Restore flow. Then explain it.
A drain that backs up twice in a year is not a drain problem, it is a line problem. We clear the blockage and then find out what caused it, so the second visit is not booked before we leave.
Clearing, then diagnosis
Cabling or hydro-jetting restores flow, and for a one-off blockage that is the whole job. When a line has backed up before, we camera it afterwards and record what we find — roots at a joint, a bellied section holding water, scale narrowing an old cast-iron run, or a foreign object.
The camera pass is what turns a recurring call into a decision. A root intrusion at a known depth can be scheduled and cut; a bellied line has to be re-laid. Both are cheaper to plan than to discover during the next backup.
Older Tacoma housing stock
A good part of the city’s side sewers are cast iron or clay, laid before the sixties, running under mature trees. Clay joints and roots find each other reliably, and cast iron scales from the inside until the bore is half what it was. Neither is an emergency until it is.
If your home is that vintage, a camera pass before you buy or before you finish a basement is one of the few plumbing inspections that routinely pays for itself.
What we do not do
We do not sell a repipe off a blocked kitchen drain. If cabling clears it and the camera shows a sound line, the job is finished and we will say so.
Where we do this
Drains across Tacoma, Lakewood, Puyallup, Gig Harbor, University Place, Federal Way and the surrounding South Sound.
Common questions
Is a chemical drain cleaner worth trying first?
Rarely, and on older cast iron it can do harm. They generate heat against a blockage they often cannot reach, and if we do have to cable the line afterwards, the standing caustic is now our problem too. Tell us if one has been used.
How often should a side sewer be cleaned?
There is no schedule that fits every line. A line with known root intrusion is often cut annually before the wet season; a sound line needs nothing at all. The camera pass is what tells you which one you have.
Every drain in the house is slow. What does that mean?
Multiple fixtures backing up together usually points past the fixtures to the main line or the side sewer, not to any one trap. That is worth looking at promptly — it is the pattern that precedes a backup into the lowest fixture in the house.
Tell us what the house is doing