Emergency Call-Outs
A flooded floor at midnight gets the same answer as a blocked gully on a Tuesday. Someone picks up, gives you a price, and sets off.
Blocked drain, gurgling toilet or something worse? Carlo can be with you at any hour, with upfront pricing and no hidden charges.
Quotes are no obligation.
5.0 from 130+ Google reviews. Covering Berkshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.
Reading based drainage company
24hrs Drainage is a Reading based drainage company covering Berkshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire. We clear blocked drains, survey and repair pipework, and handle septic tanks and treatment plants for homes and businesses, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Before you pay anyone, it is worth knowing which pipe is actually blocked. Thames Water sets out who owns which pipe: you are responsible for waste pipes inside your boundary that serve only your property. If your drain joins your neighbour's, Thames Water owns the joint part, along with the public sewers under the roads and footpaths. Plenty of people pay for a call-out on a drain the water company would have cleared for nothing. You will be told if that is what you have.
Pipework inside your boundary that serves only your home.
Shared sewers and the lateral drain past your boundary, even under your garden.
And where sewage has come into the house from one of their sewers, Thames Water's Customer Guarantee Scheme pays a minimum of £300 and up to £2,000, usually credited within 20 working days.
Drainage Services
Twelve services, one number, and the same trusted local team on every job.
A flooded floor at midnight gets the same answer as a blocked gully on a Tuesday. Someone picks up, gives you a price, and sets off.
Sinks, toilets, gullies and main runs cleared by rodding or high-pressure jetting.
Cracked, sunken or collapsed pipework repaired or replaced, inside and out.
Planned visits that keep commercial sites and rented property out of trouble.
Camera goes down first, so nothing gets dug up on a guess.
Jet-vac tankers for flooded systems, big blockages and rural properties.
New tanks sized and sited for properties with no mains connection.
Treatment plants fitted where a septic tank no longer meets the rules.
Hard water scale cut back mechanically until the pipe runs at full bore again.
Liner cures inside the old pipe, so your drive stays where it is.
Roots cut out of the run, then the joint they came in through gets dealt with.
Find the drainage problem before you exchange, not after you move in.
Who Actually Turns Up
Carlo runs 24hrs Drainage, and he and his team do the work. He picks up when you ring at midnight, looks at the drain, and tells you what it will cost. Every drainage firm in Berkshire promises you will not reach a call centre. Far fewer will tell you who is actually coming. Open the Google reviews and Carlo is named in most of them, so you can check the person before you book, not just the company.
Drainage Pricing
Nobody on the first page of Google will give you a number, so here is one. Checkatrade's cost guide, updated in June 2026, sets out what this work costs across the UK.
These are national UK averages from Checkatrade, not 24hrs Drainage's own prices.
Worth knowing too: an emergency call-out averages £180 across the UK, against £60 for a booked visit.
Once you have spoken to Carlo, you know the rate or the price. Agree it and that is what you pay. Nothing gets added at the end.
Get an Upfront PriceQuotes are free and there is no obligation to go ahead.
Call us and explain the drainage problem. We’ll ask a few questions to understand the issue and advise on the most appropriate service.
We’ll explain our applicable hourly rate or provide a fixed quotation where the work can be accurately assessed beforehand, so the customer understands how they’ll be charged.
Our engineer attends with the appropriate equipment, investigates the problem and carries out the agreed works. If additional work is identified, we explain our findings and any further costs before proceeding.
Drain backing up and no idea who pays?
Carlo will look, tell you straight, then give one price.
Commercial Sites Across Berkshire
Landlords, property managers, facilities teams, housing associations and developers all use us across Berkshire.
Restaurants, pubs, retail units, schools and care homes get the same round-the-clock cover as homes, plus planned visits that stop the emergency happening at all.
Booking does not depend on who owns the building, so letting agents, managing agents and tenants with permission can all get an engineer out, and the invoice goes wherever you tell us.
