1. Gurgling when another fixture drains
Flush the toilet and the shower bubbles. Empty the bath and the floor waste gulps. That noise is air being forced past a partial blockage and escaping through the nearest water trap.
It is the earliest sign you get, and the cheapest point to deal with it. A drain that gurgles is a drain that is already partly blocked.
2. More than one fixture slow at once
A single slow fixture is usually a local problem. Two or more slow at the same time means they share a blocked line, and the shared line is the sewer.
This is the one that separates an inconvenience from a job that needs attention today.
3. A smell of sewage outside
Sewer gas escaping in the yard means the system is not venting or draining the way it should, or there is a crack somewhere letting it out.
Inside the house, a persistent drain smell is more often a dried-out trap in a rarely used bathroom. Run the tap for a minute and see if it clears.
4. Wet ground that never dries
A strip of lawn over the drain line that stays soft in dry weather, or grows noticeably greener than everything around it, suggests the pipe is leaking.
Leaking pipe and root intrusion go together. The leak is what attracted the roots in the first place.
5. Water rising where it should be going down
Flush the toilet and water appears in the shower base. Run the washing machine and the floor waste backs up. At this point the main line is blocked enough that waste is looking for the lowest way out.
Stop using water and ring someone. The next thing to give way is usually the overflow relief gully outside, and if that gully is blocked or built over, it comes back up inside instead.
What the overflow relief gully does
That grated drain outside, set lower than the lowest fixture in the house, is a safety device. When the sewer blocks, the grate lifts and releases outside rather than letting sewage come up through your shower.
Keep it clear, never pave over it, and never block it during a backup. It is doing you a favour.
Not sure what you are dealing with?
Ring us and describe it. We will tell you straight whether it needs someone tonight or whether it can wait, and there is no call-out fee either way.
Call 0412 661 632