Blocked Drains & Drain Unblocking In Leicester

In Leicester the public sewers belong to Severn Trent Water. If the blockage is in a pipe you share with a neighbour, or beyond your boundary, it's normally the water company's to clear — call Severn Trent on 0800 783 4444. If it's in a drain that serves only your property, it's yours, and that's where we come in. Our engineer finds the blockage first and tells you whose it is before any work starts.

Water pooling around a road gully outside? Road drains are Leicester City Council's responsibility — report it to the council. We clear private gullies, channels and manholes anywhere in City Centre, Clarendon Park, Highfields, Stoneygate and the rest of LE1–LE5.

Leicester grew up along the wide, flat floor of the Soar valley, and the city council's local flood risk management strategy points out that the ground rises steeply to the east and west, so brooks carry rain quickly down through built-up streets towards the river. The same document explains sewer flooding simply: pipes fill up when they are too small, were never designed to take sewage and a lot of rainwater together, or are blocked.

That distinction matters when a drain backs up. On 22 June 2023 more than 50mm of rain fell on the south and east of the city in a single short evening storm, while sewers are generally designed for 12–25mm an hour, according to the council's review of the event. At least 67 properties flooded. When the public system is that full, your drain can surcharge with nothing stuck in it at all, and rodding won't help until levels fall.

Most call-outs are the everyday kind, though: wipes in a toilet run, kitchen fat, or silt packed into a yard gully. We lift the nearest inspection chamber first — a full chamber points further downstream, an empty one to a blockage between your fittings and that chamber — and clearance starts from £120 + VAT.