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Plumbers of Birmingham
Plumbers of Birmingham
Plumbing · Alabama
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Clogged Drain

A drain that keeps backing up after it's been cleared once is a pipe problem rather than a clog, and it needs somebody who can see inside the line.

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When this becomes an emergency

What a pro does

In the mid-century neighborhoods ringing Birmingham, the branch drains are frequently original cast iron, and that changes the whole picture. Cast iron rusts inward. The rough scale that builds on the pipe wall catches everything moving past it, so a line that measured two inches when the house went up might be passing an inch of clear space now. Clearing the immediate blockage is the first move, and a cable does that. Then the plumber wants to know why it happened, because a house where the same drain has backed up twice in a year is not a house with a hair problem. He'll put a camera in through a cleanout to look at the pipe wall itself. Flakes of rust in the standing water are their own clue, and so is a drain that gets slower every year rather than suddenly. From there the options run from a proper cleaning that takes the diameter back, to replacing a branch, and it's an honest conversation about which one the pipe can actually take.

Frequently asked questions

Usually scale off the inside of a cast iron drain. It builds up as the pipe corrodes, then breaks loose when something disturbs it. Seeing it means the line is aging from the inside, which is useful information even though the flakes themselves are harmless.
Depends what the camera shows. Iron with sound walls and heavy scale can often be cleaned back toward its original bore. Iron that's corroded through at the bottom, or that's cracked, has nothing left to clean, and cleaning it would only make the hole bigger.
It points at the branch serving the slow side rather than the main, since a main problem shows up everywhere and usually starts with the lowest fixtures. Finding where the two branches join tells the plumber how far down to work.
It can in an older kitchen line. The disposal grinds food fine enough to pass a new smooth pipe easily, but in a scaled iron branch with a shallow fall that same material settles and packs against the rough wall. The disposal isn't the fault; the pipe behind it is.

Clogged Drain?

Get connected with a local pro now.

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