Clogged drains in San Diego: what drain cleaning should fix

Drain cleaning in San Diego: start with which drain is clogged

Most calls for drain cleaning start with one of two situations, and they are priced and handled very differently.

A fixture or branch clog. One sink, one tub or one toilet is slow, and everything else in the house drains normally. The blockage is in that fixture's trap or in the short branch pipe between it and the main drain. Hair in a shower drain, soap and toothpaste in a bathroom sink, food and grease in the kitchen line. Branch clearing usually runs $150–$350, and a lot of these can be cleared with a plunger or a $25 hand auger before anyone is called.

A main-line clog. Every drain is slow at once. The lowest fixture, often a ground-floor shower, fills with dirty water when the washing machine empties or a toilet flushes. Toilets gurgle. Water comes up at the yard cleanout. That is the main building drain or the lateral to the street, not a fixture, and a plunger won't touch it. Cabling a main line is usually $200–$450.

The quick test: run the bathtub for a minute, then flush the toilet next to it. If water rises in the tub, or the toilet bubbles, the shared line downstream of both is blocked. If only the fixture you're using is slow, it's a branch.

Why main lines clog in older San Diego houses

The housing stock decides most of this. Homes built between the 1920s and the mid-1960s, which covers North Park, Normal Heights, Kensington, Clairemont, Allied Gardens, Point Loma and much of La Mesa and El Cajon, drain through cast iron inside the house and vitrified clay from the foundation to the street.

• Roots. Clay pipe comes in short lengths, and every joint is a seam. Ficus, eucalyptus, pepper trees and jacaranda send fine roots into a joint that leaks a little, and those roots grow into a mat that catches paper. San Diego's long dry season makes a leaking sewer joint one of the wettest spots in the yard. See tree roots in sewer lines for why it happens here so often.
• Cast iron scale. After 50 or 60 years, rust builds up as ridges and flakes on the floor of the pipe. Paper and grease hang on the rough surface, and the opening keeps shrinking.
• Grease. Cooking fat poured down the kitchen sink cools and sticks to the pipe wall further down the line, usually where the kitchen branch joins the main.
• Wipes. "Flushable" wipes don't break down the way toilet paper does. They snag on roots, on scale and on offset joints and build into a plug.
• Offsets and bellies. Much of inland San Diego sits on expansive clay that swells in the winter rains and shrinks by late summer. A joint can shift a fraction of an inch, or a section can sag, and that low spot holds water and debris.

Most of those causes come back after the line is cleared. That is the reason the clearing method and the camera afterwards matter as much as getting the water moving.

Snaking vs hydro jetting

Snaking (cabling). A motor spins a steel cable with a cutting head through the line. It punches a hole through the clog and cuts roots back to the pipe wall. It is fast, it is the cheaper option at $200–$450 for a main line, and it gets a house draining the same visit. What it doesn't do is clean the wall: roots are trimmed, not removed, and grease and scale stay behind.

Hydro jetting. A high-pressure water hose with a nozzle that sprays backward pulls itself along the pipe and scours the walls. With the right nozzle it removes grease, sludge and cast iron scale, and flushes cut roots out to the main. It usually costs $350–$800. It takes longer and needs an operator who knows the pipe, because old, thin cast iron or a cracked clay joint needs a gentler approach.

Which to ask for. A cable is reasonable for a first clog in a line that has never given trouble, or to get water moving before a camera goes in. Jetting is worth the extra cost for grease, for heavy scale in 1950s cast iron, for a line that clogs every year, and before any lining job, where the wall has to be clean. The camera page covers hydro jetting and sewer line cleaning in more detail.

The camera inspection afterwards

Clearing a drain tells you that it drains. It doesn't tell you why it clogged. A camera run after clearing, usually $250–$500 and often at the low end of that range on the same visit, shows the inside of the pipe from the cleanout to the city main.

