When a clogged drain is an emergency
Most clogs are a nuisance. A few are not. Water rising in a tub or floor drain with nothing running is one sign. A toilet and a shower that both bubble when you drain the sink is another. Either way the blockage sits in a shared line, so call at any hour.
Dirty water that reaches the floor is a health problem as well as a mess. Keep children and pets out of it, switch off power to anything plugged in near standing water, and do not use the fixtures downstream of the clog. Every flush or load of laundry adds gallons to a line that has nowhere to go.
What to do while you wait
These steps take about ten minutes and make our visit shorter. None of them need tools beyond a bucket and a flashlight.
Stop the water
Pause the dishwasher, washing machine and showers. A standard washer empties 15 to 30 gallons in one drain cycle, which is plenty to flood a floor drain.
Find out how far it reaches
Run a single faucet for a few seconds on each level. Note which fixtures drain slowly. A clog in one sink points to its own branch, while several fixtures point to the main.
Locate the cleanout
Look for a threaded cap near the floor, usually in a basement, garage wall or crawl space, or outdoors near the foundation. Do not open it if water is already standing in it.
Move belongings
Lift rugs, cardboard boxes and anything stored near a floor drain. Water damage from drain overflow is hard to dry out once it wicks into cardboard or carpet pad.
Photograph the problem
Take clear pictures of standing water and any damage with the date showing on your phone. Your insurance agent will want them if the overflow reaches finished surfaces.
Signs a drain is clogging before it stops
Drains rarely fail all at once. They tell you weeks ahead, and a sink that was cleared once and slows again a few weeks later usually has residue still clinging to the pipe wall.
Slow draining
Water leaves the sink or tub in a lazy swirl instead of a steady pull. A narrowed pipe passes less water per second.
Gurgling
Air pulled through a water seal makes a bubbling sound when another fixture drains. It means the line is partly blocked or the vent is struggling.
Sewage-like smell
A foul odor at one drain often means debris trapped just past the P-trap. A smell in a floor drain points toward the main.
Water at the lowest drain
When the shower floods during a laundry load, the shared line is carrying more than the blockage allows through.
Repeat clogs
If a drain clears and clogs again within weeks, the first pass probably only poked a hole through the blockage rather than removing it.
Fruit flies at a drain
Small flies hovering over one drain can mean a film of organic matter on the pipe wall that a quick snake pass left behind.
Drain Cleaning problem right now?
Call the 24/7 line. Tell us what you see, and we will tell you what to do first and what a visit involves.
Why drains clog in Zionsville homes
The Census Bureau reports a median owner-occupied home value of $587,800 in Zionsville and an owner-occupied rate of 84.2 percent. Larger family homes tend to have more bathrooms, a laundry room and a basement bath, and every added fixture adds a branch line that can collect hair, soap scum and lint.
Winter makes kitchen lines worse. The January normal low at Indianapolis is 20.9 F, and a drain that runs along an exterior wall or through an unheated crawl space cools quickly. Warm cooking grease that slides down in the evening can set up on cold pipe walls and build a ring that narrows the pipe over the season.
How we find and clear the clog
We start by asking which fixtures are slow and how long it has been happening, then test each drain. That tells us whether the blockage sits in the trap, in a branch line or in the main. A small auger handles a trap. A drum cable machine with a 1/4 to 3/8 inch cable fits most sink, tub and shower lines.
Larger 3 and 4 inch lines take a heavier sectional cable with a cutting head matched to the blockage, whether that is hair, paper, grease or a root. When the cable meets something we cannot identify by feel, we run a drain camera to see it, and that camera view also shows whether the pipe is cracked or offset. Where a line keeps coming back, hydro jetting may be the better tool.
Kitchen sink drain clogs
The kitchen line is different from a bathroom line because of what goes into it. Cooking fat, coffee grounds, rice and pasta water all leave residue. Fat cools in the pipe and sticks to the wall, then catches food scraps, and the narrowing continues until the sink holds water. Kitchen drains are usually 1.5 inches wide, so even a thin ring of grease matters.
If both sink basins back up together, the clog is past the tailpiece and trap, so look at the disposal and the branch beyond it. A jammed garbage disposal can mimic a drain clog. We check the disposal first, then cable the line from the trap arm or a cleanout, and we pull out what we find so you can see it.
Drain snaking and cabling, and what each tool does
Snaking is the common name for running a flexible steel cable through a drain. The cable turns as it advances, and the head either hooks the blockage and pulls it back or bores a hole through it. Hair at a tub drain usually comes out on the hook. A grease plug is more stubborn and may need a blade head and a second pass.
A short cable only reaches so far. A 20-foot snake from a hardware store often stops at the first bend or well before the main line. Our machines carry longer cable on a drum, which lets us reach the main from a basement cleanout or a roof vent when needed. Each machine has a limit, and past it a camera or a jet is the right next step.
