A blocked toilet is the plumbing job people are most embarrassed to ring about and one of the simplest to price. Here is what it costs, what to try before you call, and how to tell the difference between a blocked toilet and a blocked sewer, because they are not the same problem.
Blocked toilet cost on the Gold Coast
| Situation | What it costs |
|---|---|
| One toilet blocked, plunger clears it | Nothing, do this first |
| One toilet blocked, machine clear, business hours | $250 to $400 |
| Every fixture backing up (sewer line), machine clear, business hours | $250 to $400 |
| Sewer line that keeps blocking: CCTV camera, jetting and report | $500 to $900 |
| Sewage surfacing after hours | After-hours rate quoted on the phone before we leave |
The $250 to $400 is a fixed price for a machine clear of a single blocked fixture or a sewer line during business hours. It covers the visit, the clearing and a check that everything is draining properly before we leave.
Try the plunger first
We mean it. Plenty of blocked toilets are too much paper or a single object sitting in the trap of the pan, and a plunger shifts them. Use a proper toilet plunger with a flange, not the flat cup type for sinks. Make sure there is enough water in the bowl to cover the cup, push down slowly to seat it, then pump firmly a dozen times and pull back sharply. If the water level drops, flush once to confirm. If it does not move after a few goes, stop. Repeated flushing on a blocked toilet is how a bowl ends up on the bathroom floor.
What not to pour down a blocked toilet
- Caustic drain cleaners. They rarely clear a toilet, they sit in the bowl, and they make the job dangerous for whoever puts a hand or a machine in there next. We will ask, and we would rather hear no.
- Boiling water. A toilet pan and the plastic pan connector behind it are not made for it. Cracking the pan turns a $250 to $400 clear into a toilet replacement.
- Anything else. Bleach, dishwashing liquid and vinegar do nothing to a physical blockage. Save your money.
Is it the toilet, or the sewer?
This is the question that decides the job. Walk through the house and check the other fixtures. If the toilet is blocked and every shower, basin and floor waste drains normally, the blockage is in the toilet itself or the short branch of pipe behind it. That is a machine clear from the pan or the nearest inspection opening. If the toilet is slow and the shower is backing up, the laundry tub is gurgling, or water is coming up through a floor waste, the blockage is in the main sewer line downstream of all of them. Nothing you do to the toilet will fix that. Go outside and look for the overflow relief gully, a grated outlet at ground level near an external wall. If it is overflowing, the sewer is blocked and the gully is doing its job of putting sewage in the garden instead of on your bathroom floor. Either way the machine clear is the same $250 to $400, but knowing which it is tells us where to set up and what to bring.
Is a blocked toilet an emergency?
Sometimes. Sewage surfacing inside the house, or an overflow gully running across paving toward a door, is a genuine emergency and worth an after-hours call. A single blocked toilet in a home with a second toilet, or one that is blocked but not overflowing, is not, and it is better for your wallet to book it for the next business day at the standard $250 to $400. After hours the attendance rate is higher, and we tell you the rate on the phone before we leave so you can make that call yourself. Turn the water off at the cistern isolation valve, do not flush, and it will keep until the morning.
What causes a toilet to block?
Wipes are the most common thing we pull out of a blocked toilet, including the ones sold as flushable. They do not break down like paper and they catch on any rough joint in the pipe. After that: too much paper in one flush, sanitary products, kids' toys, air fresheners that fall off the rim, and on older homes, a build-up of scale inside the pan outlet that slowly narrows it. If the toilet blocks repeatedly and nothing unusual is going down it, the fault is often further along the line, and that is when a camera inspection at $200 to $350 pays for itself by showing what is actually there.
What we do on site
Confirm which drain is blocked, clear it with the machine from the pan or the nearest access point, run water through to confirm it drains, and check the overflow gully outside is clear and seated properly. If the blockage was something specific, we tell you what it was. If we suspect the line has a fault, we tell you that too and quote a camera inspection rather than guessing. Most drainage work on your property is licensed work in Queensland under the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018, so ask for the QBCC licence number before anyone starts. Ours is 15243081.
Can I unblock a toilet myself with a snake?
A hand auger from the hardware shop will sometimes clear a blockage sitting in the pan trap, and there is no rule against a homeowner trying one. The honest warnings are that a cheap auger can scratch the porcelain, and if the blockage is past the pan connector you are into the drainage system where the machine, the access points and the licence come in. If the auger does not clear it in a couple of minutes, that is your answer.
A running toilet is a different problem
People sometimes ring about a blocked toilet when the real issue is a cistern that will not stop running or a weak flush. That is a repair to the inlet or flush valve, not a blockage, and it is priced separately. If the bowl fills and drains normally but the cistern never goes quiet, read our page on fixing a running toilet instead. Owner operator, 13 plus years on the tools, and the same person who answers the phone turns up with the machine.
Toilet blocked and the plunger has lost? Call Hills Plumbing & Gas on 0472 657 042 or book through our Blocked Drains service page. Fixed price, cleared properly, no lecture.