Slow or Clogged Drains Cleared, With Our Read on the Cause

Call when a plunger and patience have not fixed it, or right away if more than one fixture is affected. A single slow sink is usually a clog in that fixture's line, which is not urgent but will not fix itself either. Several drains slowing at once, gurgling from a toilet when a sink or washer drains, water backing up into a tub or floor drain, or a sewer smell you cannot trace all point to the main line, and those should not wait.

If only one fixture is slow, it is almost always the drain line and not the septic tank. If every drain in the house is sluggish, the toilets gurgle, or the lowest fixtures back up, the trouble is further down: either the main line or a septic tank that is full or has a clogged outlet filter. Because 1620 Sanitation does both drain cleaning and septic pumping, we can check both on site and do the right job. Tell us when the tank was last pumped when you call; it helps narrow things down.

We do not recommend them. Store-bought drain cleaners are caustic enough to damage older pipes and fixtures, they rarely clear more than a narrow channel through the clog, and on a septic system they kill off the bacteria the tank relies on. If you have already poured some in, tell us before we arrive so we can work safely around it. A plunger and a drain screen are the only home remedies worth your money.

Yes. The main line is the pipe that carries everything from the building out to the street sewer or the septic tank, and clearing it is a core part of drain cleaning. We work through a cleanout where there is one and test the flow from inside the building afterward. If the line clears and then backs up again soon after, we say so and explain why a sewer camera inspection is usually the next move.

Stop running water into the affected fixtures, since every sinkful adds to what is already backed up. Clear the area under the sink or around the floor drain, move anything you do not want near the work, and if you know where the cleanout is, make sure we can reach it. If you have used a chemical drain cleaner, say so when you book. Beyond that, keep pets out of the room and we will take it from there.

We work to keep it contained. The equipment goes in through the cleanout or the fixture drain, we protect the area where we are working, and everything is cleaned up before we leave. Opening walls or floors is not something drain cleaning normally requires; the pipe is reached through openings that already exist. If water is standing above the drain when we arrive, we deal with that first so it does not end up anywhere it should not.

Grease is the usual reason. It goes down the drain as a liquid, cools and sticks to the pipe, and then catches coffee grounds, rice, pasta, and everything else that follows until the line narrows to nothing. A garbage disposal makes it worse by sending more solids into the same pipe. Clearing the line fixes the clog; scraping plates into the trash, wiping greasy pans with a paper towel before washing, and running hot water after using the disposal go a long way toward keeping it from coming back.

On most jobs, yes, though the cause is not always clear and sometimes it takes an educated guess. What comes out of the line, where the blockage sat, and how the drain behaved as it cleared all point to a cause, and we tell you what we think it was in plain terms. When the signs point to the pipe itself, such as a sag, a root intrusion, or a break, a sewer camera inspection shows it directly and we can add one to the visit. Knowing the cause is what keeps you from paying to clear the same drain over and over.

The clearing itself is the same; what changes is what we look for and what we recommend. On septic, we rule out a tank that is full or an outlet filter that is plugged before treating a whole-house backup as a drain problem, because pumping, not drain cleaning, is the fix for those. We also steer you away from chemical drain cleaners and additives, which harm the bacteria the tank depends on. If the tank turns out to be the issue, we can pump it rather than sending you to a second company.

Yes. A toilet that flushes slowly, fills high before draining, or backs up altogether is one of the most common drain cleaning calls. Most are caused by excess paper, wipes sold as flushable, or an object that found its way into the bowl, and most clear without removing the toilet. If more than one toilet in the house is acting up at the same time, let us know, because that points to the main line rather than the toilet.

Yes. Give us the window that works, somewhere to park, and who to ask for on site, and we plan around it wherever we can. For restaurants that usually means before or after service; for an office or an apartment building it may mean coordinating with your maintenance staff. Settling those details up front keeps the visit short and lets your staff get on with their day.

Yes. Each visit comes with a record showing the date, the location, the drains that were serviced, and what was done, which goes in your maintenance file or to whoever asks when the lines were last cleaned. Property managers with several buildings can have the records kept consistent across all of them. If a corporate office or landlord wants the paperwork a certain way, say so at booking and we will do our best to match it.

Yes, though most drain clearing is done as needed. Where a line loads up on a predictable rhythm, as dish-area lines in a commercial kitchen often do, clearing it on a schedule heads off the backup that closes a kitchen or floods a basement on the busiest day of the week. We set an interval based on what we find at the first visit and adjust it once we see how quickly the lines build up again.

In a commercial kitchen it is often both, because the same grease that overloads the trap coats the drain lines on either side of it. If the floor drains and dish sinks are slow and the trap has not been serviced in a while, the trap is the first place to look. Since 1620 Sanitation pumps and cleans grease traps as well as drain lines, we can look after both rather than leaving you to coordinate two vendors.

Any building with drains that see heavy use: restaurants and commercial kitchens, nursing homes and assisted living, apartment and condominium buildings with shared lines, offices, retail, and churches. Larger lines and buildings with many fixtures take more time and are priced accordingly, so share what you know about the plumbing when you call. The pattern of the problem matters too: one unit with a slow sink is a fixture job, while complaints from several floors point to a shared line.

Someone who can let us in, point out the affected drains, and show us where the cleanouts are, which is usually a manager or a maintenance person. After that they are free to get back to work; we only need the drain and the access point kept clear. For recurring visits, a standing arrangement for access means nobody has to be pulled away each time.