Drains work by gravity, which means they fail slowly and give warning. A sink that empties a little slower each month, a gurgle from a nearby fixture when the washing machine drains, a faint smell that comes and goes. Those are the early stages of a restriction that will eventually stop something entirely, and usually at the worst moment. Clearing it early is a routine service call. Clearing it after a main line has backed up into a tub is not.
One Slow Fixture or the Whole House
This is the first thing to establish, because it determines everything else. If a single sink or tub is slow and the rest of the house drains normally, the restriction is local, in that fixture trap or its branch line. If multiple fixtures are slow, if a lower fixture backs up when an upper one drains, or if a toilet bubbles when the tub empties, the problem is in the main line that everything shares. That is a different job with different equipment, and it is the one that becomes a sewage backup if it is ignored.
What We Do
We start by identifying where the restriction is rather than guessing. From there the work falls into drain cleaning and clog removal with a cable machine for typical blockages, hydro jetting where the line is coated with grease or scale that a cable will only punch a hole through, and video camera inspection when a line keeps blocking and we need to see why rather than keep clearing it.
Why Lines Block Here
Grease is the leading cause in kitchens, and the mechanism surprises people. It goes down warm and liquid, cools in the horizontal run, and coats the pipe wall a little at a time until the effective diameter is half what it was. In bathrooms it is hair bound with soap scum. On the main line, root intrusion through joints is common because the ground stays moist year round and roots follow water. Older cast iron lines scale internally and lose diameter. And a flat spot or belly in a line, from settling in soft soil, collects solids in a way no amount of clearing permanently fixes.
Clearing Versus Fixing
If a line blocks once, clear it. If the same line blocks twice in a year, something structural is going on and clearing it a third time is buying the same service repeatedly. That is the point at which a camera pays for itself, because it distinguishes a grease problem from a root intrusion from a broken or bellied pipe, and those have completely different solutions. We would rather tell you that than sell you an annual clearing forever.
What Not to Pour Down There
Chemical drain cleaners are worth avoiding. On a fully blocked line they sit in the pipe rather than draining, and caustic chemicals held against older pipe or a rubber gasket cause damage. They also make the line hazardous for whoever opens it next. If a plunger and hot water have not worked, the next step is mechanical, not chemical. Louisiana license 40204, in business since 1967, 4.9 stars across more than 200 Google reviews. Call (985) 632-6428.
