It’s something we’ve all experienced. As you’re brushing your teeth or taking a bath, just trying to get through your day, you notice that the water isn’t draining as it should. Suddenly, carrying on with your day-to-day activities becomes a headache.

To add to the frustration, it could be tough to figure out what’s behind the clogging. The cause could be something as simple as a hairball stuck in the pipe close to the drain, or something more complicated, like a tree root intrusion in the main line.

If you’ve already tried a drain cleaner that didn’t work, it’s time to get professional help.

Water that Won’t Drain: Identifying the Cause

When water in your home is simply not draining, a licensed plumber first has to figure out if the root of the clog is in a drain or pipe in your house or in the main line. Main line stoppages are different and more complicated than drain clogs because they occur in the horizontal sewer pipe that runs beneath your home.

One sign that the blockage is in your main line is that water will have a tough time draining in the fixtures in your home that are closest to the ground. Main line stoppages are often caused by build-up, rotted or broken cast iron pipes, and tree roots.

If water in your home isn’t draining, you can visit our Sewer Stoppage and Repair page to get more information. However, you’ll need a professional to come to your home and properly inspect and diagnose what’s going on underneath your home.

Drain Jetting: A Potential Long-term Fix

To get a clear, accurate picture of what’s causing your water draining issue, a licensed plumber has to run a camera down your main line. That will help determine if the problem is:

• • Build-up in a bellied line
  • A rotted or broken cast iron pipe
  • Tree root intrusion
  • Something else

Important Note About Camera Inspections

Camera inspections are often necessary to properly diagnose a clogging issue. However, they go beyond the scope of John Moore’s free visual inspections. Continue reading to learn more.

After a licensed plumber inspects and diagnoses the issue underneath your home, they might recommend drain jetting if the root of the problem is build-up. Drain jetting is the process of clearing out drains with high-pressure water streams.

However, while drain jetting can be a long-term fix, it’s not the right solution in every situation. For example, a belly in your main line would require a different approach because the pipe would have to be re-sloped or replaced.

How Much Does Drain Jetting Cost?

Many factors can impact the cost of drain jetting and other unclogging solutions. A few of those factors include:

• • • The access point an expert needs to use (accessing a drain line from the sink requires less time and tools than accessing the main line)
    • The material of the pipes (for example, cast iron pipes are more likely to be rotted, complicating the process)
    • The need to repair a pipe (a pipe with a belly will need to be re-sloped or replaced)

  Consider this scenario: the clog is under your home. In that case, we’ll try to use a cable to poke a hole through the blockage in the main line first. This is to avoid filling the main line with more water, which could potentially damage the inside of your home.

  Sometimes, we can’t poke a hole through the blockage in the main line with a cable. That’s a sign of a bigger problem. For example, if we run our camera and find a belly in the line, drain jetting won’t work. We’d have to dig, cut through the middle of the belly, and reslope or replace that line to provide a long-term solution.

  Getting an Estimate: Why a Plumber Will Likely Need a Camera

  At John Moore, we use a “Good, Better, Best” system to give you different options for managing your home’s drain and pipe clog issues. However, we won’t be able to tell you what your options are until we inspect and identify the root cause of the problem.

  We offer equipment-free estimates at no cost to help you start fixing your clogging issues. However, figuring out the cause behind a problem as complex as persistent clogging is a tedious, messy job that requires equipment. We’ll have to use a camera to figure out the root cause, and using a camera does come at a cost.

  While we can provide a short-term solution, often, a long-term solution is the best approach. We don’t want you to deal with recurring clogging issues in your sink or another appliance. By getting the issue solved for good, you’ll avoid countless hours of additional frustration.

  Major repairs like fixing a main line often come as a surprise. Because we know that no one is ever expecting to pay for such a large fix, we try to make it easier by offering various financing options with approved credit.

  Ready to get your home’s pipes unclogged for good?

  Call us at (713) 597-7200 or set up an appointment online.