Plumbing Guide
Why the same drain keeps blocking
By All Purpose Anytime Services LLC
Clearing a drain is easy. Clearing the same drain three times in a year means nobody has answered why it blocks, and you are paying for the answer in instalments.
Grease, which is the kitchen answer
Grease goes down warm and cools on the pipe wall. The bore closes gradually, which is why a kitchen line slows down over months. It rarely stops dead in one evening.
Snaking punches a hole through it. The wall is still coated, so it closes again. Cleaning the wall is what actually fixes it.
Roots, which is the main line answer
Mature street trees in this area find the joints in clay and cast iron laterals. Every clearing buys months. A camera shows you whether roots are the problem and how many joints are involved.
A bellied section
Ground settles and a length of pipe sags. Water and solids sit in the low point instead of running through, and the line blocks there repeatedly no matter how often it is cleared.
Nothing fixes this except correcting the pipe, which is worth knowing before paying for a fourth clearing.
Venting
Drains need air behind the water. A blocked vent produces gurgling, slow drainage across several fixtures, and traps that empty and let smells through.
It looks exactly like a blockage and is fixed somewhere completely different.
When the camera is worth it
- The same line has blocked more than twice
- More than one fixture is slow at once
- You are buying a property with mature trees and original pipework
- Someone has quoted you a line replacement without showing you why
Same drain blocked again?
Tell us how many times it has blocked this year and which other fixtures slow down with it. That tells us whether to look at the branch or the main.