How to retrieve lost drain rods from a drain

Lost Drain Rods?

You might find it surprising that one of the most common questions that we are asked is “how do I retrieve lost drain rods from a drain?”. It’s a heart-stopping moment when you lose your grip and the rod descends into your drainage system. The reality is, accidents happen, and there is nothing more frustrating than making your drain blockage even worse! Particularly, if you have lost a newly-purchased or a borrowed drain rod.

Updated: March 2020

Why Drain Rods Get Stuck Or Lost

Drain rods are available in most DIY and hardware stores and they often provide a quick, short-term solution to smaller drain blockages for homeowners. While you can do-it-yourself, we would recommend contacting a specialist to provide a drain rodding service to ensure the entire blockage is remotely safely.

The main cause of drain rods becoming detached during the drain clearing process is that they simply unthread themselves, the rods purchased at the large DIY houses and builders merchants screw together and all that thrashing about in the drain can cause the rods to spin and undo. Unfortunately twisting the rods anti-clockwise unscrews them and the law of sod says that it will be the joint halfway down the system that separates first and leaves you holding just three of the six rods you started with.

How We Get Lost Drain Rods Out

There are several techniques for removing lost drain rods from a system without the need for excavation works, they are as follows;

1. If the drain rods just twisted and separated then a high-pressure water jetting may well flush them out.
2. If the drain rods have unscrewed they can be retrieved by using a drainage camera, a set of similar rods
3. If the drain rods have snapped then by using steel root cutting rods along with a retrieving head it is possible to anchor onto the offending objects and retrieve them.

All the above have been used by Maintain Drains to retrieve lost drain rods and all have worked for us. Every job is different but these techniques are certainly worth a try prior to carrying out expensive excavation works. If you need help or assistance retrieving your lost drains rods feel welcome to contact Maintain Drains any time. We cover the Poole and Bournemouth area but can travel further into Dorset and Hampshire if required.