Most drain calls fall into three buckets. The fix is different for each one, and the price is different too. Here is what we are usually looking at:
One drain is slow or stopped - kitchen sink, bathroom sink, tub, shower, single toilet. Usually a clog within the first 15-20 feet of pipe. We snake it with a hand cable, clear it, run water, and you are back in business. Most of these are $165 to $285 depending on access and how stubborn the clog is. Half-hour to an hour on site.
Multiple fixtures backing up in the same area - all the bathroom drains, or the whole kitchen, or one wing of the house. The problem is in the branch line that ties them together, usually 20-50 feet in. We use a powered drum machine with a longer cable. $285 to $480 typically. One to two hours.
Everything in the house is backing up, the lowest drains first. Toilets gurgling. Water coming up in the basement floor drain. This is the main sewer line between the house and the street, and it is the one that ruins your day. We run a powered cable through the cleanout, clear the blockage, then run a camera through to find out what caused it. Usually $375 to $650 for a straightforward clearing. Camera inspection is included at no extra charge.
Cabling cuts a hole through the clog. Hydro-jetting cleans the whole inside of the pipe. The cable is faster and cheaper for one-time clogs. The jetter is the right call when:
Jetting runs $485 to $950 depending on the line length and access. We usually quote it after a camera inspection so we can show you why it is the right tool for the job.
If you have had the same drain back up twice in a year, you do not have a clog problem - you have a pipe problem. Could be roots invading at a joint. Could be a belly in the line where water is sitting. Could be a crack, or a section that has shifted, or an old clay tile that is starting to come apart. The cable will keep clearing it, but the underlying issue is going to keep showing up.
Camera inspection costs us about 30 minutes and a $1500 piece of gear. We include it on every main line job at no extra charge because if you have a real problem we want you to see it on the screen, not just take our word for it. We will also burn the recording to a USB or send it to your phone if you want to keep it.
Most older homes in our area have a clay tile or cast iron sewer lateral between the house and the street, and most of them have roots somewhere in them. Roots find joints, then the joints leak, then the roots grow into the leak, then the leak gets bigger. Eventually you have a tree growing inside your sewer pipe.
For an active root intrusion, we cable it with a cutter head, then jet it to clean out the debris, then run the camera to confirm it is clear and to see how bad the damage is. If it is going to keep coming back every year, we will quote you a spot repair or a trenchless reline option. We will not pretend the cabling fixed it long-term when it did not.
A snake isn't a snake isn't a snake. The reason we get stubborn clogs other shops give up on is we own all the equipment, not just one piece of it.
Real jobs, real outcomes. The kind of work that comes through the shop most weeks.
Whole house was backing up at the lowest drain. Camera found a maple root mass about 35 feet out from the cleanout. Jetted it clean and showed the homeowner the before and after.
Slow drain in the kitchen for months, finally stopped completely. Cabled the line, hit a grease blockage about 12 feet in. Cleared it and walked the homeowner through how to keep it from coming back.
Tub had been draining slow for years. Other plumbers said it needed to be torn out. We pulled the overflow plate, snaked it from there, hit a hair mat the size of a softball about 3 feet down. $179 fix.
For a slow bathroom sink with hair, sure - try a hair-removal tool first, then a foaming bathroom drain product if you must. For anything else, no. Drano is hard on old pipes, especially older galvanized and cast iron systems common in Vermont houses, and if it does not work you have just made our job harder and more expensive. Call us first, we will tell you honestly whether it is worth a DIY attempt.
Three signs of a main line: lowest drains in the house back up first (basement, ground floor toilet), water comes up in unexpected places when you flush or run the washer, and gurgling noises in toilets you are not using. Any of those, do not run any more water and call us right away.
Almost never. Recurring clogs in the same line usually mean there is something physically wrong with the pipe - a belly, a root intrusion, or a bad section. The clogs are a symptom. Cabling will buy you time, but the underlying issue needs a real fix. Camera inspection tells us which one you have.
Depends entirely on what caused the clog. A grease ball in a kitchen line that we clear once might never come back if you change the habit. Roots in a sewer lateral usually come back in 12-18 months. Bellies in the line, sometimes a few months. We will give you an honest read after we see what we are dealing with.
Call us. We will tell you over the phone whether it is something you can wait on or whether we need to get a truck out today.