Blocked drains in Swords

Blocked drain prices for Swords

These are the prices Dublin plumbers, drain specialists and Irish price guides publish, including one firm with a Swords branch. Prices are as published, checked 24 October 2026. Each row shows whether VAT is included.

Emergency and out of hours

Sink, toilet or outside drain? Find the blockage

Where the water backs up tells you a lot about where the blockage is, and who you need.

1. One sink or shower is slow, everything else is fine.The blockage is in that fitting's own trap or waste pipe: usually hair in a shower, grease and food in a kitchen sink.
2. The toilet won't clear, or gurgles when you run a tap.The blockage may be further down, in the pipe the toilet and the other waste pipes share.
3. Several things are slow at once, or the gully outside is overflowing.That points to the main drain from the house, and it usually needs rods or a jetting machine.
4. Your neighbours have the same problem.It may be a shared drain or the public sewer. Uisce Éireann looks after public sewers; you can report a problem on water.ie.

Try this before you ring

• Clear the grate on any gully outside: leaves and silt block more drains than people expect.
• Use a plunger on a blocked sink or toilet. Cover the sink's overflow with a wet cloth so the push goes down the pipe.
• Pull hair out of the shower trap. It's often the whole problem.
• Don't mix drain chemicals, and don't use them if the water isn't moving at all: the plumber has to work in it.
• If sewage is coming up inside, stop using water in the house until it's cleared.

Drains in Swords homes

Swords is a young town by Dublin standards. In the CSO Census 2022, only 23% of homes in the Swords local electoral area had been built before 1980, and 77% of households lived in a house rather than an apartment. Most Swords drains are the plastic pipework of the estates built since then: River Valley, Applewood, Brackenstown, Boroimhe, Holywell and Drynam among them.

Plastic drains rarely crack or fill with roots the way old clay pipes do, so a blocked drain in a Swords estate is usually down to what went into it: fat from the kitchen sink, wipes from the toilet, hair from the shower. The older houses around Seatown and the village are where older, longer drain runs are more likely.

One price to know: Dublin Plumbing Services, which lists a Swords branch, charges €195 + VAT an hour, or part of an hour, for blockages and drainage work (source). Ask how long the plumber expects it to take, and whether jetting is needed, before they start.

What to tell the plumber

• Which sinks, toilets or showers are affected, and since when.
• Whether the gully or manhole outside is full.
• Whether the neighbours have the same problem.
• Anything that went down recently: wipes, fat, a toy, building waste.

Pick "Blocked sink, toilet or drain" in the form and say it in your own words in the message box.

Questions people ask