How we chose
We built the candidate list from Google Places listings across Telford, Companies House records and each firm's own website, then checked waste handling against the Environment Agency carrier register and water-supply competence against WaterSafe approval [1][4][7]. Before we score anyone, we check that each business is who it says it is, is trading today and can actually be reached, and that any claimed registration checks out. We then score every eligible business against our scoring system, which looks at the things you care about when hiring: what customers say, the qualifications and registrations that matter for this trade, how the business responded when we contacted it, how long it has traded, insurance and safeguards, how clearly it prices, and how useful its website is. Anything we cannot verify stays neutral rather than counting against a business. Each ranking carries its evidence date so you can see how fresh every check is.
How to hire
Match the engineer to the symptom. A slow sink, bath or toilet alone usually needs drain clearance with rods or a jetter; sewage backing up through several fittings, repeated blockages or a collapsed gully points to a survey-first job with CCTV before anyone digs. Smells without blockage can mean a dry trap or failed valve rather than the drains, so describe every symptom when you call. Work on a septic tank or treatment plant needs a specialist in off-mains systems, not a general clearance van.
Check competence and paperwork yourself before they start. Anyone taking waste, sludge or spoil away for payment must hold a waste carrier licence: look them up on the Environment Agency public register, since your waste remains your legal responsibility if it is fly-tipped [1]. For work on supply pipework and internal plumbing that connects to the mains, look for WaterSafe approval as evidence of competence with the water fittings rules [4]. Check limited companies on Companies House for active status and a matching trading name [7]. Ask to see public liability insurance and two recent local jobs like yours, with footage you can inspect.
Get the price structure agreed before the van moves. A proper quote separates the attendance fee, jetting or rodding labour, CCTV survey with footage and report, and any excavation or lining as a separate staged price, plus VAT [6][5]. Ask what run length the jetter handles, whether the survey recording is yours to keep, and what happens if the blockage cannot be cleared or the fault lies in the shared sewer. Agree access to chambers, lifting of covers, reinstatement of any dug ground, and a time window for emergency call-outs. Put the scope and the ceiling price in writing first.
Know where your responsibility ends. In most Telford streets you own the drain serving only your home up to your boundary, while Severn Trent owns shared and public sewers beyond it, so a blockage past that point is theirs to clear [2][3]. Check the water company's maps before paying for work on what may be their pipe. After the job, keep the CCTV footage, the written report showing what was cleared and what defects remain, and the itemised receipt. If excavation crossed a neighbour's land or a pavement, confirm in writing who reinstates it and to what standard.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, rough Telford guides look like this. Clearing a straightforward domestic blockage with rods or a jetter commonly falls between £90 and £200; an emergency evening or weekend call-out often adds £80 to £150 to the attendance fee; a recorded CCTV survey with a written report is frequently £150 to £350 [6][5]. Localised repairs such as patch lining often start around £400 to £800, while excavation and replacement starts in the high hundreds and climbs with depth, surface and length.
Recurrence moves the price most: a one-off wipe blockage costs little, while roots, displaced joints and bellied pipes need repair rather than another jetting visit. Access, depth, whether a chamber must be rebuilt, and disposal of spoil all shift the total. Get attendance, clearance, survey footage and any repair priced as separate written stages with VAT, and treat pressure to authorise digging before the camera footage is shown as a reason to pause [6][1].
Red flags
Recommends excavation before running a camera, or quotes a dig from the doorstep without footage showing the fault and its position.
Cannot show a waste carrier licence number, or brushes off the question of where the spoil and sludge they remove ends up [1].
Clears the blockage but offers no recorded survey, no written report of defects passed along the way, and no itemised receipt.
Bills you for clearing a shared or public sewer that sits with Severn Trent, without checking the responsibility boundary first [2].
Uses chemical cleaners as the main fix, leaves chambers uncovered or ground unreinstated, or demands cash with no paperwork.
Corrections and business responses
Tell us what needs checking, or ask to claim a listing and reply to an assessment.