When a clogged drain is an emergency
Treat a drain as an emergency when water is coming back up into a tub, shower or floor drain, when the toilet will not flush and another fixture is also slow, or when you smell sewage indoors. Those signs point past a single fixture to the branch or main line that carries everything out of the house.
A slow bathroom sink with no other symptoms can wait for a daytime visit. Water on the floor cannot. Call the line, and we will tell you which one you have in the first minute of the conversation.
One drain is slow
Hair, soap film or a grease ring usually sits in the trap or the first few feet of pipe. A cable clears it in one visit.
Two or more drains are slow
The shared branch line is partly blocked. Fixtures that sit lowest, often a basement shower or floor drain, show it first.
Gurgling or bubbling
Air is being pulled past a blockage. A toilet that burbles when the washer drains is a classic sign of a main-line clog.
Sewage smell or backup
This is the urgent case. Stop using water, keep children and pets away from the area and call right away.
How we clear a drain in Tucker
We start by finding out where the clog sits. Running a hand-held cable through a sink trap is a different job from feeding a powered drum cable through a cleanout in the yard. We use the lightest tool that works, because pushing a heavy cable through an old pipe can do more harm than the clog.
For a stubborn blockage we use cabling with the right cutter head for the material: a spade head for soft buildup, a root cutter for fibrous growth, a retrieving head for a lost object. When a cable keeps returning with the same debris, we say so and offer hydro jetting or a camera look, because repeated snaking of the same line is money spent twice.
| Symptom | Likely location | Usual first step |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen sink backs up, disposal fills | Kitchen branch or the line past the disposal | Cable the kitchen branch, check the dishwasher air gap |
| Tub and sink both slow | Bathroom branch line | Cable from the tub or sink cleanout |
| Toilet and floor drain back up together | Main line | Cable from the main cleanout, then consider a camera |
| Drain clears, then clogs again within weeks | Roots, a belly in the pipe or heavy scale | Sewer camera inspection before more cabling |
Kitchen sink clogs and what is really in the pipe
Kitchen drains clog differently from bathroom drains. Cooking grease cools inside the pipe and coats the wall, starch from rice and pasta binds to it, and coffee grounds settle on top. The result is a narrow channel that works fine until one more meal closes it. Running hot water after dishes helps a little. Pouring grease down the sink does not.
If the sink is double-bowled and one side drains while the other does not, the blockage is usually at the tee fitting under the sink or just beyond it. If both sides stand full and the disposal hums, we check the disposal first and may refer you to garbage disposal repair when the unit itself is the problem.
Shower and tub drains, and lines that leak
Showers clog with hair and soap, and the cure is usually a short cable run or removing the strainer and pulling the plug of hair out by hand. We do that and then run the drain with water to confirm it carries a full flow, not just a trickle.
Now and then a drain is not clogged at all. A cracked drain line can drip into a crawlspace or the wall below, and the only sign is a persistent damp smell. If water leaves the drain faster than it should but a floor stays wet, ask us about leak detection on the drain side.
While you wait for the plumber
- Stop using the blocked fixture and anything that drains to the same line, including the washer and dishwasher.
- Do not pour chemical drain cleaner into a drain that is already full. It sits in the pipe and burns skin and eyes when we open the trap.
- Move rugs and electronics away from any floor drain that is bubbling.
- Find the main cleanout cap outside, usually a capped pipe near the foundation. Clear the area around it so we can reach it.
What affects the price of drain cleaning
Location of the clog
A fixture trap is quick. A main-line clog 60 feet from the cleanout takes more time and heavier equipment.
Access
A cleanout speeds the job. With no cleanout, we may have to pull a toilet to reach the line.
Cause
Soft buildup clears fast. Roots and scale take cutter heads and sometimes a second pass.
Camera or jetting
Adding a camera look or hydro jetting changes the scope, so we quote it separately before starting.
Time of day
After-hours calls are dispatched on the same 24/7 line, and the price is stated before work begins.
Homeowners insurance usually does not pay to clear an ordinary clog, though some policies cover water damage from a sudden backup. Check your policy, and keep photos of any damage. For your real number, call (770) 214-4545 and describe what the drains are doing.
Drain backing up right now?
Dispatch answers all night. A plumber can usually be scheduled the same day when you call.
Tucker homes and the lines under them
Tucker is a DeKalb County city, and most addresses sit on the county sewer system run by DeKalb County Watershed Management. That matters for one practical reason: in most setups the line from your house to the street connection is yours, and the main in the street is the county's. If a camera shows the blockage is out in the street main, we will tell you and point you to the county rather than keep cabling your side.
Older homes in any neighborhood, from Henderson Mill to Smoke Rise, can carry a mix of cast iron and plastic pipe from different eras of repairs. Roots enter at any joint that seeps, so a lot with large trees near the sewer line deserves a camera look when clogs repeat. The next section on repeat clogs applies to you.
When the clog keeps coming back
A line that clogs three times in a year is telling you something. It may have a sag where waste settles, a joint where roots enter, or a rough interior from old scale. A camera run shows which. From there the choices are routine cleaning on a schedule, a sewer line repair at the damaged spot, or in some cases replacement of a section. We lay out each option with the trade-offs so you can decide.
Standards and sources
Plumbing work in Georgia follows the state minimum plumbing code, which is built on the International Plumbing Code (IPC) with Georgia amendments. Ask the City of Tucker permit team which edition and which local rules apply to your address. Plumbers are licensed through the Secretary of State's Division of Master and Journeyman Plumbers, and you can ask for a license number.
Written by Tucker Express Plumbing for homeowners in the Tucker area. We name standards where they apply and tell you when a rule depends on your address.
Questions we hear from homeowners
Yes. The line is staffed 24 hours a day, every day, and a plumber can be scheduled the same day when you call. After-hours work is priced and agreed before it starts.
If more than one fixture is slow or backing up, and the lowest drain in the house is the worst, the main line is the likely culprit. A single slow sink is almost always a local blockage.
We advise against it on a drain that is already full. The chemicals sit in the pipe, can damage older fittings and are hazardous when a plumber opens the trap. Cabling does the job without them.
Yes. We check the branch line, the disposal outlet and the dishwasher drain connection, because a clog at any of the three shows up the same way.
Yes. Landlords and property managers call us for tenant backups, and we handle light commercial drains. For larger restaurant and grease problems, see commercial plumbing.
Yes, we dispatch from Tucker to Stone Mountain, Clarkston, Lilburn and Norcross on the same line.