Hydro Jetting Wellington

Hydro jetting pushes water at high pressure through a hose and a purpose-made nozzle. Jets angled backwards drag the hose up the pipe while they scrub the walls, and a forward jet breaks into whatever is ahead. A cable machine bores through the middle of a blockage and leaves the rest stuck to the pipe. A jetter cleans the full circle of the pipe wall.

It is the right tool when fat has set inside a kitchen line, when silt and gravel have packed into a stormwater pipe after a wet spell, or when a mat of fine roots has filled a drain and a cutter on its own will not clear it.

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

Hydro Jetting Jobs We Handle Across Wellington

• Hydro jetting
• Water jetting drains
• Grease removal
• Tree root jetting
• Stormwater jetting
• Commercial drain jetting

When jetting is worth it

Jetting is not always needed. For a simple blocked toilet, a drain machine is faster and cheaper. Jetting earns its place when you have: For a home line that only needs a routine clean, standard drain cleaning is often enough.

• Kitchen and cafe lines coated with fat that has hardened on the pipe wall
• Stormwater pipes and sumps full of silt, leaves or gravel after heavy rain
• Fine root mats that a mechanical cutter pushes aside rather than removes
• Long runs where a cable cannot reach the far end
• A pipe that needs to be clean for a camera inspection or relining
• A drain that blocks again within weeks of being cleared with a cable

Matching nozzle and pressure to the pipe

The skill is in choosing the nozzle and pressure. A penetrating nozzle breaks through a full blockage. A flushing nozzle with wide rear jets moves silt and stones. Rotating and chain nozzles strip roots and scale. Old earthenware, cracked pipe and pitch fibre need lower pressure and a gentler nozzle than sound PVC or concrete, or the jet can make an existing crack worse.

That is why we usually run a CCTV drain inspection first on older lines. If the pipe is cracked through or has dropped, we tell you jetting is the wrong answer, rather than pushing water out into the ground around it. On soft, low-lying ground such as parts of Petone and the Kilbirnie flats, drains can shift over time, so checking first is especially worthwhile.

How It Works

Wellington rain and stormwater lines

Wellington rain arrives hard and often sideways. NIWA climate normals put Wellington Airport at about 957 mm a year, Lower Hutt Gracefield at about 1,206 mm and the Wainuiomata Reservoir at about 1,800 mm, with winter the wettest season. July 2022 was the city's wettest July on record, and hundreds of slips followed. On hill sections, stormwater pipes and sumps collect soil, leaves and gravel washed off banks, and a part-blocked line can send water where it should not go.

Faults in private drains are the owner's job, and Tiaki Wai notes that roof downpipes must connect to stormwater, not wastewater. Jetting a stormwater line before winter, clearing sumps and checking outlets is one of the cheapest ways to keep water away from the house and off a bank. If a pipe turns out to be broken, our stormwater drains team can repair it.

Grease lines and trade waste

Commercial kitchens are some of our most regular jetting customers. Fat that gets past a grease trap cools and sets inside the line, and it builds up until the drain slows or blocks. In Wellington City, trade waste discharges are covered by the Wellington Trade Waste Bylaw 2016, and from 1 July 2026 councils delegated trade waste administration to Tiaki Wai. Its guidance for food businesses includes having grease traps cleaned by an approved contractor under a service contract.

We jet the line from the kitchen to the trap and beyond, then talk to you about whether the trap itself is overdue. On the Kāpiti Coast, trade waste is handled by Kāpiti Coast District Council under its own bylaw. Our grease trap cleaning service can be booked alongside jetting so both happen in one visit.

Hydro jetting cost

The final price depends on how much material is in the pipe, the length of the run, how many access points there are, and whether a camera inspection is needed before or after. Steep sites where gear has to be carried down steps, commercial grease lines and long stormwater runs are quoted on the job.

You get the price before the jetter comes off the van. If jetting uncovers a broken section, we show you the footage and quote the repair separately so you can decide.

After the jetting

When the line is clear we flush it, then run the camera through to check the result. For grease we talk about where the fat is coming from. For roots we are straight with you: jetting removes them, but they grow back from the same joints. If you are paying to jet the same line every year, relining or replacing the root-affected section will usually cost less over time. Who pays for a lateral repair depends on your council: in Wellington City, for example, the council looks after the part in the road and you look after the part on your property.

Why Choose Cheeky's Plumbers for Hydro Jetting

Hydro Jetting FAQs

Hydro Jetting Across Wellington

Our hydro jetting team works in every Wellington suburb. Find your local plumbers:

Related Services

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