A slow Redlands drain is trying to tell you something
A drain that slows down is already partly blocked, and left alone it will finish the job on its own schedule, usually a bad one. We work out whether it is one fixture or the main line, clear it from outside when we can, and find out why if it comes back.
One sink, or every drain in the house?
That is the first thing we ask on the phone, because the answer changes the whole visit. If the bathroom sink is slow and everything else drains fine, the trouble is in that sink’s own branch line, usually hair and soap packed into the first few feet past the trap. If the kitchen, the tub and the toilets are all sluggish, or the tub fills when somebody flushes, the blockage sits further down in the main line that all of them share.
Water comes up in the tub after a flush
The washer draining makes a toilet gurgle
Fixtures on the lowest level slow down together
The shower holds water after the dishwasher runs
Any of those points at the main. A single slow fixture with nothing else going on usually does not, and that is a smaller, quicker visit. Either way you can call the shop and just describe what the drains are doing, and we will tell you on the phone which one it sounds like before anybody drives over.
It is worth calling while it is only slow. A drain that takes a minute to empty still has an opening through the blockage, and clearing it at that stage is easier on the line and on your weekend than waiting for the day nothing goes down at all.
Grease from the kitchen, roots from the yard
Two different causes that need two different tools, so it helps to know which one you are dealing with before anything goes down the pipe.
Kitchen lines clog from the inside. Cooking grease goes down warm and runny, cools in the pipe, and hardens onto the walls a little at a time, grabbing food scraps and coffee grounds as the opening shrinks. A cable will punch a hole through that and get the sink draining again, but it leaves most of the grease stuck to the pipe walls, which is why a cabled kitchen line can slow right back down. Scouring the whole diameter with water pressure, which is what hydro jetting does, takes the grease off the walls instead of just poking through it.
Main lines tend to clog from the outside in. Roots grow toward the moisture leaking out of a joint, slip through the gap, and keep growing inside the pipe where there is water and something to feed on. A cutting head on the cable clears them out and buys real time, but roots that found a way in once know the way back.
Plenty of slow lines are a mix of both, and a few are something else entirely, a toy or a wad of wipes that went down a toilet. Most of the time the way the drain behaves gives it away before we open anything up.
Cleared from outside, so nobody pulls a toilet
When the main is the problem, the easiest way in is usually the cleanout, the capped pipe that comes up near the house or sits under a small cover in the concrete. Working from there means the machine stays outdoors, nobody has to pull a toilet off the floor, and none of what comes out of the line ends up on your bathroom tile.
Sometimes the cleanout is buried or has been covered over, and we dig down to it. That is the kind of opening in the photo, cut through the paving to the fitting so the line can be reached from outside. More of this work is in the gallery.
Ask first
Which fixtures are slow, for how long, and whether anything comes up where it should not. That narrows it down before we unload anything.
Open the cleanout
If water is standing in it, the blockage is somewhere between there and the street. If it is dry, the clog is back toward the house.
Clear the line
A cable for roots and paper, water pressure for grease, sometimes both, run until the line takes water freely.
Load it up
We run several fixtures at once and watch the cleanout, so we know it drains under real use and not only a trickle.
Tell you what came out
Roots, grease and paper each point to a different next step, and we will say which one we pulled.
If it is back a few weeks after we leave
A drain that comes back soon after being cleared is telling you the clog was a symptom. Something in the line keeps catching whatever goes past it, and cabling it again will keep working right up until the day it does not. That is usually the point where it makes sense to put a camera down.
The camera goes in through the same cleanout and shows the reason, whether that is a joint with roots growing back through it, a belly where the pipe has sagged and holds water, or an older cast-iron line scaled down until there is not much room left inside. Each of those gets its own answer, and cleaning alone does not fix any of them.
If the camera does find damage, our sewer line repair page explains what a fix looks like, and there is no pressure to go there. Plenty of repeat clogs turn out to be a habit, grease going down the kitchen sink or the wrong things going down a toilet, and the fix for that is a conversation.
We have been clearing drains out of Yucaipa since 1982, and the same family still answers the phone, around the clock. The drain cleaning page covers how we do this across the valley, Redlands has its own page with the rest of what we do in town, and you can reach the shop here whenever a drain starts acting up.
Cleaning a line that keeps clogging treats the symptom and leaves the cause sitting there.
The rest of what we do in Redlands
- Sewer Line Repair
Backups that keep returning.
- Repiping
Leaks in several rooms.
- Slab Leak Repair
Leaks under the floor.
- Water Heater Installation
Leaking or worn-out tanks.
Everything else we cover in town is on the Redlands page, and the drain cleaning page covers this work wherever you are in the valley.
What should I know about a slow drain?
If your drain does something odd that is not listed, tell us about it.
Should I pour a chemical drain opener in first?
We would skip it. The harsh ones can sit in a fully blocked line without clearing anything, and then whoever opens the pipe has to work around that chemical. A plunger on a single slow fixture is fine to try before you call.
How do I find my sewer cleanout?
Look outside along the wall nearest the bathrooms, or where the line leaves the house, for a short capped pipe at or just above ground level. Some sit in a planter bed or under a small lid in the concrete. If you cannot find one, we will.
Why does my kitchen sink clog more than the bathroom?
Grease. It goes down warm, hardens in the pipe as it cools and grabs food on the way past. Bathroom lines mostly see hair and soap, which build up slower. Scraping pans into the trash before washing them helps the kitchen line more than anything else.
Do I need a camera inspection every time?
No. A single slow fixture that clears easily and stays clear does not need one. A main line that backs up more than once in a short stretch is a different case, because seeing the cause once costs less than paying to clear the same clog again and again.
Can you clear a drain without coming inside?
Often, yes, when the blockage is in the main and there is a working cleanout outside. A clog in one fixture's own branch line usually has to be reached from that fixture, so for a single slow sink we do come in and work from there.
Are flushable wipes safe for the sewer line?
Not in our experience. They do not break apart the way toilet paper does, and they snag on roots, scale and rough joints and build into a plug. In an older line with any of those, wipes are one of the usual things we find on the end of the cable.
Tell us which drains are slow
Call the shop or send a note saying which fixtures are slow, for how long, and whether anything backs up where it should not. We will tell you if it sounds like one drain or the main, and you will know the price before we start.