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An independent
Bristol drainage company
Not a franchise, not a call centre, and not a national brand routing your job to whoever answers. Flow Sure Drains is a small Bristol firm run by Anthony Lord, and the person who quotes you is generally the person who turns up.
✓ [X] years on Checkatrade
✓ [118] Google reviews
✓ Bristol-based since [YEAR]
BASED IN
Bristol BS2
St Michaels Hill, near the BRI
TEAM
[TEAM] people
Small enough that you’ll recognise who turns up
COVERING
Bristol & Bath
No distance charge anywhere in it
CALL-OUT FEE
£0
Since the day we started
How this started
Why the prices are on the website
Most drainage companies won’t tell you what anything costs until an engineer is standing in your garden. We publish the lot, and that decision explains most of how this business works.
The reason is straightforward. Drains block at bad times — a Sunday evening, the morning of a party, the week you exchange contracts. People ring in a mild panic, and an industry that prices opaquely does very well out of that panic. Call-out fees that appear on the invoice but not the quote. Hourly rates that stretch. Weekend surcharges of fifty per cent on a job that isn’t harder for being on a Saturday.
None of that is illegal and plenty of firms do it. It just isn’t the business we wanted to run, largely because we’d have to keep doing it to the same few thousand households for years.
“If I’ve quoted you a price and then the invoice is bigger, I haven’t earned anything. I’ve just borrowed a customer from whoever gets them next.”
— Anthony Lord, Flow Sure Drains
What that means in practice
Every price we charge is on the cost guide. There’s no call-out fee, no distance charge, and the same figure applies at 8pm on a Sunday as at 10am on a Tuesday. The price is fixed on site before anything starts, and if you’d rather not go ahead once you’ve heard it, there’s nothing to pay and we leave.
And the part that costs us work
The advice section exists because the same questions come up on doorsteps every week — usually after someone has already been quoted for work that was never theirs to pay for.
So we wrote it down. That a slow kitchen sink will probably clear with hot water and a plunger. That if your neighbours have the same problem at the same time, the drain is likely shared and Wessex Water’s responsibility rather than yours. That a survey isn’t worth paying for on a first-time blockage that cleared easily.
Each of those loses us a job. It also means that when you do need someone, you already know what you’re getting — and we’d rather have that than one more invoice.
Need us today?
- Same day in most cases
- Fixed price before work starts
- Nothing to pay if you decline
What we're often asked to do
Anthony Lord
Owner, Flow Sure Drains
Anthony has been working on Bristol’s drains for years, and has run Flow Sure Drains since [YEAR]. He still does the work — on most jobs, the person who gave you the price is the person who arrives.
He writes the advice guides on this site, including who’s responsible for a blocked drain and what drain unblocking actually costs. All of it comes from jobs rather than from research.
He knows Bristol’s pipework specifically, which matters more than it sounds. Victorian clay in Redland fails differently from Georgian runs under Clifton, which behave nothing like the interwar semis and soakaways out in Fishponds. Knowing which you’ve got before lifting a cover saves a great deal of everyone’s time.
How this started
Why the prices are on the website
Most drainage companies won’t tell you what anything costs until an engineer is standing in your garden. We publish the lot, and that decision explains most of how this business works.
ONE
The price is agreed before we start
One fixed figure, on site, before any work begins. Not an estimate, not a starting point, and not something that grows once the van is unpacked.
If you’d rather not proceed, there’s nothing to pay and we leave. That has to be a real option or the promise means nothing.
TWO
We find the fault before we clear it
Rodding blind pushes a blockage further down the pipe and calls it fixed. It works for about a fortnight.
We establish where the problem actually is first, then clear it, then flow test while we’re still there. A blockage moved is not a blockage cleared.
THREE
We'll tell you if it isn't your bill
If a drain serves more than one property it’s very likely a shared lateral, and since 2011 that’s generally the water company’s responsibility rather than yours. They attend free.
We check what the run serves before anyone pays for anything. It costs us jobs and it’s the right way round.
FOUR
We don't sell surveys nobody needs
A camera survey is genuinely valuable when a drain keeps blocking, or before you buy a house. On a one-off blockage that cleared easily, it usually isn’t.
