Drain cleaning: sink, bath and toilet blockages

What the price depends on

The price depends on where the blockage is and how deep. A sink trap gets taken apart, rinsed and put back. A blockage in a pipe inside the wall or under the floor is cleared with a snake, sometimes an electric drain machine. A toilet, a bath with a hard-to-reach trap and a kitchen with a grease plug are usually harder than a bathroom basin. Labour rates are in the table below.

If the trap is old, cracked or corroded, it makes more sense to replace it straight away; that’s a separate line in the table. A new trap and any cleaning products are paid for separately.

Price ranges and offers from tradespeople: drain unblocking in Warsaw.

Safety first

Don’t mix different drain cleaners. Acid and alkaline products react when mixed, giving off heat and, with some, gas. If you’ve already poured chemicals in and the water is still standing, tell the handyman before they start: a plunger or snake in a pipe full of caustic solution can easily splash it in someone’s face. Gloves, eye protection and an open window are worth it here.

Is water coming up in several places at once, say in the bath when the neighbours upstairs drain theirs? Then the blockage is most likely in the shared soil stack. That’s for the building administration or housing cooperative, so report it to them. Until the stack is cleared, don’t use the water, or the flat may flood.

How drain cleaning works

1. First, find out where the blockage is: one fixture or several, how long it’s been, whether chemicals were used.
2. The trap is taken apart and rinsed. Often that’s the whole job.
3. If the plug is deeper, the pipe is cleared with a hand snake through the trap or an access point.
4. A long run or a packed grease plug calls for an electric machine with a cable.
5. At the end the trap goes back together, with new washers if needed, and the basin or bath is filled and drained to check the flow.

Common mistakes

• Bottle after bottle of chemicals poured onto a blockage sitting in the trap. Unscrewing it would have been faster.
• Plunging a basin without blocking the overflow with a cloth, so the pressure escapes through it.
• The snake punches a hole through the plug, the water drains, but the pipe walls stay coated in grease. A month later it’s back.
• The trap reassembled on old flattened washers, and a week later there’s a puddle under the sink.
• Pan grease poured down the sink sets further along the pipe.

What to prepare

• Empty the cupboard under the sink and clear space around the bath or toilet.
• A bucket and a couple of cloths, since there’s always water in the trap.
• Note in the job which products you’ve already poured in.
• Film how the water drains and take a photo of the trap.
• If the blockage keeps coming back, note how often. That hints at a problem with the fall or the pipe itself.

Frequently asked questions

How to order

Describe the blockage in the app: where it is, how long it’s been, what you’ve tried, and add a video. Tradespeople near you will send offers with their own price and timing. Pick one by reviews; only that person sees your address.

You pay directly and the handyman issues the invoice. They stand behind their own work: if a trap they reassembled leaks, they’ll redo it. Pipes in the wall, the shared stack and old damage are not on them.

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