Hidden Plumbing Problems: What to Look for

Three Approaches To Sewer Cleaning: Which One Works For Your Sewer Drains?

9 August 2019

Herbert Chambers

Sewer cleaning and drainpipe clearing help get a lot of the nasty stuff that is stuck flushed out and into the city sewer line. It also helps make your plumbing more effective and water-efficient when you do not have to constantly flush drains in an attempt to clear them. There are three approaches that plumbers use to clear sewer drains. Which one do you think would probably work best on your drains?

Chemical Destruction

While most plumbers will tell you not to use those store-bought clog-busting, drain clearing chemicals, they themselves have a few chemicals they might use. These chemicals are industrial strength, and they are only used on the toughest, thickest, stickiest sewer messes that will not come clean any other way. The plumbers will attempt the other two cleaning approaches first to avoid getting these chemicals on themselves or creating a dangerous back-splash incident. Still, if your sewer lines are really the worst, and the plumber cannot clear them any other way, these chemicals in their professional toolboxes will do the trick.

Grinding to a Pulp 

Sometimes what is stuck in a sewer line is so solid and so thick that it needs to be ground up. Special sewer line augers with grinding heads are sent down through the drain pipes to get to the blocked areas and grind up everything in their path from that point on. It becomes a sort of sewer soup that will now flow more easily into the sewer system under the city street in front of your house. 

Jettisoning the Line (A.K.A., "Jet Flushing")

Most plumbers will start with a simple and basic augering of the sewer lines. They are "feeling" through the lines to see if there is something that might need a stronger treatment option. If they "feel" a block or cannot get the auger to go through any further, they jet flush, or jettison, the line. This is water under extreme pressure that will push its way through just about anything in the line.

If this does not work, one of the other two approaches above may be used next, or one may be used in place of jettisoning. However, plumbers generally opt for the least forceful means of cleaning sewer lines whenever possible. Choosing to go light-handed first and then use some other barrel-through method ensures that the sewer lines will remain intact and not be particularly damaged in any way. 

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