Drain cleaning without the upsell.

One slow drain is a local clog. Several slow drains at once, or water coming up somewhere you didn’t send it, points to the main line. That difference decides most of the job, so it’s the first thing to figure out.

One drain or the whole house?

If only the bathroom sink is slow, the clog is somewhere between that sink and where its drain joins a bigger pipe, usually within a foot or two. Bathroom clogs are mostly hair and soap. Kitchen clogs are grease and food scraps.

It’s a main line problem when the tub gurgles as the toilet flushes, or the shower backs up while the washer drains. Every fixture in the house empties into that one pipe, so a clog out there shows up at the lowest drain first. Stop running water until it’s cleared.

Try these first

1. Pull the stopper out of a slow sink or tub and clean the hair off it. That fixes more bathroom drains than anything else.
2. Plunge it with a cup plunger. Stuff a wet rag in the overflow hole first so the pressure goes down the drain instead of out the top.
3. On a kitchen sink with a disposal, run the disposal with cold water before you blame the drain.
4. If a plunger didn’t move it, you can pull the trap under a sink or try a small hand auger. If you’d rather not, that’s a fine place to hand it off.

Skip the chemical drain cleaner

It rarely clears a full clog. It sits in the pipe instead, where it’s hard on older metal drain lines and dangerous to whoever opens that drain next.

Already poured something in? Tell us what it was when you call. Don’t add a second product on top of it, and don’t plunge a drain with chemicals in it, because it can splash back into your face.

What we clear

• Kitchen sink lines, including clogs farther down past the disposal
• Bathroom sinks, tubs, and showers
• Toilets that a plunger won’t clear
• Laundry standpipes that overflow when the washer drains
• Floor drains and utility sinks
• Main sewer lines, usually through a cleanout

When you call, tell us which drains are slow, how long it’s been going on, and anything you’ve already tried. If you poured a drain cleaner in, say so.

Snaking or hydro jetting?

A snake is a steel cable with a cutting head that spins through the clog and opens a path. It’s the right tool for most household clogs, and it’s where we start.

Hydro jetting sends water at high pressure through a hose with a nozzle that scours the whole inside of the pipe. It’s the better choice when grease has coated a kitchen line from end to end, or sludge keeps building back up after every snaking. Jetting isn’t right for every pipe. Old cast iron that’s badly corroded, or a line that’s already cracked, can get worse under that pressure. Our post on hydro jetting vs snaking goes into how we pick.

We’d rather snake a line that only needs snaking.

When the same clog keeps coming back

Grease is the big one in kitchens. It goes down warm, cools a few feet later, and catches everything that comes after it. Wipes marked flushable don’t break apart the way toilet paper does, and they snag at joints in the main line. Roots find their way into the joints of older clay and cast iron sewer pipe, especially near big trees.

Sometimes the pipe itself is the problem. A section that’s sagged holds water and solids and clogs in the same spot every time. For repeat clogs like that, a camera inspection shows what’s in the line and roughly where, so the next step isn’t a guess. If we think a camera is worth running, we’ll tell you why and what it costs first.