The line that ruins a weekend
Main sewer line cleaning
The main line carries everything from the house to the street or the tank. When it closes, every drop of water you use has to come back out somewhere.
We work from the exterior cleanout rather than pulling a toilet, which keeps the mess outside the building and gets us straight onto the line with a machine sized for it. Heavy sectional equipment with cutter heads matched to the pipe diameter, rather than a small drum machine hoping for the best.
Then we put a camera down it. A main line cleared without looking is a main line you call somebody about again, because the three things that cause them around here, root intrusion at the joints, years of grease, and a bellied section holding solids, all look identical from the cleanout and need completely different answers.
Signs the main is the problem
- Two or more unrelated fixtures slow at once
- The toilet bubbles when the washer drains
- Water rises in the tub when you flush
- Dirty water at the lowest drain in the house
- A sewer smell in the yard along the run
How we work it
- Open the exterior cleanout to relieve pressure first
- Cable with the correct head for the pipe size
- Flow test under real volume
- Camera the full run and identify the cause
Find your cleanout before we arrive
It is usually a white or black capped pipe standing a few inches out of the ground near the house, often near a bathroom wall. Knowing where it is saves real time on the clock, and on a main line call that time matters.
Straight answers
Questions about main sewer cleaning
Why camera it if the line is already flowing again?
Because flow is the symptom, not the cause. Roots that were cut will grow back, a belly will keep collecting solids, and grease will keep coating. The footage tells you which of those you are dealing with and therefore whether this recurs in six months.
Do you have to pull a toilet?
Rarely. We work from the exterior cleanout wherever one exists, which is cleaner, faster and gets a bigger machine onto the line. If a property genuinely has no cleanout we will discuss the options before doing anything.
Related
You might also need
Flat rate, quoted before we start
Let's get it flowing
Call and talk to a person. You get a straight answer on what it is, what it costs, and when we can be there.