Clogged Drain

When this becomes an emergency

• A kitchen sink that drains fine alone but backs up when the washer empties.
• Gurgling from a basement floor drain whenever the tub upstairs lets go.
• Standing water in a laundry tub that sits for hours without moving.
• A sour smell from a drain that never fully clears after running the tap.

What a pro does

The first job is figuring out how far down the problem sits. One slow sink is a local problem. Two fixtures backing into each other means the main stack or the house drain, and those get handled very differently. Cast iron waste lines are still everywhere in Pennsylvania housing, from the twin homes in Allentown and Bethlehem up through the mining-era doubles in Hazleton, and cast iron doesn't clog the way plastic does. It scales. Rust and grease build a rough layer on the inside wall of the pipe until the working diameter is half what it started as, so a bit of coffee grounds that would pass in PVC catches and holds. A plumber matches the cable and the cutting head to that, because the wrong tool in brittle iron does real damage rather than clearing anything. Access is its own problem in a deep basement, since the cleanout often sits behind a converted coal bin. Where the same drain keeps closing up, a camera run answers whether it's habit or a defect in the pipe.

Frequently asked questions

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