Melbourne’s Trusted
Home Plumbing Experts
We don’t just clear blocked drains — we find what’s causing the blockage and fix it properly so the problem doesn’t keep coming back.

Sam & Natasha
Founders, Your Choice Plumbers
Melbourne’s Trusted
Home Plumbing Experts
We don’t just clear blocked drains — we find what’s causing the blockage and fix it properly so the problem doesn’t keep coming back.


Sam & Natasha
Founders, Your Choice Plumbers
Select the problem that best matches what you’re seeing — we’ll guide you to the right fix.
Stop using the affected sink, shower, toilet, or outside drain if water is backing up. Continued use can make the overflow worse and spread wastewater or stormwater to other parts of the property.
It can be. If wastewater is overflowing, the toilet is unusable, multiple drains are backing up, or water is pooling around the house during rain, it should be treated as urgent.
Call a licensed plumber who can actually diagnose the cause, not just poke a hole through the blockage. Your Choice Plumbers uses CCTV, jetting, and drain experience to work out what is really happening.
That is a very common pattern. What starts as a slow sink, shower, or toilet is often an early restriction from grease, hair, wipes, roots, or pipe damage that eventually tightens into a full blockage.
Many can, especially grease, hair, wipe, and debris blockages. If the drain is broken, collapsed, or structurally failed, the blockage can often be cleared first and the repair quoted separately.
That usually means the system is already under pressure. Sewer overflow or stormwater surcharge should not be ignored, because it can create hygiene, flooding, and property-damage issues very quickly.
Water may sit in the sink, drain very slowly, bubble, smell bad, or back up when you run the tap. This often starts as an annoying kitchen or laundry problem before turning into a full blockage. Homeowners commonly search this as a blocked sink Melbourne, sink not draining Melbourne, kitchen sink blocked Melbourne, or basin not draining Melbourne problem long before they realise the line may be partly full of grease or waste deeper in the run.
Water pools around your feet in the shower, the bath takes too long to empty, or multiple bathroom fixtures start slowing down together. Sometimes the shower becomes unusable because wastewater backs up into the tray. Homeowners often search this as shower not draining Melbourne, shower drain blocked Melbourne, bath not draining Melbourne, or “why is water pooling around my feet in the shower?”
What starts as a slow shower can become a blocked bathroom group that leaves part of the home unusable. Older bathroom waste lines can also trap debris on corroded internal surfaces, making repeat blockages more likely if the real choke point is never properly cleared. That can also mean more invasive work later if a long-neglected drain layout is masking a deeper defect.
If your shower, bath, or bathroom basin is backing up, it is worth diagnosing the whole bathroom waste path before the problem spreads further.
The next step after a poorly flushing toilet is often a backed-up toilet, bad smells, or sewage surcharge outside. If the cause is structural, temporary clearing alone may not stop the recurrence, and the eventual repair can become larger, dirtier, and more expensive once the sewer has fully failed under use.
If your toilet keeps blocking, especially if it has happened more than once, it is safer to investigate the drain properly rather than keep treating it as a one-off clog.
A full sewer blockage can force wastewater out through the lowest relief point, stop the home functioning properly, and turn an early warning into a genuine drainage emergency. It can also contaminate paths, garden areas, and surfaces around the house, increasing clean-up time and cost.
If multiple drains are backing up or overflowing, stop using water where possible and arrange diagnosis urgently before the sewer surcharge worsens.
Gurgling and bad smells can progress into slow toilets, boundary trap overflow, and full sewer blockage. Acting at this stage is usually easier, cleaner, and cheaper than waiting for a full backup. Left long enough, traps can also lose water seals and allow more sewer odour into the home.
If your drains are gurgling or smell like sewer, it is worth checking the system early while the home is still mostly usable.
An overflowing downpipe can keep dumping rainwater where it should not be, and the trapped moisture can create ongoing drainage, movement, or external property issues around the home. Over time, saturated ground around paths and slabs can lead to more invasive repair work than the original stormwater fault alone.
If one or more downpipes overflow every time it rains, have the stormwater branch checked properly before the next wet period exposes a bigger defect.
Understanding whether the problem is sewer-related or stormwater-related helps explain why the symptoms look different — and why the right diagnosis matters.
Blocked drains are easier to understand when you separate them into two broad systems: the sewer drainage system that carries wastewater away from toilets, showers, basins, kitchens, and laundries, and the stormwater drainage system that carries rainwater away from roofs, pits, and outdoor surfaces. Both can block, but the symptoms are different.
When sewer drains start blocking up, homeowners often notice early signs first — gurgling drains, bad sewer smells, slow toilet flushing, or repeated local blockages. As the restriction worsens, multiple fixtures can become affected together, and overflow may appear at boundary traps or overflow relief gullies.
Stormwater problems usually reveal themselves differently. Downpipes may overflow during rain, pits may surcharge, and water may pool outside or around the house because the legal point of discharge or underground line is restricted.
Understanding which system is affected helps avoid wasted time and helps us choose the right method — from internal waste line cleaning to CCTV inspection, hydro jetting, locating, or targeted drain repair.
Typical Melbourne home sewer drainage system showing fixture waste paths, main sewer flow, and common blockage points.
Typical Melbourne home stormwater drainage system showing downpipes, underground lines, and discharge path.
Boundary trap sewer connection showing relief, venting, and why blockages often cause gurgling or overflow.
Direct sewer connection layout showing how sewer flow behaves where no boundary trap system is present.
We start by identifying whether the problem is in the sewer system, stormwater system, or a local internal branch line. That prevents wrong assumptions and helps us choose the right diagnostic path from the start.
We test the relevant fixtures, outside overflow points, downpipes, pits, and discharge paths to understand how the system behaves under use. This often reveals whether the problem is early-stage, partial, full, localised, or structural.
Depending on what we find, we may use hydro jetting, CCTV inspection, compact internal cleaning equipment, or locating tools. The method depends on access, pipe type, property style, and whether the issue is blockage-only or damage-related.
Where appropriate, we re-test fixtures, re-check flow under load, and use CCTV to confirm the drain is properly cleared — not just temporarily opened.
If the blockage exposed a broken pipe, cracked boundary trap, or failed stormwater section, we explain the repair options clearly and quote the next step. This is where proper diagnosis protects the homeowner from guesswork and repeat callouts.
We clean up, explain what caused the problem, and give practical prevention guidance so the same issue is less likely to return.
Our goal is not to rush through a quick unblock and disappear. It is to leave you understanding what happened, whether anything deeper is going on, and what the safest next step is for your home.
Every completed plumbing job with Your Choice Plumbers includes our Complimentary Property Protection Audit to help protect your home from preventable water damage and compliance risks. As part of this process, we check for key issues that many homeowners never realise are putting their property at risk, including:

