24/7 Emergency Call-Outs

Drainage emergencies don't wait for office hours. If you've got drains backing up, an overflowing manhole, internal flooding, or a sudden blockage affecting toilets, sinks, or urinals, you need a team that can respond fast.

ICE Drainage provides 24/7 emergency call-outs for residential and commercial properties across London and the Home Counties, with strong experience supporting hospitality sites where downtime, hygiene, and compliance are critical.

Emergency drainage support for homes and businesses

A drainage emergency can be disruptive, stressful, and potentially hazardous, especially if foul water is involved. Our emergency call-out service supports homes and flats, including basements, restaurants and commercial kitchens, hotels and serviced apartments, pubs and bars, retail and office premises, and schools, public buildings, and managed estates.

Whether it's a one-off incident or a recurring problem, we'll help you get the situation under control quickly and advise on the best next step.

What counts as a drainage emergency?

Not every slow drain needs an urgent call-out, but these issues usually do: overflowing manholes or sewage visible on site, drains backing up into sinks, toilets, showers, or floor drains, internal flooding linked to drainage or sewer issues, multiple fixtures blocked at the same time, strong foul odours indicating a back-up or trapped waste, blocked toilets or urinals in customer or staff areas, or any situation where hygiene, safety, or business continuity is at risk.

If you're not sure, call us and we'll help you assess how urgent it is.

Acting quickly can make all the difference

Drainage problems escalate fast. A partial blockage can become a full back-up, and a back-up can become flooding. Delaying can lead to contamination and hygiene hazards, water damage to floors, walls, fixtures, and electrics, persistent odours and repeat incidents, higher clean-up and repair costs, and business disruption or potential closure.

If foul water is present, treat it as contaminated and keep people away from the affected area.

Our 24/7 emergency call-out process

When you call us, the goal is simple: restore control, restore flow, and reduce the chance of it happening again.

Our emergency response typically includes rapid triage over the phone, where we ask a few quick questions about what's backing up, where, and when it started, an on-site assessment covering contamination risk, access, and any immediate hazards, locating the cause, whether that's a local blockage, a main line restriction, or a wider sewer surcharge, emergency unblocking to restore normal flow, jetting and debris removal where appropriate to reduce the risk of it happening again, functional testing to confirm the system is draining correctly, and advice on what likely caused the issue and how to prevent it in future.

Hospitality emergency call-outs

We focus heavily on supporting hospitality businesses, because we know the real cost of being offline. Drainage issues in kitchens, cellars, plant rooms, and customer toilets can quickly become a food safety concern, a customer experience issue, a staff welfare issue, a compliance risk, and a direct hit to revenue.

We provide responsive support for restaurants and takeaways, hotels and serviced apartments, pubs and bars, leisure venues, and multi-site operators. If you manage multiple sites, ask us about planned preventative maintenance to reduce emergency incidents and keep systems reliable.

Common causes of out-of-hours drainage emergencies

Many emergency call-outs are triggered by predictable issues, especially where maintenance hasn't kept up with how the site is used. We commonly attend fat, oil, and grease build-up in hospitality settings, wet wipes and non-flushable items, food waste and debris, silt build-up and sediment, root ingress catching debris, collapsed or displaced pipework, blocked gullies and rainwater lines during heavy rainfall, and surcharged sewers and capacity issues.

If the same issue keeps happening, we can help you move from reactive call-outs to a prevention plan.

Preventing emergency call-outs

Emergency response is essential, but prevention is cheaper and less disruptive. We can help reduce risk with routine drain cleaning and jetting, gully and rainwater maintenance, interceptor servicing and silt removal, grease management support for kitchens, drain inspections and condition reporting, and reactive support backed by a planned schedule.

For commercial and hospitality sites, a tailored maintenance plan can significantly reduce emergency incidents.

Why choose ICE Drainage?

• 24/7 emergency call-outs
• Rapid response across London and the Home Counties
• Hospitality-first experience
• Competitive pricing and practical recommendations
• Qualified, safety-led engineers working to industry standards
• Credentials including Safe Contractor, SSSTS, and Constructionline Gold

ICE Drainage is a specialist service expansion of ICE Cleaning, a leading sewage cleaning company in the UK.

What to do during a drainage emergency

If you're dealing with a drainage emergency right now:

• Stop using sinks, toilets, dishwashers, or washing machines if drains are backing up
• Keep people away from any contaminated water
• If it's safe to do so, turn off electrics in affected areas
• Take photos or video for your records or insurance, if it's safe to do so
• Avoid pouring harsh chemicals into the system
• Call ICE Drainage for urgent help

If you're not sure whether it's an emergency, call anyway. We'll help you assess the situation.

Get a free quote for a 24/7 emergency call-out

Need urgent help right now? Contact ICE Drainage to get started. In many cases, we can provide an initial quote from a few photos and a short description of what's happening.

We cover London and the Home Counties, with support from our wider UK capability for urgent situations.