Drain Repairs Wellington

When a drain keeps blocking, smells, or leaves a soft patch in the lawn, the pipe itself is usually damaged. Roots have opened a joint, the ground has shifted and cracked an old clay pipe, or a section has sagged or collapsed. Clearing it again buys a few weeks. Repairing or replacing the damaged length is what stops the callouts.

Cheeky's Plumbers repairs house and commercial drains across Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and the Kāpiti Coast. Every repair starts with a CCTV drain inspection, so we know where the damage is, how far it runs and whether it sits on your side of the boundary. That means smaller digs, accurate quotes and work carried out by drainlayers authorised by the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board.

Pricing: quotes are free, and every job gets a fixed price before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Drain Repairs Jobs We Handle Across Wellington

• Drain repairs
• Sewer line repair
• Collapsed drain repair
• Cracked clay pipe replacement
• Pipe bursting
• Root-damaged drains

Signs a drain needs repairing, not just clearing

Some symptoms point to a broken pipe rather than an ordinary blockage:

• The same drain blocks again within weeks or months of being cleared
• A wet, sunken or unusually lush strip of lawn along the drain line
• A sewage smell outside with no blockage you can find
• Cracks in paths or a drive that follow the line of the drain
• Rats around the house, which can get in through broken pipes
• Camera footage showing cracks, displaced joints or a collapsed section

Who pays depends on your council

The pipe from your house to the public sewer is called the lateral, and responsibility for it is not the same everywhere in the region. In Wellington City, the council side covers any part of the lateral under a public road, and the owner is responsible for the parts on their own land, on a neighbour's land or on other public land such as a reserve. In Lower Hutt, owners maintain the lateral right through to where it joins the main. In Porirua, owners look after the lateral inside their boundary and the council owns it from the boundary to the main.

Upper Hutt has its own approach. Private laterals are the owner's job, but on a public lateral the council may reimburse reasonable costs if CCTV confirms a defect such as roots or a collapsed pipe caused the blockage. Stormwater laterals in Upper Hutt are always the owner's responsibility down to the point of discharge. Our camera footage and report show exactly where the fault sits, which is what you need for any claim or a conversation with a neighbour about a shared line.

How It Works

Repair options, from a patch to a new line

The right repair depends on what the camera shows. A single cracked joint might only need a short section dug out and replaced with new PVC. A longer run of root-affected earthenware can often be relined from the inside instead. A badly collapsed pipe, or one that sags and holds water, usually needs replacing, because a liner follows the shape of the old pipe, dips and all.

We price each option side by side. The cheapest repair today is not always the cheapest over ten years, and you should be able to see that before you decide. Faults at the surface, such as a cracked or sunken gully trap, are handled through our gully trap repairs.

Wellington ground and broken drains

Wellington's hills are hard on drains. Many hillside sections were cut and filled decades ago, and GeoNet linked older cut slopes and saturated soil to many of the slips after the record wet July of 2022. When fill settles or a bank moves, rigid clay pipes crack and joints pull apart. On steep sites in Kelburn, Hataitai or Stokes Valley, the drain may also run under steps, decks or retaining walls, which shapes how we reach it.

On the flats the risk is different. The Hutt Valley floor and areas such as Petone and Seaview have been mapped with liquefaction potential, and soft ground can shift underground pipes in a strong earthquake. A camera check after a big shake is a sensible precaution. Broken stormwater pipes matter too: water leaking from a damaged stormwater drain into a bank is one more load on a slope that may already be wet.

What affects the cost of a drain repair

Every drain repair is quoted free after a camera inspection, because two jobs that look the same from the surface can be very different below it. The main cost factors are:

• Depth of the pipe and length of the damaged section
• What sits on top: lawn, garden, concrete, a deck, steps or a building
• Slope, access and whether gear has to be carried in by hand
• Whether the drain is shared with neighbours or near a public main
• Building consent requirements for the scope of work
• Reinstatement of concrete, paving or planting afterwards

Consents and paperwork

Drainlaying is restricted work in New Zealand. It must be done or supervised by someone authorised by the PGDB, and you can check any tradesperson on the public register. Depending on the scope, a drain repair may need a building consent from Wellington City, Hutt City, Upper Hutt City, Porirua City or Kāpiti Coast District Council, with an inspection before the trench is backfilled.

When the work is finished we supply the records you need, including as-built details for the council file. A buyer's lawyer or building inspector may ask for them when you sell, and larger new drainage work is handled by our drainlaying team.

Why Choose Cheeky's Plumbers for Drain Repairs

Drain Repairs FAQs

Drain Repairs Across Wellington

Our drain repairs team works in every Wellington suburb. Find your local plumbers:

Drain Repairs Guides

• After an Earthquake: Checking Your Pipes, Drains and Gas in Wellington
• Who Is Responsible for Water and Sewer Pipes on a Wellington Property?

Related Services

See all drainage services or every service we offer.