Water where it should not be? The emergency line is answered by a person, 24 hours a day, every day of the year — and we will talk you to your shutoff before anybody gets in a van. Call 000-000-0000
Clearing a drain is easy. Clearing it so that it stays clear is a different job, and the difference is almost always whether anybody bothered to find out what caused it. A cable punched through a grease plug leaves a hole the width of the cutting head through a pipe that is still lined with grease, which is why the second call comes faster than the first.
So we clear the line, and then we ask the boring question: has this happened before? If it has, or if the line resists in a way that does not feel like a simple stoppage, we would rather put a camera down it than come back. That is a couple of hundred dollars that regularly saves several thousand.
What we clear, and how
Different blockages want different tools. Sending the wrong one at a line is how old cast iron and thin-wall traps get damaged.
Kitchen sinks and disposals
Grease, soap and food solids, usually within the first twenty feet. Cleared by cable, and jetted where the branch has been building up for years.
Bathroom sinks, tubs and showers
Hair and soap scum in the trap arm or the branch. Small-diameter cable and a proper clean-out of the trap, rather than a caustic drain product that eats the pipe and leaves the hair.
Toilets
Closet auger first. If the toilet clears and the problem is really further downstream, we say so instead of pulling a fixture you did not need pulled.
Floor drains and laundry lines
Common in Queens basements, and often the first fixture to show you that the main line is struggling — because it sits lowest.
Main house drains and building sewers
Cleared from the cleanout with a heavy cable, and put on camera afterwards if it fought back. This is the line where guessing gets expensive.
Roots, grease and scale
Cable makes an opening; jetting takes the pipe wall back to bare. When a line has roots or years of grease, jetting is the one that lasts.
Why a drain keeps blocking
There are only so many answers, and a camera separates them in about ten minutes. Every one of these has a different right response.
Grease
Cools, sticks, and narrows the pipe from the wall inwards. Cabling it opens a channel; jetting removes it. Kitchen branch lines and restaurant floor drains, mostly.
Tree roots
They enter at a joint or a crack, then grow into a mat that catches everything. Common under the front gardens of Queens rowhouses with mature street trees.
A belly or a sag
The pipe has settled and holds water. Solids stop where the water stops. No amount of clearing fixes a belly — it wants a section replaced.
A broken or offset section
Old clay and cast iron shift and crack. You will keep blocking at the same distance from the cleanout every time, which is the giveaway.
Wipes and non-flushables
Nothing marked flushable is. They do not break down and they knit together around anything else in the line.
Undersized or badly vented pipe
A drain that gurgles, blocks and drains slowly across several fixtures is often a venting problem rather than a blockage at all.
What the visit looks like
A real arrival window, protection down before anything is opened, and a price agreed before a tool comes out of the van.
We find the right access
The cleanout, not your fixture, wherever there is one. Pulling a toilet or a trap is a last resort, not an opening move.
Floors and fixtures protected
Drop cloths, mats and a bucket under everything. Drain work is dirty; your bathroom does not have to be.
Cleared and tested properly
We run water through it, hard, for long enough to prove the line takes it — not until the first gurgle stops.
Cleaned up, and told what we saw
Any damaged trap or corroded fitting we found gets pointed out with a price, and you decide. Nothing is done on the spot without your say-so.
If you smell gas, leave the building and call your gas utility's emergency line from outside — do not operate switches on your way out. Never stand in water that has reached an outlet, an appliance or an electrical panel; cut the power only if you can do it safely from dry ground, otherwise leave and call the utility. General guidance on this page is not a substitute for a licensed plumber looking at your own building.
Questions
Drain Cleaning & Unclogging — the questions we are asked most
How much does it cost to unclog a drain in Woodside, NY?
Most sink, tub and shower blockages are cleared for $185 to $265, a toilet from $225, and a main house drain from $385 through an accessible cleanout. The price is flat and quoted before we start, and the $89 diagnostic is credited in full against the work.
Can you unclog my pipe today?
In most cases, yes. Drain calls that reach us before about noon on a weekday are usually seen the same day, and blocked main lines are prioritised because they take every fixture in the house out of service. The emergency line runs 24 hours if it cannot wait until morning.
Is chemical drain cleaner a bad idea?
For anything more than a slow bathroom sink, yes. It rarely reaches a real blockage, it sits in the trap generating heat, and it damages older pipe and rubber seals on its way past. It also makes the line genuinely hazardous for whoever opens it next — please tell us if you have used any.
Why does my drain keep clogging?
Usually grease, roots, a sag in the pipe or a broken section. A cable clears the symptom, so if a line has needed clearing more than twice in two years the right next step is a camera. It takes about ten minutes and it turns a recurring bill into a decision you can actually make.
Do you clear main sewer lines?
Yes, from the exterior or basement cleanout with a heavy cable, and with a camera afterwards where the line fought back. If there is no accessible cleanout we can create one, which is worth doing once rather than pulling a fixture every time.
All my drains are slow at once. What does that mean?
That points at the main line rather than any one fixture, particularly if the basement floor drain or the lowest toilet is the worst affected. Stop running water where you can and call — a main line that is nearly closed will eventually back up into the lowest fixture in the house.
Will snaking damage my old pipes?
Not with the right cable and head, which is why the tool is chosen after we know what the line is. Old clay, thin-wall cast iron and drum traps all need a lighter touch, and a line that is already cracked wants a camera before anything mechanical goes into it.
Related
Often needed alongside this
Drains & Sewers
Hydro Jetting
High-pressure water that scours the pipe wall back to bare — the fix for grease, scale and roots that keep coming back.
Read more
Drains & Sewers
Sewer Line Repair
House sewer and water service lines located, priced honestly, and repaired in place where a spot repair will genuinely do.
Read more
Drains & Sewers
Camera Inspection
A recorded look inside the line, with the defect located and depth-marked on the ground — before anybody quotes a repair.
Read moreSame-day service in most cases
Book a plumber, or call the 24-hour line
Tell us what the water is doing and we will tell you honestly whether it needs somebody tonight or whether it will keep until the morning. Diagnostics are $89 and credited in full against any repair you approve.