Blocked Sewer Pipe in Seaforth: Cleared With Jetting, Confirmed Clear on Camera

The situation

We got a call on a Sunday afternoon to a home in Seaforth where water was flowing out of the gully at the side of the house. A gully is the small outdoor drain that sewer pipes from the house run into before they head off to the street. When it starts overflowing instead of draining away, that’s one of the first signs of a blocked sewer pipe. It’s actually designed to do that: if there’s a blockage further down the line, the gully overflows outside rather than letting sewage back up into the house.

What we found

Once we saw the gully overflowing, we already knew there was a blockage somewhere downstream. Before doing anything else, we talked the client through what that meant and what we were planning to do about it.

To narrow down where the blockage was, we tested the flow down to the boundary trap, the inspection point near the front of the property where the house’s pipes meet the connection to the street. Only a small trickle was making it through, which told us the blockage sat somewhere in the pipe between the house and that point.

The fix

We used a high-pressure water jetter, working up from the boundary trap toward the blockage, to break it up and clear the line. Once the water was draining away properly again, we ran a CCTV camera up through the pipe to see exactly what had caused the blockage and check for any other roots still sitting in there.

That camera check matters more than it might seem. Without it, you’re clearing a pipe blind, guessing that it’s free of roots rather than actually knowing. Leave roots behind and there’s a good chance the same blockage is back within a week or two. Clean it properly, roots and all, and it’s a much longer stretch before it becomes a problem again.

The outcome

With the pipe confirmed clear on camera, the sewer was back to normal operation and we did a full clean-up before leaving.

The cause was straightforward once the camera was in the pipe: the sewer line is around 80 years old, made from earthenware pipe sections sealed with cement joints. Over that many decades, the cement has worn away, leaving small gaps at the joints that tree roots find and grow into. We walked the client through what we’d found and their options going forward, either relining the pipe or replacing it, to stop roots getting back in for good. They’ve decided to hold off on that for now, but they know the blockage will likely return down the track without it.

Got water backing up out of a gully or drain instead of away? Our blocked drains team is available 24/7 across Seaforth and the rest of the Northern Beaches, and uses CCTV camera inspection alongside high-pressure water jetting to make sure a blockage is actually gone, not just pushed further down the pipe. If root intrusion through old pipe joints is the real cause, we can also talk you through sewer pipe repair and relining options to stop it coming back.