Blocked Drain in Antrim — Diagnose First, Then Clear It

One fixture or every fixture? Decide before you touch anything

1. Test the neighbours. Sink blocked? Check the bath, the basin, the toilet. Run a little water into each and watch how it drains.
2. One slow, rest fine? Local blockage in that fixture's trap or branch pipe. This is the DIY-friendly case — use the sink procedure below.
3. Several slow, gurgling, or smells? The blockage is downstream where the pipes meet: the main drain. Plunging one plughole will not fix it.
4. Waste at an outside gully or manhole? Main drain or sewer, confirmed. Stop running water into the system and go to the last section of this page.

Clear a blocked sink in four steps

1. Bail out standing water. Work with an inch or two in the basin — enough to seal the plunger, not enough to slosh.
2. Plunge properly. Block the overflow with a wet cloth, seal the plunger over the plughole, and pump firmly a dozen times. Repeat twice before giving up.
3. Open the trap. The U-bend under the sink unscrews by hand or with gentle wrench pressure. Bucket underneath first. Clear it, check the washers, refit.
4. Still blocked? Auger or stop. A hand auger can reach further into the branch pipe. Beyond that, forcing things risks damage — describe what you have done and ring.

One warning before step two: if a caustic chemical cleaner has gone down the drain, the standing water is now hazardous. Do not plunge it into your face. Tell whoever works on the pipe.

What never goes down the drain

Most blockages are built, not born. The building materials, in order of offence:

• Fat, oil and grease — liquid in the pan, concrete in the pipe. Pour it into a container and bin it.
• Wipes, including every brand marked flushable. Toilet paper breaks down; wipes do not.
• Cotton wool, sanitary products, nappies and dental floss.
• Coffee grounds, rice and pasta, which swell and settle in the trap.
• Hair — a cheap mesh trap over the plughole beats an annual rod-out.

This matters double in newer estates around Antrim, Muckamore and Crumlin, where long shared drain runs serve whole rows of houses — one household's wipes become the street's blockage.

When it is the sewer, not your pipes

As general guidance for Northern Ireland: drains inside your boundary that serve only your property are the owner's to fix; public sewers — usually the shared pipes beyond the boundary — belong to NI Water. Waste surfacing from a manhole in the street, or several neighbouring houses backing up at once, points to the public side, and that gets reported to NI Water rather than paid for privately. Anywhere the line is unclear — older properties near the town centre with drainage arrangements that have been altered over the decades, or rural homes towards Toome and Parkgate with septic tanks and long private runs — describe the setup when you ring and a plumber can help you place the blockage on the right side of the boundary before any digging or rodding starts.