Blocked Toilets
Cleared through the pan or from the nearest access point, and inspected afterwards if it is the second time this year.
Home/Drain Unblocking
Drain unblocking in Hermanus begins at the boundary manhole, not at the toilet. That one check decides whether this is a job you pay for or a free call to a municipal control room that answers around the clock.
Say which fittings are affected: one of them, or every one in the house. That single detail usually places the blockage before anybody sets off.
Each one has a different right answer, and the wrong tool on the wrong blockage is how a drain gets cleared twice.
Cleared through the pan or from the nearest access point, and inspected afterwards if it is the second time this year.
The run between the house and the boundary. Rodded from the correct access so the blockage moves out rather than back.
Traps, branches and the hair and soap combination that builds in them. A small job that people live with for months.
Congealed fat coating a pipe wall rather than plugging it. Jetted, because rodding punches a hole through and leaves the coating.
Outside gullies packed with silt, sand and leaf litter, which is what stops a line before anything indoors shows it.
Where the same line keeps going, a camera survey to find the reason instead of clearing it again in six months.
There is a particular kind of drain call that arrives here after heavy rain, and it is almost always misdiagnosed by the person making it. Gullies rising. Toilets slow to clear. A smell outside that was not there yesterday. Every one of those symptoms matches a blockage, so a blockage is what gets reported, and a plumber duly arrives with rods.
Frequently there is nothing in the pipe. During the February 2026 flooding, Overstrand Municipality reported the situation in its own words: sewer pump stations across the Overstrand were struggling with stormwater ingress and overflows. Storm-driven sewer spills were recorded in Greater Hermanus at Silver Oaks in Northcliff, in De Villiers Street in Sandbaai and in Nkwenkwizi Street in Zwelihle. That is not a description of blocked private drains. It is a description of a sewer network taking in far more water than it was built for and having nowhere to send it.
The mechanism matters because it changes the diagnosis completely. A sewer is sized for foul water at a fairly predictable rate. When rainwater finds its way in, through stormwater connections that should not exist, through damaged pipes, or through manhole covers in standing water, the whole system surcharges. Once it is full, your house cannot discharge into it, because there is no space to discharge into. Your drains are perfectly clear. They are simply connected to something that is already at capacity.
There is a reliable way to tell the difference from your own garden, and it takes a minute. A blockage on your property is selective. One fitting, or one branch, or everything downstream of one point, while the boundary manhole runs clear. A surcharged network is not selective at all. Everything backs up at once, the boundary manhole is full rather than flowing, and if you walk down the road the neighbours are describing the same thing on the same afternoon.
That second pattern is not a plumbing job and paying for one will not improve it. Rodding a clear pipe into a full sewer achieves nothing except an invoice. Before you call anybody after heavy rain, lift the boundary manhole cover. If it is full rather than flowing, and if the street is doing the same, that is a free call to Overstrand on 028 313 8111 rather than a paid one to us.
The first one is the one that costs us jobs and earns the next one.
If the blockage is past your erf we stop and tell you, because that one is the municipality's to clear.
The cheaper method is tried first. Jetting is quoted only when rodding will not do the job properly.
The same line blocking twice is a defect. We would rather find it than sell you the same clearance again.
Gullies flushed, covers seated and the area washed down. This is the job where that matters most.
What does drain unblocking cost in Hermanus?
A rodded clearance through an accessible gully is the low end and most household blockages are exactly that. Jetting costs more because the machine costs more, and it is only used where rodding has failed or where the line is greased up rather than physically blocked. You are told which one it is before it starts.
What if the blockage turns out to be in the municipal line?
Then we stop, tell you, and you report it rather than pay us. Overstrand runs the sewer past your connection point and takes blockage reports 24 hours a day on 028 313 8000 or 028 313 8111. Clearing their line at your expense is not a service, it is a donation.
How do I tell whose side it is on?
Look at the gullies and the manhole nearest the boundary. If your inside fittings back up but the boundary manhole is running clear, the blockage is on your property. If the boundary manhole is full, the problem is downstream of your erf and therefore not yours.
Every drain in the house is slow at once. Is that one blockage?
Usually yes, and usually in the main line rather than in any individual fitting. When a single basin is slow it is the trap or the branch. When the whole house is slow simultaneously, look at the main run or at whatever it discharges into.
Will rodding damage the pipe?
Not a sound one. It can find a pipe that was already broken or displaced, which occasionally feels like the same thing. Where a line keeps blocking in the same place, that is usually a sign of a defect rather than of bad luck, and a camera is the honest next step rather than a rod every six months.
What actually causes most blockages here?
The municipality publishes its own list, and it is a good one: cigarettes, nappies, wet wipes, cleansing pads, cotton buds, tampons and used cooking oil. Wipes and fat between them account for the majority. Overstrand asks residents to scrape plates before washing and to collect cooking oil rather than pour it away, which is sound advice for the pipes inside your erf as well as for theirs.
Do you clear blocked drains in holiday houses between guests?
Yes, and turnaround days are when it matters. Tell us the changeover time and we will work to it. If we cannot make the window we will say so when you book rather than at eleven o’clock on the morning.
Is there anything I should not put down a drain to unblock it myself?
Caustic drain crystals down a pipe that is fully blocked, because the caustic sits in the standing water and is still there when somebody opens the fitting. If you have already poured some in, say so when you call. It changes how the job is approached and it matters for whoever puts their hands in it.
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Say which fittings are affected, whether the boundary manhole is clear, and whether it has rained recently. Those three answers narrow it a long way.