Monroe, NCDrainCleaning

The city lists the causes of blockages, and older streets have all of them

The city's list of usual causes for a sewer blockage is short: damaged pipe, roots and built-up grease. It adds that heavy rainfall can do it too. Near downtown, damaged pipe is the one to look for first. The residential historic district holds houses from the 1870s and 1880s and bungalows from the 1920s and 1930s, and drains of those ages are typically cast iron. Cast iron scales over, cracks and eventually opens along the bottom.

Roots follow. They enter where a pipe already leaks, so an old cracked line and a mature tree make a reliable clog. Grease is the newer half of the story. More than a third of the homes here were built in the 1990s and 2000s, and their plastic drains mostly clog from what the kitchen sends down. Benton Heights and Rolling Hills, with their mid-century houses, sit between the two.

• Roots
• Grease buildup
• Structural damage to pipes
• Heavy rainfall

Clearing the whole run to the main

Because the line is yours all the way to the main, we clear it that far. The cable goes in at the cleanout, or through a pulled toilet if the house has none, and we keep working until water runs freely through the whole length. Then we test each fixture that had backed up.

After that, the question is why it blocked. A sewer camera inspection answers it and measures how far from the house the trouble is. Grease and scale come off with hydro jetting, once the camera shows the pipe is sound enough. A cracked or root-filled section calls for a sewer line repair, and we will show you the footage before recommending one. If the camera finds the blockage in the main itself, that part belongs to the city.

Historic district, mid-century streets and newer subdivisions

The oldest drains are downtown and in the residential historic district beside it. Rolling Hills and Benton Heights come next in age. Newer subdivisions include Hamilton Place, Southwinds, Savannah Way and St. Johns Forest, all built around or after 2000, plus Fox Hunt Estates, which began in the late 1980s. An agent listing a house in the older group can have the main line cleaned and filmed first, since a buyer will want to know the state of a line the owner is responsible for end to end.

US-74 carries many of the city's restaurants and shops. The city sets 1,000 gallons as its standard grease trap size. The trap does its work at the end of the line, and the pipe leading to it still builds up a coating of grease. We clear and jet those lines under commercial plumbing. A property manager looking after several units can book them together and get a price for each before work starts.

Scheduling, price and warranty for Monroe customers

Our line is open 24/7 and same-day service is available. Most jobs are booked for a time within 24 to 48 hours. When sewage is backing up into the house, stop using water and call, whatever the hour. That is what our emergency plumber service is for.

The price is stated before we begin and follows the drain, the access and the blockage. A long main line in an older house, reached without a cleanout, is a bigger job than a bathroom sink in a 2005 subdivision. We explain what we found in plain terms. Our Google rating is 5.0 from six reviews, and clear explanations are one of the things reviewers mention.

Cleaning a drain falls outside our 1-year labor warranty, because the next clog depends on what goes down it. Repairing a drain or sewer pipe falls inside it.