Drain cleaning guides from Rock Solid Drains: what causes recurring clogs, hydro jetting vs. snaking, and how Santa Rosa homeowners keep their drains flowing.
The washer pumps out faster than a lint-choked standpipe can swallow. Something has to give. When a washing machine drain overflows mid-cycle, the appliance is usually fine. The pump is doing exactly what it was built to do. The pipe behind the wall can’t keep up. A top-load washer pumps at 15 to 17 gallons […]
Most disposal clogs start with what went in it. The stubborn ones live in the line behind it. Is your garbage disposal clogged? The first job is figuring out whether the appliance is even the problem. Usually it isn’t. The motor runs fine, the grinding chamber is empty, and water still sits in the sink […]
When the ground saturates, every crack and root intrusion in a sewer line becomes an entry point. A sewer backup during heavy rain almost always means your line already had a problem. The rain just found it. Roots in a joint, a cracked clay lateral, a bellied section holding water, or a pipe lined with […]
The basin is clean. The biofilm coating the drain below it is not. When your kitchen sink smells and the basin is spotless, the odor isn’t coming from the sink. It’s coming from the drain. Almost always it’s one of five things: a grease film coating the pipe wall, food sludge and biofilm in the […]
Routine cleaning keeps grease and scale from becoming an emergency call. How often should drains be cleaned depends entirely on which drain you mean. Your kitchen and bathroom fixture drains need light attention every one to three months. Your main sewer lateral, the single buried pipe carrying everything out to the street, is the one […]
Gurgling means air is moving through water where it should not. Your drain system is telling you something. Toilet gurgling is the sound of air being dragged or pushed through the standing water in your toilet’s trap. That water is supposed to sit still. When it bubbles, air is taking a path it shouldn’t. There […]
A slow draining shower rarely fixes itself. The clog only builds from here. A slow draining shower is almost always a mat of hair bound together with soap scum, sitting in the trap or the first few feet of pipe past it. That’s the common case, and you can often clear it yourself in about […]
Hair and grease buildup is the most common reason a household drain keeps clogging. If your drain keeps clogging a week or two after you cleared it, the clog was never really gone. A plunger or a store snake usually punches a hole through the blockage and restores flow for a while, but it leaves […]
Hydro jetting scours the full pipe wall, while a snake punches through the clog. Each has its place. Here’s the short answer on hydro jetting vs snaking: snaking is the right tool for a single, soft, one-time clog, while hydro jetting is what actually cleans the whole pipe when grease, scale, or roots keep bringing […]