Same-day drain clearing on the Lower North Shore.
Blocked sinks, toilets, showers and main sewer lines cleared in McMahons Point — with a camera down the line so you find out what caused it, not just that it moved.
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McMahons Point runs down to Blues Point between Berrys Bay and Lavender Bay, and 23.6% of its dwellings are semis or terraces against just 13.0% separate houses. Shared drainage is common here, and unlike a strata block there is often no owners corporation to decide who pays for a repair. Add 62.8% apartments and the suburb produces both shared-stack and shared-boundary problems in roughly equal measure.
How people live in a suburb decides what blocks its drains. A split like this one is why no assumption holds across the suburb — the same fault means something different depending which type of property it is in.
McMahons Point sits in the North Sydney Council, postcode 2060. A peninsula between Berrys Bay to the west and Lavender Bay to the east, with Blues Point at its southern tip.
Local figures sourced from: ABS 2021 Census QuickStats — McMahons Point · McMahons Point — Wikipedia
A drain rarely stops working without warning. These are the patterns worth acting on here — each one points at a different cause, which is what decides the fix.
On party-wall stock the fault is frequently upstream of both properties.
Renovations here have often gone over the drainage rather than around it, which turns a simple repair into an access problem.
Two bays means steep falls in two directions, and waste surfaces at the lowest relief point.
Either a shared line crossing a boundary on the terrace stock, or a stack build-up in the 62.8% that are apartments. The recurring complication is renovation: original drainage under premium modern work, where the access is the expensive part rather than the pipe.
Most repeat blockages are a pipe problem, not a blockage problem. We look before we quote.
Originally working-class housing — named after an Irish farm labourer who arrived in 1848 and became a brush manufacturer — much of it now heavily renovated. That combination is awkward: original drainage under premium modern fit-outs, where nobody wants to lift the new work to reach the old pipe.
Which of these a job needs depends entirely on the property, which is why we look before quoting.
Shows what caused the blockage and whether the pipe is damaged. The step that stops you paying twice.
Scours the pipe wall back to full bore rather than punching a hole through a build-up.
A cutting head removes the root mass itself. It restores flow, but roots grow back through the same opening.
A new liner cured inside the old pipe, sealing the joints roots came through. No excavation, so nothing above the pipe comes up.
Establishing what the line serves comes first, because on shared drainage that answer decides who authorises the work as much as who pays. Where a fault sits under recent renovation, relining through an existing access point is usually the difference between a repair and a rebuild.
Nobody likes ringing for a price and being told “it depends”. These are typical ranges across the Sydney market — not Voyager’s price list, but a realistic yardstick to judge any quote against, including ours.
| Clearing a simple blockage | $150 – $400 |
| Clearing a blocked main sewer line | $300 – $600 |
| High-pressure jetting | $250 – $600 |
| Cutting tree roots from a line | $400 – $1,200 |
| CCTV drain inspection | $250 – $550 |
| Pipe relining, per lineal metre | $450 – $800 |
| Pipe relining, typical whole job | $4,000 – $10,000 |
| Excavate and replace, per metre | $300 – $600 |
Voyager prices by the job, not by the hour, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
Describe what’s happening at your McMahons Point property and we’ll tell you straight — including when the simple clear is the whole job.
Note which fixtures are affected and whether any neighbour has the same thing. In a suburb as mixed as McMahons Point that is what narrows down whether the fault is yours alone.
Stop using the fixtures on that line. Every flush and every sinkful adds to what has nowhere to go, and on a main sewer blockage that is what turns a contained problem into an overflow.
Do not pour drain chemicals down it. They rarely clear a real blockage, they make the line unsafe to inspect or work on, and caustic product sitting against an old earthenware joint does the pipe no favours.
If sewage is surfacing, treat it as urgent. That is a health issue, not an inconvenience — keep people and pets away from it and call.
If it is out of hours and getting worse, ring rather than book — Voyager runs a 24/7 line for McMahons Point and the rest of the Lower North Shore. More on emergency plumbing.
Before renovating, establish where the drainage runs. It costs very little beforehand and avoids the conversation about lifting new work to reach an old pipe.
Storm season finds every drain that was never quite right. Better to know before it rains.
Which fixture, how long, and whether anything is overflowing. That is usually enough to tell how urgent it is.
Jetting, cutting or a machine, chosen by what the line is doing — not by what is quickest to bill.
A camera down the cleared line shows whether this was a one-off or a pipe that will do it again.
Including when the answer is that nothing further is needed. A cleared drain with no fault is a perfectly good outcome.
A blocked drain is sometimes the symptom rather than the problem. These cover what comes next:
Voyager covers the whole Lower North Shore. These are the closest to McMahons Point:
Most often for one reason here: party-wall drainage on a peninsula between two bays. Either a shared line crossing a boundary on the terrace stock, or a stack build-up in the 62.8% that are apartments. The recurring complication is renovation: original drainage under premium modern work, where the access is the expensive part rather than the pipe. A drain that clears easily and blocks again within months is telling you the cause is still in the pipe — which is why we put a camera down a cleared line rather than leaving it at ‘it’s moving again’.
Voyager runs a 24/7 line for McMahons Point and the rest of the Lower North Shore. If sewage is surfacing or a main line has stopped, say so when you call — that is what decides how fast someone needs to be there rather than the booking order.
Across the Sydney market a simple blockage typically runs $150–$400, jetting $250–$600, root cutting $400–$1,200 and a CCTV inspection $250–$550. Those are market ranges rather than Voyager’s price list. What has been built over the line. McMahons Point’s working-class stock has been renovated heavily, and a fault under new work turns a routine repair into an access problem — which is exactly the case relining is for. We price by the job, not the hour, and you approve the number before anything starts.
Rarely, and it can make things worse. Caustic product does not shift a root mass or a collapsed section, it sits in the line where it is a hazard to work on, and against an aged earthenware joint it does the pipe no favours. If a chemical has already gone down, tell us before anyone opens the line.
If it is a genuine one-off — something went down that shouldn’t have — clearing it is the whole job. If the same line has blocked before, a camera tells you whether this is maintenance or a repair being postponed. We would rather tell you it is fine than clear it twice.
McMahons Point is 62.8% apartments, so this comes up constantly. If the line serves more than one lot it is generally common property and the owners corporation’s to arrange; if it serves only your lot it is yours. We establish which before work is authorised and deal with the strata or building manager directly — the plumber page for McMahons Point covers the ownership rules in full.
Usually not. Relining works from existing access points, so a damaged section under a slab, paving or new flooring can often be repaired in place. It is a common situation in McMahons Point, where original working-class housing has been extensively renovated. The camera survey is what confirms whether it is possible before anyone talks about excavation.
Yes, and telling them apart matters — they present similarly from the surface and are fixed completely differently. A drain that only misbehaves in heavy rain is usually stormwater or ingress rather than a blockage. A camera settles it in one visit.
Free quote, a fixed price agreed before the work starts, and someone on the end of the phone at any hour.
Voyager Plumbing · NSW Contractor Licence 476657C
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Page reviewed and updated 20 August 2026