Which method fits which clog
No single tool is best. The right one depends on what the blockage is made of, where it sits and how often it returns.
| Situation | Usual method | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| One slow sink or tub | Hand auger or small drum cable | Does not clean the full pipe wall |
| Kitchen grease buildup | Cable with blade head, then flush with hot water | Grease can return within weeks |
| Several fixtures slow together | Larger cable from the cleanout | May miss roots beyond the reach |
| Repeat clogs after cabling | Camera look, then jetting | Needs a sound pipe to jet safely |
| Unknown blockage or toy or object | Camera first, then retrieval tool | Takes longer than a blind pass |
We tell you which row we think you are in before we start, and we say so if the cable tells us something different once it is in the line.
Clogged drain, unclog options you can try first
A flat plunger with a good seal clears many tub and sink clogs. Cover the overflow opening with a wet cloth so pressure goes down the pipe, and work it for about twenty strokes. Pull hair out of a tub drain with a plastic barbed strip. These are safe and cost almost nothing.
We suggest staying away from liquid drain openers. They are caustic, they sit in a standing-water clog and can damage some pipe materials, and they are a chemical hazard for whoever opens the trap next. Never mix two products. If you already poured one in, tell us before we start so we can wear the right gloves and eye protection.
Drain line leaks and other drain jobs
Not every wet floor under a sink is a clog. A cracked trap, a loose slip nut or a corroded tailpiece leaks only when water is running. If your cabinet stays dry until you drain the basin, the leak is on the drain side, and we fix it during the same visit as the clog.
We also clear floor drains, laundry standpipes and tub drains, and we can open a roof vent when a blocked vent is the reason a fixture gurgles. Larger main-line backups are covered on our sewer line cleaning page.
What affects the price of drain cleaning
Every job gets a clear price before work starts. Five things move that number.
Which drain is blocked
A trap or short branch takes less machine time than a main line that runs 60 feet to the street.
Access
A cleanout makes the job straightforward. With no cleanout, we may need to pull a toilet or work through a roof vent.
What the blockage is
Soft paper clears in one pass, while compacted grease or roots need blades and repeated passes.
Camera work
A camera inspection adds time but shows whether the pipe is damaged, and it helps explain repeat clogs.
Time of day
Night and weekend emergency calls are scheduled differently from daytime appointments, and we explain any difference before work starts.
A typical homeowner policy pays for sudden, accidental water damage. It usually will not pay for the clog, gradual seepage or worn pipe. Sewer or drain backup is often a separate add-on, so check your policy and ask your agent.
Tell us which drains are slow and we will quote your actual house, not an average one.
Call (317) 740-1302Who clears your drains, and what we will not do
The plumbers we send are licensed and insured. The state's online license verification lets you look up any plumber yourself. Indiana's Professional Licensing Agency licenses both contractors and journeymen. Ask for the name and look it up before anyone opens a trap.
We do not guess at pipe damage. If the camera shows a crack, a belly or a collapsed section, we tell you and discuss sewer line repair or a full sewer camera inspection. Before any work that replaces pipe, ask the Zionsville Planning & Building Department what permit applies, since rules vary by job.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Our emergency line is open 24/7, and we book same-day appointments when available. Call, describe which fixtures are backing up, and we will tell you what to shut off and what to avoid until a plumber arrives.
If water is rising on a floor, stop running any fixture and move belongings off the floor first.
A repeat kitchen clog usually means fat or food residue is still lining the pipe, and a quick pass only opened a channel through it. Hot grease cools and hardens inside the 1.5 inch drain, so the buildup restarts. A full cable pass or jetting removes the wall layer.
Wipe pans before washing, and keep fats, rice and coffee grounds out of the sink.
A snake is a rotating cable that hooks or bores through a blockage. Hydro jetting uses a high-pressure water stream that scours the full pipe wall. We pick the tool after seeing the line, and our hydro jetting page explains when each fits.
We advise against it. Caustic products can sit in a blocked pipe, harm some pipe materials and splash onto whoever opens the trap. If you have used one, tell us so we can protect ourselves.
A plunger and a plastic hair strip are safer first steps.
Yes. We clear floor drains and laundry standpipes inside the house, and we can remove a grate to cable a yard or driveway drain. Water from a yard drain that carries only rain belongs on the storm side, not the sanitary sewer.
Clearing a clog does not change the piping, but repair work that replaces pipe can. The Town's Planning & Building Department at 1100 W Oak Street (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) reviews permits, and its rules differ by job, so ask them before pipe is replaced.
Indiana licenses plumbing contractors and journeyman plumbers through the Professional Licensing Agency. Use the state's online license verification and search by name. It is free to use.
Sources
Figures and guidelines on this page are taken from these public sources. Local rules and utility details can change, so check the source before you rely on a number.
- Median owner-occupied value and owner-occupied rate (Federal agency)
- Indianapolis January normal low 20.9 F (Federal agency)
- License verification (State of Indiana)