Drains & Sewers FAQ

Cabling, also sometimes known as “snaking” a drain, is a service where a tool known as an “auger” is fed down your drain line in order to dislodge or grab on to a clog and remove from your drain directly. In some cases, this lets you completely remove the clog from your drain in a quick and non-invasive procedure. However, not all clogs can be cabled out and sometimes an auger service doesn’t actually clear anything. In these cases, we will usually recommend hydrojetting your drain, as this process is much more effective at a wider variety of clogs.

A video camera inspection is a plumber’s best friend when it comes to solving your drain clog problems. Video camera inspections give us the ability to see the true nature of the clog in your drain and determine the best course of action. Are you being backed up by an accumulation of hair and soap scum? Food waste? What about a rock that has somehow made its way through a collapsed section of pipe? A video inspection can determine all of this, and it’s completely free with your sewer line services.

Even if a cable service removes the clog, we still want to run a video inspection on the line to make sure the problem is completely solved—only removing part of the clog means it’s more likely to come back again soon. Want to see the camera inspection results for yourself? You’re more than welcome to do so! In fact, we encourage it so you can know exactly what’s going on in your drain lines and why we make the recommendations we do.

Picote drain cleaning is similar to hydrojetting in that it involves feeding a specialized tool down your drain that’s spins at a high rate of speed. The spinning tool has one of a variety of attachments on it that’s designed to chew through just about any type of clog imaginable. We often recommend this type of cleaning when our plumber can’t find the issue that’s clogging up your drain, even with a camera inspection. Likewise, it’s a particularly effective solution for older sewer lines and drains which frequently have underlying problems. However, we often won’t attempt this type of cleaning until after a video inspection because we need to first make sure that your plumbing can withstand this treatment that can be rather harsh.

You can even watch the Picote process being done as well! We encourage you to observe the process so you can better understand what’s going on with your plumbing and see for yourself firsthand what’s causing your issue.

There are generally three options when you need a drain or sewer line fixed:

Pipelining: A non-invasive procedure that involves running a new lining into your pipe that hardens into a feasible, waterproof replacement in place of the old, broken line. It’s a slightly more expensive option, but its less-invasive qualities makes it way more popular.

Full sewer line replacement: This involves excavating your old sewer line completely and replacing it with a new one. Even though we do our best to minimize the damage to your home, this is still a much more invasive procedure that will leave you with a significant amount of work to repair your home after the service is completed.

Spot repairs: This involves repairing just a small spot on your sewer line, but isn’t always the best case. In some instances, it even winds up being more of a headache because of the work needed to put your house back together when everything is complete.