Rooter and drains · Selah & Yakima
Rooter, drain and sewer cleaning in Selah and Yakima
Kitchen lines, tubs, toilets, laundry and the main to the street. Roots cut out with the auger, grease cleared, and the line checked before we leave.
Chapter 01
Roots first, grease second: what is usually in the line
The word rooter comes from roots, and roots are still the first thing we suspect when a house drain stops. A hairline crack or a loose joint lets a root hair into the pipe, it feeds on the waste water, and a few seasons later it has thickened into a plug that catches everything behind it. Houses built decades ago and lots with big trees and shrubs near the sewer line are where we see it most.
Grease is the other half of the work. Kitchen lines fill from the sink outward, a little more each week, until the dishwasher backs up into the basin. Hair and soap do the same in a tub, and lint does it in a washer standpipe. A slow tub, a gurgling floor drain and a toilet that will not clear can all be one blocked main, so the first job is finding which drain is the real problem.
A drain auger cable pulled from a sewer line, wrapped in tree roots
Cable the line, then follow it to the street
A fixture drain gets the cable through the trap or the nearest cleanout. A main line gets the long cable from the cleanout out toward the street, and the blade cuts roots back to the pipe wall. The blockage that floods a basement is usually the one near the street connection, so that is where the cable goes and where we check the line is running before we pack up.
Where grease or scale has coated the pipe wall and a cable only punches a hole through it, the water finds the hole and the line closes up again in a few weeks. That is the job for the jetting truck, which scours the wall itself. If the cable is not enough we say so and bring it out, and the next step is on the hydro jetting page.
Chapter 03
When it comes back, the line is telling you something
A line that clears and stops again is not bad luck, it is a line with a cause. Roots return to the same crack. A sag holds water and the solids settle in it. A broken joint lets soil in. When a drain keeps coming back, we put a camera down it afterward so you see the cause on the screen and choose what to do about it.
Between visits the rules are plain: cooking grease goes in a can, not the sink, and wipes go in the trash, not the toilet. On a lot with mature trees over an older line, having the roots cut back on a schedule keeps a small problem from becoming a flooded basement. If the pipe is past cleaning, the answer is a new side sewer, dug out with our own machines.
Licensed and insured, WA BURKEP*795N5. Open 24 hours, 7 days: (509) 697-6574.
From the ledger
Two backed up lines, in the customers' own words
Dick Burke has been a licensed journeyman in the Yakima Valley since 1973, and the family has run its own plumbing business from Selah since December 1981. Drains were part of the work then and they are part of it now.
“There was a blockage in the pipe from our house to the street, causing water to back up into the basement. I dialed, and an instant technician arrived. Excellent in every way; timely, expert, and hospitable! Provided in-process explanations of all procedures. Cost-effective, and it gets the job done quickly. I would highly recommend their sewer cleaning service!”
“Robby came out and fixed a backed up line that other plumbers couldn’t figure out. Very professional and efficient, now we can wash clothes again!”
If the line will not hold after cleaning, the camera inspection shows you why, and the sewer replacement page covers what comes after. More from our customers is on the testimonials page.