Find out more about how we handle drainage for commercial sites.Excavation
Excavation in progress, commercial site, Reading
Reading Drainage Coverage
Reading is home. From the yard on Falmouth Road most of Berkshire sits inside an hour, and the team works across drainage in Hampshire and drainage in Buckinghamshire too. Coverage runs across drainage throughout Berkshire as standard.
Not sure whether your area is covered?
Call us with your postcode. If you are in or around Berkshire, Hampshire or Buckinghamshire, we can tell you straight away whether we can get an engineer to you.
Not sure whether your area is covered?
Call with your postcode and you will know straight away whether an engineer can get to you.
Blocked Drain Causes
Grease on its own will not block a pipe. It needs something fibrous to grab hold of, which is why fat and wet wipes together do the real damage.
Thames Water clears around 75,000 blockages a year and removes roughly 3.8 billion flushed wipes at a cost near £18 million. The sale of plastic-containing wet wipes in England is banned from 19 May 2027.
Water UK puts wipes behind 94% of blockages (opens in a new tab) nationally.
Here is the part that matters for your drain. Clearing a blockage and finding its cause are two different jobs.
If a drain repeatedly blocks, there may be an underlying issue such as scale, grease build-up, roots, displaced joints or damaged pipework. A CCTV inspection can identify the cause rather than repeatedly treating the blockage.
That gurgle you hear before water backs up is air being pulled through the trap, which means the run is already restricted further down.
Catch it at the gurgle and you are usually paying for a survey.
Wait for the backup and you are usually paying for a repair.
Drainage Help & Advice
Answers to common questions about blocked drains, emergency call-outs, maintenance, responsibility and repairs.
0800 020 9198You are responsible for pipes inside your property boundary that serve only your home. Thames Water owns the public sewers and any drain shared with a neighbour, even where it runs under your garden. If a survey shows the fault sits on their pipework, you will be pointed to the right team rather than charged for it.
Checkatrade puts the UK average emergency call-out at around £180, against £60 for a booked visit. Our figure is quoted on the call and confirmed once the engineer has looked, so you know it before any work starts. The price agreed is the price paid.
Yes. Calls are taken 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including nights, weekends and bank holidays. Urgent jobs are treated as emergency work rather than fitted into a maintenance round, so someone sets off as soon as availability and roads allow.
Every two to three years is the general guidance, and more often for restaurants or any site putting fat down the sink. Regular cleaning removes the build-up before it becomes a blockage. It is cheaper than the emergency it prevents, as anyone who saw the 500-metre fatberg pulled out of the sewers near Heathrow in March 2026 might guess.
Often, yes. Drain lining fits a new liner inside the existing pipe and cures it in place, which repairs suitable damage without excavating the run. A camera survey comes first to confirm the pipe is a candidate for it.
Yes. Restaurants, pubs, retail units, offices, schools, care homes and housing association stock are all covered, for emergency work and planned maintenance. Multi-site contracts are handled from the same number.
24 Hour Drainage Help
Water backing up does not wait for office hours, and neither do we. Ring, book online or send a WhatsApp message, and you will be told what is happening and what it costs before anyone picks up a tool.
Free quote, no obligation, and you will be told honestly if the drain is not yours to pay for.
24hrs Drainage Limited, 33 Falmouth Road, Reading, RG2 8QR
Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
24hrs Drainage Insights
Practical guides on blocked drains, repairs, surveys and drainage problems for property owners.
Have a drainage problem now?
The guides are here when you need them. If you need an engineer instead, tell us what is happening.
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Drain Services
We provide Drainage Services across Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, London, Oxfordshire, and the surrounding areas.
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If You’re Dealing With Blocked Drains Or Require Drain Repairs, You’ve Come To The Right Destination. Contact Our Team Today At 0800 0209198 For Professional Guidance And A Complimentary, No-Obligation Quote!
We are the premier providers of comprehensive drainage solutions in Reading and throughout Berkshire. With years of experience and a dedicated team of experts, we are your trusted partners for all your domestic and commercial drainage needs.
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