Main Sewer Line Cleaning across Vaughan

How to tell it is the main

A clog in one branch slows one fixture. A clog in the main line slows everything, starting with the lowest drain in the house. In most Vaughan homes that is the basement floor drain or a basement shower. Typical signs:

• Water appears at the floor drain when a toilet is flushed or the washer pumps out.
• Toilets on the main floor bubble when a tub drains.
• The cleanout cap, when loosened, weeps water.

Stop running water if you see these. Every load of laundry adds to what will come up through the floor.

The work, step by step

We open the main cleanout, usually a capped wye in the front basement wall, a short distance from the water meter enters. Many homes also have the backwater valve here. If there is standing water, we drain it into buckets first. Then a heavy sectional machine runs a cable with a root-cutting head down the lateral toward the property line. When the cable breaks through, the water level drops quickly and we keep working to clear the pipe wall.

Roots, bellies and broken pipe

Older lots in Woodbridge, Thornhill and the Concord area have mature maples and willows, and clay or early concrete laterals with joints every metre or so along the run. Roots find those joints. Cutting them restores flow, but they grow back. A camera run after cleaning tells you whether the pipe is merely rooted, sagging into a belly, or cracked. That decides whether you are looking at yearly maintenance or a sewer line repair.

City side or your side?

In Vaughan the lateral is generally split: the homeowner is responsible to the property line and the City handles the part under the road allowance. If the camera shows the blockage beyond your property, call the City of Vaughan's service line and report it; check the current process on the City's site, as procedures can change. We will give you the footage and distance so the report is specific.