differs and so does who is responsible for it.
On older housing a camera is the second visit. On a house a few years old it is frequently the first, because the question is not what is in the pipe but whether the pipe was laid correctly.
Footage answers both at once. It shows what is in there, and it shows the fall, the jointing and whether there is debris sitting in a line that should never have had any.
And you keep it. That is the part that matters if a conversation with a builder follows.
Agreed as a fixed figure before anyone starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges. On a house under six years old, the camera line is both the diagnosis and the evidence.
Through an existing access point, cleared and flow tested before we leave.
Filmed before clearing. Footage handed over, and it is also your record.
Construction material does not shift the way a soft blockage does.
Where a section has lost fall, marked at the surface so it can be pointed at.
What was in the line, what shape it is in, and what that suggests about cause.
Under six years and it changes the order we do things in, before anything else is decided.
The line recorded and what is in it photographed, while it is still there to see.
Through the existing access point, and run properly to confirm it is genuinely clear.
Footage, photos and a written note of what we found, yours to use however you decide.
We will get it running today. And on a newer house we will make sure you have the evidence before it disappears down the line.
Call 1300 381 569Almost always construction debris, and it is worth knowing that nobody living there caused it. While a house is being built, sand, mortar, render, offcuts and general site material find their way into open drainage. Some of it washes through, some of it settles, and it surfaces months or even a year later as a blockage that appears out of nowhere. It is one of the most common calls we take in a new estate, and it has nothing to do with what anyone has been flushing.
Possibly not, and it is worth asking before anyone invoices you. Residential building work in NSW carries statutory warranties under the Home Building Act 1989, broadly six years for a major defect and two years for other defects, running from completion. Drainage is building work like anything else, so a line laid badly, connected wrongly or left full of site material can fall within that. We are plumbers rather than lawyers, so for your own circumstances NSW Fair Trading is the right place to ask and it costs nothing.
Get it documented before it is repaired. That order matters more than anything else on this page. A defect that has already been cleared away is very hard to raise afterwards, because the evidence went down the drain with it. We film the line, photograph what comes out, and write down what we found, and you keep all of it. Then you decide whether to raise it or simply pay us and move on. Both are reasonable. It should just be a choice.
Frequently, and it is worth saying that most builders rectify ordinary defects without much argument. It is a normal part of construction and there is nothing unusual about a new house having a few. What stops people is not builders refusing, it is owners never asking because nobody told them the option existed.
It can, and the footage distinguishes them. New fill and new slabs move over the first few years, and drainage laid at minimum fall has very little tolerance for that movement before water stops running away properly. Debris shows as material sitting in an otherwise sound line. Settlement shows as a section that has lost its fall or developed a dip. They look completely different on a camera and they are different conversations.
Just as much, and worth mentioning because it is the one cause that genuinely is on the household. Wipes clear the bowl and then fail to break down. In a new line they snag on whatever construction material is already in there and build from that, so they turn a minor debris issue into a real blockage rather faster than they would elsewhere.
A standard clear through an existing access point is $150 to $400. A camera inspection with the footage handed over is $250 to $450, and on a house under six years old that is the line we would spend on first because it is also the evidence. Jetting is $400 to $700.
Tell us roughly how old the house is and whether you have had this before. On a newer build that answer changes what we do first, and whether you should be paying at all.
Filmed before clearing, evidence handed over, and a fixed price agreed beforehand.
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