Greater Lansing

Blocked & slow drains

37 people have asked this company to clear a drain — more than any other named job in the enquiry book. Here is what the work is, what decides the price, and when the honest answer is a licensed plumber instead.

What is actually wrong

A drain that has slowed over weeks and a drain that stopped this morning are usually two different faults, and which one you have decides who you should be calling. The slow one is nearly always the trap or the first few feet of the branch behind it: hair and soap in a bath, grease and food in a kitchen, or forty years of build-up that has narrowed an old pipe to the width of a straw. The one that stopped suddenly, with everything else in the house behaving, is usually something that went down it.

The third case is the one worth knowing about before you spend any money. If more than one fixture is backing up at the same time, or water appears at a basement floor drain or a wash basin when somebody flushes upstairs, the problem is not the sink. It is the line all of them share. A cable pushed down one fixture will either do nothing or buy you a fortnight, and the actual answer is a camera and a licensed plumber. That is written at the top of this page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs a wasted visit, and the wasted visit is usually the customer’s.

Everything else on this page is the first two cases, which are ordinary work and are done here regularly.

Where this stops

When it is not a handyman job

This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor licence is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder licence is not held.

There is no sewer camera in this company and none is pretended to. Where the honest answer needs one, you are told that — not sold a second cable visit.
No line replacement, no excavation, no root cutting and no hydro-jetting.
A drain that backs up again within weeks of being cleared, sewage at a floor drain, or several fixtures failing together is a main-line or sewer-lateral fault. It gets referred to a licensed plumber and named as such on the paperwork, and the visit that establishes it is not charged for.
Water-heater replacement is referred to a licensed trade. Diagnosing one is not.
Plumbing here is repair and like-for-like replacement of what already exists. Anything past that is a licensed trade and is named as such rather than absorbed.

The work itself

What actually gets done

Cable and clear sinks, baths, showers, basement wash basins and floor drains.

Pull and rebuild a P-trap or trap arm where the blockage is sitting in it, or where the joint has already failed and is the reason it keeps catching.

Snake a main line with a commercial auger where the fault is a blockage rather than a broken pipe.

Clear, re-seat or replace a garbage disposal — which is the most common “blocked kitchen sink” in the job records and frequently is not a drain problem at all.

Flow-test before leaving, with the tap running long enough to fill the trap and the branch behind it. A drain that takes half a bowl and then backs up passes any test shorter than that, and the customer finds out at dinner time.

Say what came out. Hair, grease and roots are three different futures for the same pipe, and only one of them means you will see us again.

This work sits inside Plumbing Repairs, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.

What it costs

There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.

The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.

Which fixture it is and how the pipe is reached. A clean-out in the basement, a trap under a vanity and a roof vent are three different jobs on the same house.

How far in the blockage sits. The first few feet is a hand auger and a short visit. Forty feet of cable is a machine, a longer visit, and a mess that has to be contained on the way.

One fixture, or the branch they share. A single slow bath is one job; a bath, a basin and a shower all slowing together is the branch behind them, and pricing that as one fixture is how a quote gets revised on somebody’s landing.

What is actually in there. Soap and hair come out. Grease has set like a candle and comes out slowly. Roots do not come out with a cable at all — finding roots ends the drain job and starts a different conversation.

Whether the trap or the trap arm has to be replaced rather than cleared, which adds a part, a joint and a leak test.

Access. An occupied let where a tenant has to be arranged around uses more of the day than an empty unit on a turnover, and that is a real cost rather than a surcharge.

How to get a real number

Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labour, and labour carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.

If this is happening right now

What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.

Before anybody arrives

Stop running water into it, including the dishwasher and the washing machine. Both empty into the same branch and both will surface in the lowest fixture on it.
Do not put a second dose of caustic drain cleaner down it. If the first did not clear it, the first is still sitting in the trap — and it is still there when somebody opens that trap by hand.
If a floor drain is backing up, or more than one fixture is failing at once, stop using all of them and call a licensed plumber rather than this company. That is the case above, and it is not our work.
Take a photograph of the fixture and of the cupboard underneath it. Most of the questions asked on the phone are about what the pipework actually looks like.

Call the business line

(517) 505-7135

Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.

On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.

No trip charge
No call-out fee or minimum
No diagnostic fee
No charge for a return visit

True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.

Or send the details

When the right answer is not this company

You can smell gas: Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
Water you cannot stop: Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once: A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel: Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed: A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.

Where this is being asked for

3 towns have enough behind them for a page of their own.

This work is done everywhere on the coverage list. These are the towns where the enquiry record and the job record both have something specific to say, so they get a page that says it. The rest do not, because a page with nothing true on it is worse than no page.

Blocked & slow drains in Lansing

18 of the 37 drain enquiries in this company’s enquiry book came from Lansing — nearly half of them, at 18 separate addresses.

Blocked & slow drains in Holt

Five separate Holt addresses have asked this company to clear a drain, over seven months, and not one of them became a job.

Blocked & slow drains in East Lansing

Five East Lansing addresses have asked about a slow or blocked drain, in a town where every completed water job so far has been water coming IN rather than not going out.

Questions people actually ask

Can a handyman clear a blocked drain, or do I need a plumber?

For a single slow or blocked fixture — a bath, a basin, a shower, a kitchen sink, a basement wash basin or a floor drain — this is ordinary handyman work and it is done here regularly. For anything that points at the shared line rather than the fixture, you need a licensed plumber with a camera, and we will say so rather than sell you a cable visit. The signs are: more than one fixture backing up together, water appearing at a floor drain when something else is used, sewage at any point, or a drain that comes back within a few weeks of being cleared.

What does it cost to clear a drain?

There is no rate card for it, because the same words describe a ten-minute trap clean and half a day with a machine on a forty-foot run. The price is set by which fixture it is, how the pipe is reached, how far in the blockage sits, whether it is one fixture or the branch they share, and whether the trap has to be replaced rather than cleared. We come out, look at it, and put a fixed price in writing before anything starts. Coming out to do that is not charged for.

What happens if you cannot clear it?

You are told that, you are told what we believe it is, and it is referred on to a licensed plumber by name. Attendance and diagnosis of what you reported are included in the job price, there is no diagnostic fee, there is no trip charge, and there is no charge for a return visit. That is the wording on all 84 written quotes this company has issued, and it is the reason saying “this one is not ours” costs a customer nothing.

Do you use chemical drain cleaner?

No. Blockages here are cleared mechanically, with a cable or an auger. Caustic cleaner mostly sits on top of a full blockage rather than moving it, it damages older pipework, and it turns a routine trap strip into a hazard for whoever opens the joint. If you have already used some, say so on the phone — it changes how the job is approached, not whether we take it.

Got one of these?

Send the details and somebody will come and look. No trip charge, no call-out minimum, and a fixed price in writing before anything starts.

Get a Free Quote Call (517) 505-7135