A blocked toilet is the most honest emergency in the house. There’s no pretending it isn’t happening, there’s usually a queue forming, and there is a very specific moment of dread just before you look into the bowl and flush. (Don’t flush. See the steps above. We’ve mopped up too many optimists.)
Here’s what makes us different from every other number you could ring: we genuinely don’t mind. Not in the gritted-teeth, “someone’s got to do it” way. Blocked toilets and sinks are quick, solvable, satisfying puzzles, and the person arriving at your door is pleased to be there. No sighing at you, no “what did you put down here then” interrogation. You’re having a bad morning; we’re having a normal Tuesday.
Toilets block on the usual suspects: wet wipes (even the “flushable” ones, which flush in the same sense that a brick technically flies), kids’ toys, air fresheners that dive off the cistern, and too much paper. Most clear in under an hour with the right tools rather than a supermarket plunger.
Sinks are almost always fat and food in the kitchen, or hair and soap in the bathroom, packed into the trap or the first bend. If more than one fixture is draining slowly at once, the problem is further down the line, and we’ll find it rather than just emptying the trap and hoping.
What it costs: most blocked toilets and sinks in the TW area run £80–£160, with out-of-hours visits from £150. Price agreed before we start, fixed when we finish. If it turns out the real problem is the main drain, we’ll show you, explain the options, and never charge twice for one problem.
What to do right now in Staines
- Don't flush again 'to see'. If the bowl is full, a second flush has exactly one place to go, and it's your bathroom floor.
- Turn off the water to a filling toilet at the isolation valve on the inlet pipe (small screw or lever), or hold the float arm up inside the cistern.
- For a blocked sink, stop the taps and don't reach for caustic soda. It generates heat, can damage the trap, and makes the pipe dangerous to work on.
- Call us. Describing the problem is our job to make easy, and no, whatever it is, it will not be the worst thing we've seen this week.
Blocked Toilet & Sink help, local to Staines
Riverside town with a high water table: drains here fight the Thames as well as the fatbergs.
Staines drains do a job most drains never have to think about: they work with the Thames at the end of the street and groundwater a few feet down. The riverside roads between Staines Bridge and Laleham, and the low-lying streets towards Wraysbury in TW19, all sit on a high water table. When the river is up, gullies drain sluggishly even when they’re perfectly clear, and older pipes with worn joints let groundwater seep in, keeping runs part-full around the clock. A drain that’s already half busy floods the moment a real blockage arrives.
That’s why we treat Staines blockages with more urgency than most. The gap between “the shower’s a bit slow” and “there’s water coming up the downstairs loo” is shorter here, especially in winter. Wipes and grease do the same damage they do everywhere; the river just removes your margin for error. Locals who remember 2014 don’t need that explained.
One boundary worth knowing: we fix the drains. If river or groundwater has actually flooded into your home, the pump-out, drying and the insurance paperwork side is a specialist job, and our colleagues at Emergency Plumbers TW handle exactly that around the clock. For everything drain-shaped in TW18 and TW19, from Two Rivers to the bridge, one number, 24/7, and yes, we find the water table genuinely interesting.
We cover all of Staines (TW18, TW19) — from Staines Bridge, the Thames riverside, Two Rivers and across Ashford, Laleham, Wraysbury. Being genuinely local means we already know what Staines's drains are made of, and how fast we can be at your door.More about drains in Staines →