How Much Does it Cost to Replace or Clean a Gully/Drain?

Job Costs

Job	Description	Labour
1	To clean out all your gullies/drains….. 1 man half an hour! But you won’t pay him that much for 30 minutes work, you’ll do it yourself “tomorrow”.	£50
2	Replace an existing cracked gulley. This is half a days work for 1 man inc. materials	£140
3	To fit a new gulley not far away from your metre-deep sewer line. This will also need a new manhole AND will need the building inspector! This will take 2 men 4 days	£1100
	Plus materials, professional fees etc for the above	£900
4	The same new gulley, connected to a new (unlined) soakaway 6 metres away in the back garden. Everything has to be dug by hand with a skip at the front of the house. This will take 2 men 4 days	£1100
	Plus materials, professional fees etc for the above	£800
4a	If the soakaway has to be “honeycomb” lined with brickwork, add an extra	£450

“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping charges. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc). Also VAT must be added all round.

Information Sheet on Gullies

Cleaning the gullies/drains out is the sort of job I (as the guvnor’) always did myself. It is undertaken with a special tool, which I keep in my shirt sleeve.

Assuming we’d been at a house a few weeks building an extension, the nearest gully to the mixer could get pretty clogged up.

Consequently, the process was as horrid as any 5 minute job could be! I did it so that none of the lads could talk behind my back about what a fair-weather boss I was becoming.

Replacing gullies/drains is quite different. They need replacing when they no longer hold any “water”. For some reason they become cracked or holed and the nasties all soak away onto your foundations and your walls start to crack!

New gullies fitted in new positions, need to be connected to the sewer line or a soakaway. See our article on sewers. When connecting to sewer lines they need a new manhole as well!