Drain Cleaning and Sewer Line Service in Hamilton

A gurgle from the floor drain, a tub that holds water around your ankles, a toilet that rises to the rim before it goes down: drain trouble usually starts small and gets worse slowly. Rossville Plumbing cleans drains and works on sewer lines, from a single clogged trap to a main line full of roots, and runs a camera down the line when the cause is not plain to see.

When a drain is slow, Nixon always checks whether the other fixtures on the same line are slow too, because that tells him whether the clog sits in one trap or farther down in the main line. A trap or branch clog is cleared from that fixture; a main line problem is worked from the cleanout with a larger machine.

Matching Drain Symptoms to the Work

More columns to the right: swipe.

Problem	Signs	Typical work
Slow sink or tub	Water stands before it drains; hair and soap scum at the stopper	Pulling the stopper, clearing the trap, cabling the branch line
Repeated clogs	The same drain stops up again weeks after it was cleared	Finding what keeps catching: grease, a sag or poor slope
Toilet that will not clear	The bowl rises high and drains slowly; plunging helps only briefly	Augering, or pulling the toilet to remove a lodged object
Gurgling drains	Bubbling in a sink or tub when a toilet flushes or the washer empties	Checking for a partial clog downstream or a blocked roof vent
Sewage smell	Odor near a floor drain or a fixture that is rarely used	Refilling dry traps; checking cleanout caps, vents and pipe for cracks
Main line backup	Water comes up in the lowest drain when fixtures upstairs are used	Clearing the main from the cleanout, then a camera run to see why it stopped
Tree-root intrusion	Backups that return every year or so, often in late summer and fall	Cutting the roots out and finding the joints that let them in
Collapsed or damaged line	A cable that will not get through; soil on the cable head; a soggy patch in the yard	Locating the break with the camera, then repairing that section or replacing the line

Signs the Problem Is in the Main Line

• Several fixtures backing up or slowing at once, in different rooms or on different floors.
• Water in the lowest drain, usually the basement floor drain, when you run water or flush upstairs.
• Gurgling in a tub or sink after a toilet is flushed.

If sewage is already on the basement floor, stop using water anywhere in the house and follow the steps on the Urgent Service page.

What a Sewer Line Camera Inspection Shows

A small waterproof camera on a flexible rod goes in through the cleanout while the picture plays on a screen above ground. It shows roots at a joint, an offset where two sections have shifted, a crack, or a belly where the line sags and holds water. A locator picks up the camera head, so the spot and its depth can be marked before anyone talks about digging.

We finally got our sewer problem sorted out. Our main sewer line kept backing up into the basement floor drain, three times in one year. The tech ran a camera down, found roots coming in at a joint, and cleared it all out. I was skeptical it would last, but that was last fall and we haven't had one backup since. Really glad we called them.

Clay-Tile Laterals and Old Street Trees in Hamilton

Hamilton’s older blocks on both sides of the river are full of houses from before the 1950s, and their sewer laterals were often laid in short lengths of clay tile. Roots from mature maples and sycamores find moisture at the joints, and roots that are cut back grow again from the same joint.

These basements usually have a floor drain tied into the main, often the lowest opening in the system and the first place a main line backup shows.

What Goes Down the Drain, and When a Camera Helps

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