Hydro Jetting
Jetting cleans a pipe rather than punching a hole through what is blocking it. High-pressure water scours the walls back toward full diameter, which is the only thing that really works on grease, sludge and scale buildup.
Hydro Jetting
When to call
What usually brings people to this
Inland Empire water is hard, and hard water is the quiet reason water heaters here give out earlier than the sticker claims.
These are the symptoms that usually prompt the call. Any one of them is worth a conversation, and most of them get cheaper to deal with the earlier they are looked at.
A line that clogs again weeks after being cabled
Restaurant and commercial kitchen drains
Heavy grease or soap buildup coating the pipe
Sludge in a line that has never been cleaned
Roots that keep returning
Plumbing problems do not improve on their own. What they do is get slowly more expensive while the damage spreads into whatever is around them.
How we work it
Knowing the difference between a line that needs clearing and a line that needs replacing saves people a great deal of money.
Camera first
We look at the line before jetting it. Pipe in poor condition needs a different approach, and jetting a failing line can make things worse.
Match the nozzle and pressure to the line
Different nozzles do different jobs, and the pressure suited to a commercial main is not what belongs in old residential pipe.
Scour it back
The jet cuts and flushes debris out rather than leaving it to re-form around a hole.
Camera again
We look at the result so you can see the difference and we can confirm the line is actually clean.
Worth knowingWhat hydro jetting actually involves
If we find something beyond what you called us about, you hear about it before we touch it, not afterwards.
People sometimes ask why jetting costs more than cabling when cabling seems to fix the problem. The answer is that cabling usually does not fix the problem, it relieves the symptom. A three-inch line coated down to an inch and a half of opening will flow after cabling because you have made a channel. The pipe is still coated. Jetting restores the actual diameter, which is why the interval between service visits stretches out afterwards rather than staying the same.
Having the diagnostic equipment on the truck changes the economics of a service call. We can rule things out in minutes that would otherwise be guesswork.
Yucaipa is home, and the work radiates out from there across the Inland Empire in every direction. If you are outside the usual radius, call and ask. We cover more ground than most shops our size.
Knowing the difference between a line that needs clearing and a line that needs replacing saves people a great deal of money.
Keeping it from happening again
Plumbing problems do not improve on their own. What they do is get slowly more expensive while the damage spreads into whatever is around them.
Exercise your shutoff valves once a year. A quarter turn and back keeps them from seizing, and a main shutoff that will not turn during an emergency is a much more expensive problem than one that gets used occasionally.
Look behind and under appliances once in a while. Washing machine hoses, dishwasher connections and ice-maker lines are common leak sources and they are all hidden from normal view.
Wipes should not go down any drain, whether the packet says flushable or not. They do not break down, and they are behind a large share of the main line blockages we clear.
If you have had a line cleared more than once, ask for a camera inspection rather than a third clearing. Repeated blockages nearly always have a physical cause worth finding.
Who you are calling
We run a genuine 24-hour line rather than an answering service that takes a message until the morning.
A lot of our work comes from customers we have had for decades, and from the people they send us. That is essentially the whole marketing strategy and it has held up for forty-four years.
Licensed for plumbing and for sanitation systems, and as a general engineering contractor, which between them cover everything we are asked to do here.
Forty-four years in the same valley means we have almost certainly fixed this exact thing for somebody down the street from you.
Big Mike's · Yucaipa, California
Questions we get about hydro jetting
If yours is not here, call and ask. We would rather talk it through than have you guess.
How is jetting different from cabling?
A cable makes an opening through a blockage. Jetting washes the pipe wall clean, which is what grease, soap and sludge actually require.
Is it safe for older pipe?
That is exactly why we camera the line first. Pipe in poor condition gets a different plan, and we tell you before we start.
How often do commercial kitchens need it?
It depends entirely on volume and what goes down the drain. Many kitchens settle into a regular schedule because it is far cheaper than an emergency closure.
Will it get rid of roots?
It cuts them back and clears the line, but roots return through whatever opening let them in. If the camera shows a defect, that is the real fix.
Do you work nights and weekends?
Yes. Nights, weekends and holidays are ordinary working hours in this trade, and emergency calls are answered around the clock.
Will you tell me if I do not need the work?
Yes, and we do regularly. A shop that has been in one family for four decades cannot afford a reputation for selling people work they did not need.
Do you pull permits?
Where the work requires them, yes. Permits and inspections are handled as part of the job rather than left to the customer.
Do you work on commercial property as well as homes?
Yes. Residential, commercial and industrial, including offices, apartment complexes, hotels, restaurants and plant systems.
How this fits the rest of the system
Water pressure is worth understanding because too much of it quietly destroys a house. Above about eighty psi, fixtures wear faster, appliance valves fail early and pipe joints take stress they were not designed for. A great many homes in this region run higher than they should because the supply pressure in the street is high and nobody has ever checked the regulator.
Before we come out
Knowing when the problem started, whether it is constant or intermittent, and whether anything was done to the property recently tells us a surprising amount before we arrive.
The reach across San Bernardino, Riverside and eastern Los Angeles counties is a consequence of longevity rather than a marketing decision. Customers move, recommend us to people in other towns, and the map fills in over four decades.
Related work and where we do it
Other work we do in homes
- Tankless Water Heater Repair
Error codes, scaling and flow faults.
- Boiler Repair
Residential boiler and hydronic faults.
- New Construction Plumbing
Ground-up residential plumbing.
- Kitchen Plumbing
Sinks, disposals, supply and drain work.
- Slab Leak Repair
Pressurized lines failing under a concrete slab.
- Emergency Plumbing
Burst pipes, backups and after-hours failures.
Where we go
We run hydro jetting out of Yucaipa across Rancho Cucamonga, Indian Wells, Azusa, Rancho Mirage, Baldwin Park, Ontario and Perris, and the rest of San Bernardino, Riverside and the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.
Call the shop. A person picks up.
Tell us what it is doing and we will tell you what it takes to fix it. Plain language, no sales pitch, and the number before we start.
Yucaipa, California · Serving San Bernardino, Riverside and eastern Los Angeles counties · Open 24 hours