Blocked Drains

A blocked drain announces itself. Water where it should leave, a smell where it should not live, a toilet that answers back. In a Durban student house the same stack often serves more than one room, so one blocked trap becomes a shared morning. ManjeProp needs a ticket that says which fitting, how high the water sits, and what has already been poured in.

This is a reporting note. It is not a lesson in opening a soil stack.

Which blockage is a ticket

Send Report a fault when:

A basin, shower or sink stands and empties only slowly
A toilet will not clear, or water rises in another fitting when you flush
An outside gully is full and smells of sewage
Water is coming up through a floor waste
The blockage is returning after a recent plumber

A little hair on a shower strainer you can lift with your fingers is house care. A pan that is leaking at the floor is a leak and a blockage conversation — photograph the base.

If sewage is in a living space, or water is at an electrical fitting, that is Emergency behaviour: get people out of the wet if you can, do not open boards, phone +27 60 313 6961.

What you may do that helps

Close the tap that is still filling the blocked bowl. Stop using every fitting that shares the smell. Lift a grate and remove only what is sitting loose on top. Put a bucket under a drip you can reach.

Write down any cleaner already used, and how much. If two housemates have already attacked it, the plumber needs that sentence. Do not add a third chemical “to be sure.”

Do not open the wall. Do not put a wire hanger into a toilet. Do not stand on the pan. Do not use a high-pressure washer on an inside waste. Do not pour oil “to lubricate.”

Photos that explain a drain

Wide shot of the room and the fitting. Close shot of the standing water. Photo of the outside gully if the smell is outside. Photo of the ceiling below if this is an upstairs bathroom. Something for scale — a tile, a bottle.

A ten-second video of a flush that fills a shower tray is worth more than adjectives. No faces, no medicine cabinet in focus.

Words that change the trade

Say whether more than one fitting is affected. A single basin is often a trap. A toilet and a shower rising together is often a stack or a main. Say when it started, and whether wipes, food or cement from a renovation might be in play. Be honest. The camera will not be kinder at the outgoing inspection.

Unit number still matters. “Bathroom” in a two-bath house is a coin toss.

Shared houses and blame

The ticket is not a court. “Downstairs shower stands, started Sunday, photo attached” is enough. If you know you put food down the kitchen sink, say so. Deposit files need evidence later; a group-chat verdict is not evidence.

House rules still apply: hair in the bin, no wipes down the pan, no fat in the sink. Those rules reduce tickets. They do not replace a broken pipe.

After the plumber

If the same waste stands a week later, send a new report with the old reference. That is how we see a failed rod-out versus a collapsed line. The repair log should say what was done — cleared trap, rodded, replaced section — and carry a photo or invoice.

Staff should not close a sewage-in-shower ticket on a thumbs-up text.

Outside gullies after Durban rain can fill with silt and leaves. Photograph the grate. Say whether sewage is in the mix or only stormwater. Do not lift a heavy cover if you cannot do it safely.

Viewers: run a shower and a basin on the walk-through. If the tray fills, believe it. Write it on the enquiry form.

A drain that has stopped is not a personality. It is a fitting. Name it and send it. If two fittings rise together, write that in the first line — it changes the trade from a plunger to a stack.

Report a fault · +27 60 313 6961