Is this you?
Signs it’s the main line, not one drain
Water in the shower when the washer drains
The lowest drain in the house fills first. That’s one pipe struggling to take everything.
More than one drain is slow at once
A sink and a tub both slow is not two problems. It’s one, further down the line.
A toilet gurgles when something else drains
Air being pushed back through the lowest fixture is the main line talking.
Backing up right now?
Three things to do before anyone arrives
Water coming up in a shower or a floor drain is almost always the main line. These three steps keep a bad afternoon from getting worse.
Stop running water
No washer, no dishwasher, no showers, and don’t flush. Everything you put down comes back up at the lowest drain in the house.
Keep clear of the water
If backed-up water has reached an outlet, the washer, the water heater or a cord, don’t touch it or stand in it. Keep people and pets out.
Leave the cleanout cap on
Don’t pull a cleanout cap on a full line, and don’t go up on the roof to run anything down the vent. A full line is under pressure.
We call back the same working day, Monday to Saturday. If water is coming through a ceiling, call rather than type.
How we do it
How we clear a main line
The cleanout, or the right way in
A two-way cleanout makes it quick. Without one we tell you before we start what it changes.
Opened with a cutter sized to the pipe
A head that fits the bore, so it cuts the roots at the wall and doesn’t just punch a tunnel.
Camera to the street
On a line that has backed up before, the camera goes in to find out why it closed.
Flagged and written down
Anything worth repairing is located, marked on the lawn with its depth, and on your run sheet.
What it costs
What a main-line call costs
You hear the visit price on the phone before anyone drives out. Anything past that is priced after we’ve seen the line.
How we get in
A cleanout at the foundation is the quickest way in. Pulling a toilet or going down a roof vent takes longer, and we say so first.
Whether it needs the camera
A first backup on a modern line may not. A second one in a year does, and we explain why.
What the camera finds
A spot repair at a flagged joint is priced on its own, in writing, with no charge for the quote.
The details
For the people who want every step
Two minutes that tell you which pipe you are dealing with
Every fixture in the house drains into one pipe, and that pipe leaves under the front lawn. If that one pipe is restricted, the water has to go somewhere, and it goes to the lowest opening inside the building — a shower pan, a tub, or a floor drain in a laundry. It almost never comes up out of the highest fixture, which is why people so often blame the wrong room.
So: run a bathroom sink or a washing machine, and go and watch something else. A toilet that gurgles when the washer drains, or water rising in a shower when a basin empties, is one pipe struggling to take the whole house. That is a main line. If the shower is slow and absolutely nothing else in the house cares, that is a branch line and it is a much smaller job.
Stop putting water in it
If it is the main, every gallon that goes down is coming back up somewhere you can see. No laundry, no dishwasher, no showers, and be careful with toilets. There is nothing you can do with a plunger at that point that will help, and a caustic drain opener poured into a blocked main simply sits in the pipe waiting for whoever opens it — which will be a person with their arm in it.
The cleanout decides the bill, and it decides it before we arrive
A cleanout is a capped pipe, usually four inches, that exists so a cable can get into the line without taking anything apart. A house with a two-way cleanout at the foundation is a straightforward call. A house without one means going in through a pulled toilet — which is extra labour, a new wax seal, and a bathroom out of use while it happens — or down a roof vent, which is slower, more awkward, and works against the fall of the pipe the whole way.
We will tell you which one we are looking at before we start and what it changes, rather than after. It is the commonest reason one drain bill is twice another, and there is no excuse for a customer finding that out at the end.
If you are on a tank, a full tank is not a blocked line
Parts of this area are on septic. When a tank is full or its drainfield has stopped taking water, the symptoms at the house are identical to a blocked line — slow everything, water at the lowest fixture — and a cable put down that line finds nothing wrong, because there is nothing wrong with it. We look at the outlet side before we sell anybody a cabling, because cabling a healthy line into a full tank is charging for a service that could not possibly have worked.
And if it has done this before
A first backup is usually just a backup. A second one in the same year is information: something in that line is catching, and it is catching in the same place each time. A cable will open it again and it will close again, and the interval is the only thing that changes. That is the point at which a camera stops being an upsell and starts being the only honest thing to offer you — and the point at which a quarterly cabling plan stops being a service and starts being a subscription to the same afternoon.
Questions
What people ask us about this
Should I keep using water?
No. If it’s the main, every gallon that goes down comes back up at the lowest drain. No laundry, no dishwasher, no showers, and go easy on the toilets until the line is open.
Can I pour a drain opener down it first?
Please don’t. A caustic opener rarely gets through a blocked main, and it sits in the pipe waiting for whoever opens it. If some has gone in already, just tell us when we arrive.
Is it the line or a full septic tank?
Parts of Seminole County are on septic, and a full tank looks the same from inside the house. We check the outlet side before we sell anybody a cabling.
It backed up again after the last company cleared it. Why?
Something in the line is catching in the same place each time, usually roots at an open joint. That’s when a camera stops being an extra and becomes the honest next step.
Want somebody to look at it properly?
Tell us what it’s doing. The office calls you back the same working day to agree a time. Nothing is priced before somebody has seen it, and you keep whatever we write down.
Other work