Who to hire for a blocked toilet

Short answer

A licensed plumber. Try a proper toilet plunger first — the flanged kind, not the flat cup for sinks — and stop there if it does not shift, because forcing it is how a pan cracks and a small job becomes a replacement.

Soon, not tonightIt will not usually get cheaper by waiting, and it is rarely worth an after-hours rate.

When it is someone else

Calling the wrong trade costs an attendance fee to be told so. These are the cases where this problem belongs to someone other than a Plumber.

  • your water authority

    other fixtures are backing up at the same time. A toilet alone is a local blockage; a toilet plus the shower plus the laundry is the main drain, and beyond your boundary that is the authority's to clear at no cost to you.

What to do before anyone arrives

  1. Stop flushing. A second flush on a blocked pan is how the floor gets wet.
  2. Turn off the isolation valve behind the cistern so nobody else flushes it either.
  3. Check whether the shower or the floor waste is also slow. That single observation decides whether it is a ten-minute job or a drain excavation.
  4. Think about what went down it. Wet wipes — including the ones sold as flushable — nappies and sanitary products are the cause far more often than anything else, and saying so on the phone saves diagnostic time.

What to ask when you book

  • Do you carry a closet auger, or will you need to pull the pan?
  • What happens to the price if the pan has to come off and go back?
  • If it is in the main drain, do you have a jetter and a camera on the van today?

What changes the price

No dollar figures here: this directory holds no price data and an invented range is worse than none. What follows is what makes one of these jobs cost more than the same job next door, which is the part you can actually use when comparing quotes.

  • Whether it clears from the pan or needs the drain machine.
  • Whether the pan has to be lifted and reseated — that is a new pan connector and a wax or rubber seal, and sometimes a new pan if it cracks.
  • After-hours attendance if it is the only toilet in the house.

What you can do yourself

Is this licensed work?

Licensed plumbing work in every state and territory.

There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state the work is happening in.

Licensing thresholds and certificate requirements differ by state and change with amending regulation, so this page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a figure. The regulator’s own page is the current answer.

Common questions

Who should I hire for a blocked toilet
A licensed plumber. Try a proper toilet plunger first — the flanged kind, not the flat cup for sinks — and stop there if it does not shift, because forcing it is how a pan cracks and a small job becomes a replacement.
Are flushable wipes actually flushable?
They pass through the pan and then do not break down the way paper does, which is why they are the most common cause of blockages plumbers and water authorities report. The Australian standard for what may be labelled flushable exists precisely because so much of what was sold as flushable was not.
Is one blocked toilet an emergency?
If it is the only toilet in the house, in practice yes. If there is another one, it can usually wait for ordinary hours and you will pay a normal rate to have it done.

Find a Plumber near you

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Who to hire for

General information about who does what, not advice about your specific job. Licensing, consumer law and council rules differ by state and change; the regulator for your state is the current source. More guides to hiring a tradesperson.