What to look for on the screen:

• Roots at one joint, or at every joint
• Cast iron with the bottom rusted through or channel rot along its length
• An offset clay joint, a crack or a broken section
• Standing water in one stretch (a belly)
• A change of material, such as clay to cast iron or old pipe to newer plastic

Ask to watch, and ask for the recording. That file is your baseline for the next clog and the honest basis for any repair price. What a sewer camera inspection shows goes through it frame by frame.

When a clog means a broken line

Sometimes a clog is a symptom. These are the signs the problem is the pipe, not what's in it:

• The same line needs clearing every few months, or every spring
• The cable brings back clay shards, rust flakes or soil, not just roots and paper
• A soggy, sunken or extra-green patch in the yard along the sewer path
• Sewer smell outdoors near the lateral, or indoors with no dry trap to blame
• The camera stops at a point it can't pass, or shows soil where pipe should be

Any of those is a reason to move from drain cleaning to sewer line repair. One bad section in otherwise sound pipe is often a spot repair at $1,500–$4,000. A line that is failing along its length is a replacement or trenchless lining or bursting conversation. If the camera finds the trouble under the floor of a 1950s slab house, see under-slab sewer repair. Signs of a broken sewer line lists more of the warning signs.

What a clearing visit should look like, step by step

1. Questions first. Which drains are slow, when it started, whether water has come up anywhere, and whether the house has a cleanout.
2. Access. The line is opened at a cleanout. Many pre-1970 houses here don't have one, so a toilet may be pulled or the roof vent used. Adding a two-way cleanout later is usually $400–$1,200.
3. Clearing. Cable, jet or both, depending on what's in the line.
4. Test. Water is run through several fixtures to confirm the whole house drains.
5. Camera. Recommended on any main-line clog, especially a repeat one.
6. Written findings. What was found, where, how deep, and a written price for anything beyond the clearing.

Comparing drain cleaning estimates

Drain-clearing prices are easy to compare on paper and hard to compare in practice. When you get two or three prices, check:

• What's included. Is the camera part of the price or extra? Is jetting priced separately from cabling?
• Access. Is pulling a toilet or using the roof vent included if there's no cleanout?
• After-hours charges. Ask for the rate in writing before the visit, not after.
• The footage. Will you get the camera file to keep?
• Repair pressure. A repair price should come with footage you have seen. Be careful with anyone who quotes a new sewer line before running a camera.

Before work starts, check the contractor's license with the CSLB license lookup before work starts.

Keeping a cleared line clear

• Keep grease out of the kitchen sink. Wipe pans and put cooled fat in the trash.
• Don't flush wipes, even ones labeled flushable.
• Use strainers in showers and tubs.
• Know where your cleanout is, and keep it accessible.
• If roots are the cause, ask whether a scheduled jetting, a spot repair or a liner is cheaper over five years. Paying for a cable every spring adds up fast. Root-killing foams and copper sulfate covers what chemical root treatments can and can't do.
• Before a big storm, check that the cleanout cap is on and that the yard drains away from it.

Questions to ask before anyone runs a cable

• Is this a fixture clog or a main-line clog, and how can you tell?
• Will you cable, jet or both, and why?
• Will the line be cameraed afterwards, and can I keep the recording?
• What does the price include, and what would be extra?
• If you find a break, will you mark its location and depth?
• Who is responsible for the part of the lateral nearest the street? Who owns the sewer lateral explains the general picture; check with the City of San Diego (or your city or district) for your address.

Areas this guide covers

The older city neighborhoods first: North Park, South Park, Normal Heights, Kensington, Clairemont, Linda Vista, Allied Gardens, the College Area, Ocean Beach and Point Loma. East county to La Mesa, El Cajon, Lemon Grove and Santee; south to National City and Chula Vista; north to Carlsbad, Encinitas and Oceanside. Clog requests go to an independent local sewer contractor partner, so say whether sewage has come up anywhere when you call.