This is especially important on leaking tap jobs, because repeated fixture failures are often a symptom of broader pressure or plumbing system stress. Learn more about our Property Protection Offer and why prevention matters for Melbourne homeowners.

We provide professional blocked drains Melbourne services across Melbourne, including:

If water is draining slower than normal, bubbling, smelling bad, or backing up, the drain is already restricted. A “slow drain” is often just an earlier stage of a blocked drain.
It depends on the fixture and the property age. Common causes include grease in kitchen lines, hair and soap in bathroom drains, wipes in sewers, roots in older drains, and blocked stormwater outlets outside.
That usually points to a shared bathroom drain problem rather than three separate small blockages. In older homes, the restriction is often hidden in the common waste connection serving those fixtures.
That is often a sign the sewer line is struggling to move air and wastewater properly. It can happen before a full blockage or overflow becomes obvious.
Yes. Gurgling and sewer smells are often early warning signs of a partial blockage or venting issue before the drain fully stops.
That usually means the connected stormwater line is blocked, broken, or not discharging properly underground, especially if the gutters are clear but the downpipe still backs up.
A licensed plumber with the right drain equipment should handle it, especially if the problem keeps returning, affects more than one fixture, or involves sewer or stormwater overflow.
Stop using the affected fixtures if water is backing up, and arrange a licensed plumber who can properly diagnose whether the problem is local, sewer-related, stormwater-related, or structural.
Very minor local trap blockages sometimes can be improved, but repeated DIY chemicals, rods, or guesswork can damage pipework or delay proper diagnosis. If the problem keeps returning, it usually needs professional testing.
Many blockage-only jobs can be cleared the same day. If CCTV shows a collapsed pipe, cracked boundary trap, or broken stormwater section, clearing may happen first and the structural repair may be scheduled next.
The cost depends on what is actually causing the issue, how accessible the drain is, what equipment is needed, and whether the problem is just a blockage or a structural defect. Proper diagnosis helps avoid paying for the wrong fix.
Sometimes it may cover resulting damage, but not always the cause itself. Coverage depends on the policy, the cause of the blockage, and whether there is sudden damage versus gradual deterioration.
It can progress from slow drainage and smells to full blockage, overflow, unusable fixtures, outside surcharge, or property damage. Early diagnosis usually means a cleaner and simpler fix.
Whether you are dealing with a slow sink, a blocked shower, a toilet that keeps backing up, gurgling sewer drains, or stormwater overflow outside, the key is getting the drain diagnosed properly before the problem worsens. Your Choice Plumbers gives homeowners clear advice, honest options, and the right mix of experience, drain equipment, and long-term thinking to protect the home.
Left too long, a blocked drain can turn into wastewater overflow, stormwater flooding, property damage, and much bigger repair costs than an early diagnosis would have involved.