We’ll say so. A survey recommended on every job is a sales process, not a diagnosis.
Straight about the limits
What we don't do
A shorter list than the services page, and more useful. Knowing what a company won’t take on tells you more than knowing what it will.
- Pest control. We find and seal the drainage defect rats are getting in through. Dealing with the animals themselves is a different trade with different qualifications, and we'd be wary of anyone offering both in one package.
- General plumbing. Boilers, bathrooms, radiators and leaks inside the wall are a plumber's job. We work on waste and drainage. There's overlap at the trap and we'll tell you which side of it your problem sits.
- Pump and macerator repair. Common in city centre basement flats. We'll establish whether the fault is a blockage or a failed pump — but the mechanical repair itself is a pump engineer's work, and we'll say so rather than charge you to find out slowly.
- Firm quotes over the phone. A blocked drain and a collapsed drain sound identical when described down a phone line. Any binding figure given without seeing the job is either padded for the worst case or going to change on arrival.
If it's not us you need
We’ll usually know someone local who does that work, and we’d rather point you at them than take a job we can’t finish properly.
Ring and describe it. Working out whose problem it is takes about two minutes and costs nothing.
How this started
Why the prices are on the website
Most drainage companies won’t tell you what anything costs until an engineer is standing in your garden. We publish the lot, and that decision explains most of how this business works.
Checkatrade
Listed for [X] years, with reviews you can read in full
Public liability
[INSURANCE] cover — certificate available on request
Qualifications
[QUALIFICATIONS]
Accreditation
[ACCREDITATION]
Ask any drainage company for their insurance certificate before work starts. A firm that has it will send it within the hour, and one that hesitates has told you something useful.
How this started
Why the prices are on the website
Most drainage companies won’t tell you what anything costs until an engineer is standing in your garden. We publish the lot, and that decision explains most of how this business works.
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★★★★★
Third review slot. Long reviews are trimmed so the three cards stay level with each other.
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How this started
Why the prices are on the website
Most drainage companies won’t tell you what anything costs until an engineer is standing in your garden. We publish the lot, and that decision explains most of how this business works.
How this started
Why the prices are on the website
Most drainage companies won’t tell you what anything costs until an engineer is standing in your garden. We publish the lot, and that decision explains most of how this business works.
Are you a franchise or a national company?
Neither. Flow Sure Drains is an independent Bristol firm. When you ring, you’re speaking to us rather than to a national call centre that sells the job on to whoever is nearest.
That’s why the person who quotes you is generally the person who turns up.
Who will actually come to my house?
One of a team of [TEAM]. It’s small enough that you’ll recognise whoever arrives if you’ve used us before, and small enough that a bad job would be traced straight back to us.
Are you insured?
Yes — [INSURANCE] public liability, and we’ll send the certificate on request before any work starts.
Worth asking any drainage company for this. One that has it will send it within the hour.
How long have you been doing this?
Flow Sure Drains has run since [YEAR], and has been listed on Checkatrade for [X] years with reviews you can read in full. There are also [118] reviews on Google, unedited — we don’t get to choose which ones show.
Why do you publish your prices when nobody else does?
Because you shouldn’t have to ring three companies to find out what a job costs, and because an industry that prices opaquely does well out of people who are panicking.
Every figure is on the cost guide. The price is fixed on site before work starts, and there’s nothing to pay if you decide against it.
Do you really tell people they don't need you?
Regularly. A slow kitchen sink will often clear with very hot water and a plunger. A drain shared with your neighbours is usually Wessex Water’s responsibility and they attend free. A survey isn’t worth paying for on a first-time blockage that cleared easily.
Each of those costs us a job. It’s still the right answer, and it’s why the advice section exists.
Do you work for landlords, agents and businesses?
Yes — we invoice, work to purchase orders, attend outside trading hours at no premium, and provide a written report after every visit. Commercial drainage covers how that works.
What if something goes wrong after you've left?
Ring us. We flow test or re-survey before leaving specifically so that doesn’t happen, but if the same fault returns we’d rather hear about it than read about it in a review.
Give us a ring
Tell us your postcode and what the drain is doing. We’ll tell you what it sounds like, roughly what it’ll cost, and when we can be there — and if the answer is that you don’t need us, that’s what you’ll get.