Clogged Drain

When this becomes an emergency

• A kitchen sink holding water for several minutes after use.
• Bubbling in a toilet bowl when a nearby sink drains.
• Two fixtures in the same bathroom slowing down over the same few weeks.

What a pro does

The plumber's first move is mapping which fixtures are affected, since that tells you how far down the line the trouble sits. A single slow basin is a branch. Several fixtures failing together points at the main run leaving the building. Front Range water is hard, and that scale builds a rough inner surface in drain pipe that grease and soap film cling to instead of washing past. Kitchen lines suffer most, because cooking fat cools quickly in a pipe running through unheated space below the floor and solidifies against whatever's already there. Older housing stock adds cast iron to the picture. Cast iron corrodes from the inside and develops a scaled, flaking surface that catches everything, so a house built before the sixties often has drains closing up on their own schedule. The plumber clears the line, then watches how it runs and asks how long since the last time. A drain that fails again quickly isn't really a clog problem; it's telling you something about the pipe itself, and that's when a camera goes in.

Frequently asked questions

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