Drain Cleaning
Clearing a drain properly and clearing it quickly are not the same job
Almost any blocked drain can be made to run again in ten minutes. Push a cable through the middle of whatever is in there, water finds the hole, and the sink empties. Everyone is happy until the hole closes.
That is why the same drains get cleared over and over. The blockage was never removed. A channel was punched through it and the rest was left on the pipe wall, waiting.
What we do instead is work out what is actually in the line first, then pick the head and the method that takes it out rather than through it. Soft blockages, hair and soap, food waste, a toy, a hardened grease layer and a mat of root hair all behave differently, and they all need something different. On a main line we finish with a camera so you know whether you had bad luck or a pipe that is starting to fail.
What we find
What we are usually pulling out
Soft blockages in fixture lines
Hair, soap, toothpaste, food waste and the slow build up of everything that has gone down a bathroom or kitchen drain for a decade. These are the most common calls and the most satisfying, because a properly cleared line goes back to draining like new.
Grease and scale on the pipe wall
Kitchen lines and older cast iron. The pipe is not blocked by an object, it is closing up from the inside. Cabling helps for a while. Taking the wall back to full diameter is what actually fixes it, which is why this one often becomes a jetting job.
Roots and structural faults
Fine root hair through an open joint, an offset where two sections have moved, a belly holding water and solids. A cable can clear the symptom. The camera tells you whether the pipe underneath is sound or whether you are on a schedule now.
On the day
What a drain cleaning visit includes
Working out which line is affected.
Which fixtures, in which order, and whether anything reacts to anything else. This is diagnosis, and it decides everything that follows.
Getting proper access.
An exterior cleanout where there is one. Where there is not, we tell you what the alternative involves before we start rather than after.
Clearing the line with the right head.
Cutter, retrieval, or a full diameter head depending on what is in there. Not one cable and one head for every job.
Telling you what we found.
What came out, what caused it, and whether the line is sound. Including the times the answer is that nothing is wrong with your pipe and something needs to stop going down it.
Step by step
How we work
You describe the symptoms.
One fixture or several, how fast, and whether running one thing affects another. If two fixtures are talking to each other we bring main line equipment from the start.
We locate the access point.
Exterior cleanout, basement cleanout, or through a fixture. On a lot of older Whatcom County houses there is no exterior cleanout at all, which is worth knowing before the truck arrives.
We choose the head for the blockage.
A retrieval head for an object, a cutter for roots or hardened build up, a full diameter head to finish. Using the wrong one is how a cable gets stuck in someone's line.
We clear the full length, not the first obstruction.
The cable runs out to the transition or the main, not just far enough to get flow back.
We camera the line where it matters.
Standard on main line work. On a fixture line we run one if what came out suggests the pipe itself is the problem.
We tell you what happens next.
Nothing, a jetting pass, a repair, or a change in what goes down the drain. Whichever it is, you get the reasoning and, where there is footage, you get the footage.
Why us
Why call us for this
This is the whole job, not a gap in the schedule
We do not fit drain calls around fixture installs and bathroom remodels, because we do not do fixture installs and bathroom remodels. The van is already loaded for this.
We will tell you when cabling is not the answer
If your kitchen line is closing up with grease, cabling it is a service you can buy from us three times a year. We would rather jet it once and tell you what changed.
We know what the pipe under these houses is made of
Vitrified clay and cast iron under the older Bellingham streets. Orangeburg in a lot of what went up between the late forties and the early seventies. Shallow, wet ground out toward the bay. It changes how much force is reasonable.
You get told the boring answer when the boring answer is true
Sometimes the line is fine. We would rather say that than find something expensive.
Reviews
What our customers say
We have not collected any reviews yet. When we do they will appear here in full, in the customer's own words.
Questions
Drain cleaning questions
Do plumbers clean out drains?
Most general plumbers will, between other work. We only do drain and sewer work, which means the cable, the cutting heads, the jetter and the camera are on the van every day rather than being fetched when somebody remembers. It is the same trade, done as the whole job instead of part of one.
How much should it cost to clean a drain?
It depends on which line is blocked, how the pipe is accessed and what is in it. A fixture line reached through an accessible cleanout is a different job from a main line on a house with no cleanout at all. You get the number before we start, not after, and our cost guide breaks down what moves it.
Why do plumbers say not to use drain cleaner?
Three reasons. It rarely shifts a real blockage, so you have paid for nothing and lost time. It sits against the pipe wall while it fails, attacking older metal pipe. And it makes the standing water hazardous for whoever opens the line next, which may be you. If you have already used one, say so when you call.
Will a drain snake damage my pipes?
Not in sound pipe, used properly, with the right head. In pipe that is already cracked, offset, or made of failing Orangeburg conduit, it can. That is exactly why we camera anything old rather than assume, and why we will sometimes stop and tell you the cable is the wrong tool for what we have found.
Why does my drain keep clogging in the same place?
Because something about that spot is holding material. A belly in the line, an offset joint, a rough patch of corroded cast iron, or roots coming in through a joint. Repeat clogs in one location are the clearest signal there is that the pipe needs looking at rather than clearing again.
How often should drain pipes be cleaned?
Most houses never need it on a schedule. The ones that do have a specific reason, and a camera run is what identifies it. Anyone recommending an annual clean without having looked at your line is selling a subscription rather than making a diagnosis.
Where we do this work
Anywhere else in Whatcom County, call and ask.
Tell us the symptoms