A simple blocked drain log for busy premises

3 November 2026

Each blocked drain feels like a one-off at the time. The sink in the drivers' room backs up, someone clears it, the invoice is paid and the job forgotten. Looked at across a year, the same drain often turns out to have blocked again and again, and nobody connected the visits because each one was booked by a different person.

What to write down each time

A blocked drain log does not need software. A shared spreadsheet or a page in the facilities file is enough, as long as everyone who books drainage work uses it. For each occurrence, record:

• the date and which outlets were affected
• whether one fixture was slow or several backed up together
• the access point used to clear it
• what was found, whether grease, wipes, roots, silt or something else
• the method used, and whether flow was checked afterwards
• the contractor's job sheet or invoice, attached or linked

Reading the pattern

The log becomes more useful when it records whether a fault affected one outlet or several. A slow sink and a toilet backing up at the same time tell a different story from a kitchen basin that drains slowly on its own. Without that detail, the next contractor has little more to go on than the previous invoice. The Drain Unblocking site sets out drain unblocking for homes and commercial premises along these lines, explaining how symptoms and the position of access points show which pipe is blocked, and that a problem which keeps returning needs its cause investigating rather than another temporary clearance.

A log is what makes that judgement possible. When the same chamber appears repeatedly in the records, the earlier entries can help establish whether further investigation is needed. They also show what has already been tried and whether the previous clearance lasted.

Making the job sheet useful

Ask contractors to name the drain they cleared in terms the site will recognise, such as "gully by the wash bay" or "kitchen run to the rear chamber", rather than a generic "drains cleared". Photographs of the access point and of what was removed are worth having, especially where wipes or fat are involved, because they settle the conversation with whoever is putting them down the drain.

If the business uses a shared mailbox for facilities work, file each job sheet there under the location, not under the contractor's name. Contractors change more often than drains do.

From the website side, the most helpful booking forms ask which outlets are affected and where the nearest access point is. Those answers give the person attending a useful picture of the fault before arriving, and they become the opening line of the log.