Practice makes perfect
If you do something over and over, every day, you get very good at it.
A general plumber does lots of different jobs each week. Sure, they’ll clear a blocked toilet. But they’ll also put in a new hot water service, fix a leaking tap, fit a new showerhead, connect a dishwasher, fix a broken downpipe or put in a new bathroom vanity.
So they have a wide range of skills. But they might only clear one blocked toilet, sink or drain a week. Some weeks they might not clear one at all.
They learnt the basics of drain clearing at plumbing school. Some have become quite good at it over the years. Some haven’t, because not all plumbers are the same.
A drain clearing expert is also a trained and licensed plumber. The difference is they choose to work only on blocked or damaged drains. Day after day, all they do is clear and reline drains. So they get very, very good at it.
It’s a bit like the difference between a GP and a surgeon who does only one thing. If you needed major heart surgery, you wouldn’t go to a GP. You’d go to a heart surgeon. A drain clearing expert is like a surgeon for your drains!
The first difference: in drain cameras
The first difference is whether they use an in drain camera, also called a CCTV camera. Some plumbers do. Some don’t. A drain clearing expert like The Drain Man uses one every time.
Some plumbers arrive, take one look and say, “Oh yeah, I know what’s going on down there!” A very experienced plumber might guess right. But plumbers don’t have X ray vision. They can’t see deep inside your drains unless they use a camera.
A camera shows them, and you, exactly what is going on inside the drain.
- Is the blockage really caused by what the owner thinks?
- Or is something else causing the problem?
- Are there tree roots in the drain?
- Has it broken or partly collapsed?
- Did something else go down there that is the real cause?
You’ll never know unless a camera shows you the truth. That’s why The Drain Man always uses one.
The next difference: sharing the footage
Plumbers who use a camera deserve credit. It’s the right thing to do, and it beats guessing, because the cause might not be what you think!
But not every plumber with a camera does the next step, which is almost as important. They don’t show you the footage. It’s not enough for your plumber to see what’s going on. It’s even more important that you see it too.
If your plumber won’t show you the footage, ask yourself why. Is there something down there they don’t want you to see? Often that’s the reason.
At The Drain Man, we’re happy to share your footage. We’ll also explain exactly what’s going on inside your drain, so you understand the problem clearly. We like to be open, honest and clear with you. So when we suggest a fix, you’ll know why.
Another difference: the repeat blockage trick
Sometimes a plumber won’t show you the footage because they don’t want you to see how bad the blockage is. They want to set you up for repeat work.
There are two ways to clear a blocked drain: fully or only partly.
Say the plumber sees a huge lump of tree roots in your drain. Clearing it fully would take hours of hard work. They don’t want to do that. So they just punch a little hole in the blockage, enough to get the water flowing again.
You see the water flowing and think the drain is clear. You’re happy and you pay. But you haven’t seen the footage. So you don’t know if it’s really clear, or how bad it was.
That can lead to a blockage that keeps coming back, and the plumber knows it. Why charge you for one job when they can charge you every time they come back? You call every few months saying “my drain’s blocked again”, and they come out to clear it again.
It can end up costing you 3 or 4 times what a proper clear would have cost in the first place.
That’s another way The Drain Man is different. We show you the footage before we clear the drain, so you see how bad it is. Then we show you the footage after, so you can see we’ve done a proper job and fully cleared it.
Choose the expert
If you can choose between a plumber and a drain clearing expert, choose the expert. We’re licensed plumbers too, but we are highly experienced at one thing: clearing and relining drains.
Don’t risk it. Is your toilet, sink, shower, bath or stormwater drain blocked? Call The Drain Man on 1800 84 33 72 or use our enquiry form. You’ll get a drain clearing expert who does a better job, often faster than a regular plumber. We never walk away from a hard job or leave your drain only partly cleared.
We do a thorough, professional job and back our work with a satisfaction guarantee. We won’t let you down or mislead you. You get an honest, open service from the best in the business. No one knows blocked drains better than The Drain Man!