During your morning shower, water began to pool around your ankles. Then, water began to pool around your ankles during your morning shower. Next, it almost overflowed after you flushed the toilet. This is the way it usually starts. It is natural to assume that your toilet and shower are both clogged. Your sewer main may be clogged.
Water can’t go down so it rises. The location of the obstruction can be determined by where the water is rising. The obstruction in your case is located “downstream” of the connection between your toilet and the main sewer. This indicates that the obstruction is large enough to block two drains.
To locate the obstruction, our plumbers do not recommend that water be run throughout your home. To prevent sewage backing up in your drains, we recommend that you turn off your water supply. The plumbers can use more advanced methods to locate the obstruction, such as a plumbing video camera inspection. It is not as easy as removing a piece of toilet paper or a bunch of hair from your shower drain to unclog your sewer main.
Although it is not advised to try to clean any main sewer lines on your own, these methods can be used to remove the deep clog using connecting lines and to rule out a problem with pressure.
- Check your vent: Pressure can block your drains’ ability to drain down your main sewer line if there is an obstruction, such as a dead squirrel. Clear the obstruction to release the pressure. It is worth thinking twice about climbing onto the roof.
How expert plumbers clear a sewer line obstruction
Call your local Long Beach Plumber if none of these strategies work or you don’t want to risk damaging your plumbing system. Your plumbing system is the first thing our Long Beach Plumbers do. We will tell you what is causing the problem before we start any work. Before we start any work, we’ll agree on a cost.
Our professional Long Beach Plumbers will use one or more of the following methods depending on the situation. We find obstructions in the main sewer lines more often than we think. These are our sewer repair methods:
- Pipe Lining: Our plumbers use advanced technology to line the main sewer with a sleeve. This seals off any potential leakage. This seals out moisture from outside pipes that can attract thirsty tree roots. This trench-less sewer repair method is less messy than digging up pipes and is more permanent.
- Pipe burst: When the sewer line is damaged (e.g. become oval-shaped, crushed), our plumbers use pipe bursting hydraulics to disassemble the sewer pipes and install new pipe.
Professional Sewer Line Cleaning & Repair
Your toilet and shower may be “clogged” if they are not working properly. Permanent solutions are best found in a DDIY job. This problem can quickly escalate when homeowners become plumbers.