Services

Eight ways to a clear drain.

What each service is, when you might need it, and what’s worth knowing before anyone opens a line. Across San Diego County.

When it can’t wait

01 / 08

Emergency drain service

Some drains can’t wait for a convenient time. A toilet that overflows every time it’s flushed, a kitchen sink full of standing water, a floor drain pushing water out instead of taking it in. Emergency drain service is about stopping the damage and getting the line open.

SD Clear Drains offers emergency service day or night, Monday–Saturday. Its emergency response teams usually arrive within 60 minutes.

Treat it as an emergency when

Water is rising out of a fixture, not just draining slowly
Sewage appears in a tub, shower or floor drain
The only toilet in the house won’t flush
Water is spreading across floors or into walls

02 / 08

Plumbing backup emergencies

A backup isn’t the same as a clog. Instead of draining slowly, wastewater comes back into the house, usually at the lowest point: a shower, tub or floor drain. That happens when the line it should leave through is blocked further down.

Plumbing backup emergencies are what SD Clear Drains specializes in.

Safety first. Treat backed-up water as contaminated: keep children and pets away and wash well after contact. If water has reached outlets, cords or appliances, stay out of it and don’t touch anything electrical.

What to do in a backup

Clearing the line

03 / 08

Sewer, drain & main line blockage clearing

Every fixture in a house drains into a branch line, the branch lines join a main line, and the main line carries it all out to the sewer. A blockage can sit anywhere along that path, and where it sits decides how much of the house stops draining.

Grease that hardens as it cools, wipes that don’t break down, roots, and pipe that has sagged or cracked are the usual suspects. Clearing a main line normally starts at a cleanout, the capped access pipe that gives a straight path into the line.

It may be the main line if

Several fixtures are slow at the same time
Flushing makes water rise in a tub or shower
Drains gurgle when other fixtures run

04 / 08

High-pressure hydro-jetting

A jetter sends water at high pressure through a hose to a nozzle with jets angled backwards. The jets pull the hose along the pipe while the water scours the walls and flushes the loosened debris downstream.

Where a cable opens a path through a clog, jetting aims to clean the pipe itself, which is why it’s often used for grease, sludge and scale. Whether it suits your line depends on the pipe’s condition, so it’s worth asking about.

A hydro-jetting nozzle spraying fine jets of water beside an open cleanout

05 / 08

Drain snaking

A drain snake, or auger, is a flexible steel cable turned by hand or by machine. Fed into the drain, its tip bores through the clog or hooks it so it can be pulled back out.

It’s the direct, dependable way to open a stopped drain, from a single sink to a main line, depending on the size of machine and cable.

Safety first. Trying a hand auger yourself? Go gently, since forcing it can scratch or crack fixtures. Skip chemical drain cleaners: they can damage pipes, and they leave caustic water in the line for anyone who opens it next.

A drain cable being fed into a sewer cleanout in a sunny backyard

06 / 08

Root cutting

Roots grow towards water, and a sewer line that weeps at a joint is a steady supply. Fine roots slip in through joints and cracks, thicken, and start catching everything that passes, until the line slows or stops.

A root-cutting head on the cable cuts the growth back so water can pass again. Roots that found a way in once can find it again, so ask about the condition of the pipe as well as the blockage.

Roots are worth suspecting when

The same line keeps slowing down
There are mature trees or large shrubs near the sewer line
The house has older pipe with many joints

Fine tree roots growing through the cracked joint of an old clay sewer pipe

When it can wait

07 / 08

Plumbing inspection

An inspection is a planned look at the condition of your plumbing, rather than a reaction to it failing. It’s useful when a drain keeps clogging, before a backup, before a remodel, or when you’re buying an older home.

Inspections are scheduled as non-emergency work. Ask when you call what the inspection will cover.

Gloved hands holding the lit head of a pipe inspection camera next to a cleanout

08 / 08

Non-emergency drain service

Not every drain problem is a crisis. A slow shower, a sink that gurgles, a toilet that needs a second flush: these are worth sorting out before they turn into one.

Non-emergency drain service lets you schedule the visit instead of waiting for the drain to choose the moment.

Not sure which one you need?

Describe what the drains are doing. Upfront pricing.

(844) 372-4674(844) DRAINS 4