Blocked Drain
Pretoria North
A blocked drain Pretoria North homeowners can clear for good starts with one question: is it yours or the City's? Lift the cleaning eye nearest the boundary and look. What you see there decides who pays, and who you call.
Request a call-out
What blocks drains, and how they are cleared
Clearing the blockage is the easy half. Finding out why it formed stops it coming back.
Inside the house, drains block with what goes down them: fat and food in kitchen sinks, hair and soap in showers and basins, wipes and sanitary products in toilets. Outside, roots, soil and broken sections of pipe block the line between the house and the sewer.
Most blockages clear with rods or a drain machine; grease and heavy build-up need high-pressure water jetting. Where a drain blocks again soon after clearing, or the rods bring up roots or soil, the pipe is broken somewhere, and a CCTV drain inspection shows where.
Gullies outside the kitchen and bathroom block with leaves, and with stormwater that should never reach them. Stormwater may not run into the sewer in Tshwane, so a gully that floods in every storm is a fault worth fixing.
Whose blockage is it?
Tshwane's sanitation by-law draws the line at the sewer connection, and that line decides the bill.
Under Tshwane's Sanitation By-laws the drain from your house to the sewer connection is yours. If you believe a blockage is in the drainage on your property, you must have it cleared straight away, at your own cost (section 22(2)). If the blockage is in the City's sewer, you must report it to the City straight away (section 22(3)).
The quickest way to tell is the cleaning eye nearest your boundary. If it is full of water, the blockage is further down the line, in the connection or the municipal sewer, and the City needs to know. If it is empty while your house backs up, the blockage is between the house and that eye, and it is yours.
Two clauses catch people out. If the City clears a sewer obstruction caused by objects that came from your drain, you pay for it (section 22(7)). And where several properties share a drain, as they often do in townhouse complexes, clearing it is charged to the owners in equal shares (section 22(8)).
The by-law also expects your manholes and cleaning eyes to stay visible and accessible (sections 21 and 22(6)). Paving over a cleaning eye turns a quick clearing job into a hunt, and the City is not liable for relaying paving or lawn over a sewer line it has to open (section 22(5)).
Municipal sewers in the north do fail and stay failed: in September 2026 residents of The Orchards reported sewage spills in Ribbon Street and at Bester Park left unrepaired for months. Report a City blockage quickly and in writing, and keep your own side clear so the fault cannot be put on you.
Find your cleaning eyes now, keep them uncovered, and check the one at the boundary before you call anyone: full means report it, empty means it is yours.
Source: Tshwane Sanitation By-laws, 2014 · The Citizen, Tshwane sewage spills, 25 September 2026
Drain cardCleared, and why it blocked
Located
Which fitting, which section, and whether it is your drain or the City's sewer.
Cleared
Rods, machine or jetting, whichever the blockage needs, priced first.
Run clean
Water run through every affected fitting until it drains freely.
Cause
What blocked it, written down. Roots, soil or a broken pipe mean a camera, quoted separately.
Comeback
If the same line blocks again within the period written on the card, the return visit carries no call-out.
Fat, wipes and roots are different problems with different fixes. The card says which one you have.
Cleared, run clean, then explained
A drain that blocks again the next week was opened, not cleared.
A drain that blocks again a week after it was cleared was opened, not cleared, and paying twice for the same blockage is a common complaint after drain work.
The card does not stop at "it drains". It ends with the cause written down and, where the pipe is damaged, a camera to prove it.
The plumber behind Noord Plumbing has eight years of plumbing work in Pretoria North.
From a backed-up drain to water running away
The boundary cleaning eye is checked before anything is rodded.
Check the boundary eye
Full or empty tells you whether it is your drain or the City's sewer. Say which in the request if you can.
Clear it
Rods, a drain machine or jetting, from the nearest access point.
Find the cause
What came out, where it was, and whether the pipe is damaged.
Prove it runs
Every affected fitting run until it drains freely, cleaning eyes closed and sealed.
Blocked drain questions
Asked with the plunger still in hand.
What does unblocking a drain cost in Pretoria North?
Kandua's national guide spans roughly R600 to R2,500 and up for unblocking, and a Pretoria North request on Procompare was estimated at R2,500. A blocked basin trap sits at the bottom of that range; a main line that has to be jetted sits at the top. You hear the price before work starts.
Should I try drain cleaner first?
For one slow basin, hot water and a plunger are worth a try. Caustic cleaners rarely shift a main-line blockage, and they make the job more dangerous for whoever opens the drain next. If more than one fitting is slow, the blockage is further down, and chemicals will not reach it.
Who do I call if the sewer in the street is overflowing?
The City of Tshwane, straight away: report it through the e-Tshwane portal, the City's WhatsApp line or its call centre, as the Sanitation By-laws require. A blockage in the municipal sewer is the City's to clear.
Why does my drain keep blocking?
A drain that blocks again within weeks usually has a reason beyond what went down it: roots through a joint, a dip where the ground has moved, a broken section, or too little fall. Clearing treats the symptom; a camera finds the cause.
Can tree roots block my drain?
Yes. Roots find their way into joints and cracks and grow inside the pipe. Pretoria's jacarandas are not listed as invasive in urban Gauteng, so no rule forces their removal; the fix is usually the drain, not the tree.
Can my gutters drain into the sewer?
No. Tshwane's Sanitation By-laws prohibit stormwater from entering the sewer, and when a house is sold the plumber's certificate must confirm that none does. Gutters and downpipes should run to the garden or the stormwater system, not into a gully.
Request a call-out
Tell us the job and leave a number, and the plumber calls you to talk it through.
Water where it should not be? Turn it off at the meter now. It is the cheapest part of any repair.
Pretoria North and the suburbs around it
From the Apies River west to Rosslyn, and from Onderstepoort down to the foot of the Magaliesberg.
North
Wolmer, Onderstepoort, Bon Accord, Hesteapark, Clarina, The Orchards, Klerksoord
East
Annlin, Wonderboom, Sinoville, Magalieskruin, Montana, Montana Park, Doornpoort
South
Mountain View, Park Town Estate, Mayville, Wonderboom South
West
Dorandia, Florauna, Tileba, Theresapark, Ninapark, Karenpark, Amandasig, Akasia, Chantelle, Rosslyn
Not sure your suburb is covered? Send the request anyway and say where you are.