A blocked drain at 11pm is stressful enough without wondering whether it's your problem to fix or Severn Trent's. That question matters more than most homeowners realise, and getting the answer wrong can mean paying for work the water company should cover.
This page focuses on that ownership boundary, what to check before you call anyone, and what we do once we arrive. If you've already confirmed it's your drain and you need someone out now, skip to the bottom.
Whose drain is it, actually?
Most homes in Sutton Coldfield have two distinct types of drainage. The first is your private lateral, the pipework running from your property out to the boundary or to the point where it joins a shared sewer. That's yours. Maintenance, repairs, blockage clearance, your responsibility, your cost.
The second is the shared sewer. If your lateral connects to a pipe that also serves neighbouring properties, that section is almost certainly adopted by Severn Trent under the 2011 transfer of private sewers. They own it. Blockages and collapses in an adopted sewer are their call, not yours.
Why does this matter in an emergency? Because if every drain in the property is backing up at once, the problem may sit in the shared sewer beyond your boundary rather than in your own pipework. Those are different things. A CCTV survey locates the blockage precisely, which tells you quickly whether Severn Trent should be logging a job, or whether the fix sits entirely on your side of the fence.
What to check before the engineer arrives
A few quick checks can save time and help us arrive with the right kit:
- Lift the nearest external manhole cover. If it's full or overflowing, the blockage is in the external run or further downstream.
- If the manhole is clear but sinks and toilets inside won't drain, the obstruction is likely inside the building or close to the external wall.
- Check whether neighbours are also affected. If they are, Severn Trent may already have a job logged and the problem could be on their side of the ownership boundary.
- Turn off any appliances draining to the affected line. Running the washing machine into a blocked drain makes the situation worse, not better.
Don't pour chemicals down. They rarely shift a real blockage and they create a hazard for the engineer jetting the line.
What we do when we get there
First priority is locating the blockage. A rod test or a quick camera pass tells us whether it's inside the building, in the external drainage run, or near the boundary. That takes a few minutes and shapes everything that follows.
Most residential blockages in Boldmere, Wylde Green and Four Oaks clear with high-pressure water jetting. Grease, wet wipes, compacted silt, most of it breaks up in one visit using Water Jetting Association methods. Root ingress is different. Light root hair intrusion sometimes shifts with the jet alone, but significant root growth into a pipe typically needs dedicated root cutting equipment, not just pressure. We'll tell you which you're dealing with before we commit to an approach.
If jetting doesn't resolve it, or if the pipe looks damaged, we run a CCTV survey on the spot. The footage is recorded. You get a written report, which is also useful evidence if the problem turns out to sit in an adopted sewer and Severn Trent need to act.
Why B76 gets repeat blockages
Parts of Walmley, Minworth and Falcon Lodge sit on ground that behaves poorly for older clay drainage. Clay moves with seasonal moisture changes, and that movement gradually misaligns pipe joints over years. Once joints are offset, silt catches, roots follow, and the blockage that clears today comes back in six months.
If you're in B76 and you've had the same drain cleared more than once in two years, a CCTV survey is worth doing. Not to sell you a repair, but to find out whether there's a structural reason for the recurrence. Remedial work, where it's genuinely needed, carries a 20-year guarantee.
Where we work
We cover Boldmere, Mere Green, Streetly, New Oscott, Tudor Hill, Whitehouse Common, Maney, Reddicap Heath, Wylde Green and the surrounding villages including Little Aston, Water Orton, Curdworth, Wishaw and Shenstone. We also reach Lichfield and Tamworth regularly. All postcodes B72 through to B76 are within our normal area.
---
Engineers are on call around the clock. The price is agreed before we start, with no call-out fee. Call 0121 816 1830.