Drain Cleaning in Fort Wayne, IN

Where is the clog?

How far down a clog sits decides how it should be cleared and how urgent it is. In a typical Fort Wayne basement home, every drain in the house runs down to a main stack, across or under the basement floor, and out through the foundation wall to the building sewer.

• One fixture is slow (a bathroom sink, one tub): the clog is almost always in that fixture's trap or branch line. Hair and soap in bathrooms, grease and food in kitchens.
• A group of fixtures is slow, such as an upstairs bathroom: the clog may be in a shared branch or in the stack.
• The basement floor drain backs up, especially when the washing machine drains, a toilet is flushed or a tub empties upstairs: the lowest opening in the house is where water shows up first when the main line is blocked. Stop using water until it is cleared.

What usually causes clogs in Fort Wayne homes

Roots in the building sewer

Many older neighborhoods, from West Central to Forest Park and South Wayne, have mature street and yard trees above clay tile or cast-iron sewer lines. Roots grow into joints looking for moisture and form a mat that catches paper. City Utilities notes that the building sewer is the owner's responsibility and that homes with trees may need it de-rooted to avoid backups (Fort Wayne City Utilities, Prepare for Heavy Precipitation).

Laundry lint and basement laundry sinks

Basement laundry tubs and floor drains collect lint, sand and soap residue from washing machines, especially work clothes. Over time that builds into a plug in the line under the floor. A lint trap on the washer discharge hose is a cheap way to prevent it.

Grease and wipes

Cooking grease cools and coats the inside of the kitchen line, and "flushable" wipes snag on that coating. Neither breaks down the way toilet paper does. Scrape grease into a can and put wipes in the trash.

Old cast iron and galvanized drains

Cast-iron drains rust and scale from the inside, and galvanized drain pipe in some mid-century homes narrows as it corrodes. If the house is 60 or more years old and the drains are original, cleaning may buy time until those sections are replaced. See repiping.

Hard-water scale

Fort Wayne's city water is moderately hard, and many wells around the county are harder. Scale does not usually clog a drain by itself, but it roughens the inside of old pipe and gives grease and hair something to grip.

How drains are usually cleared

1. Pick the right access point. A fixture trap, a cleanout on the stack in the basement, the floor drain, or an outdoor cleanout. Working from the closest cleanout keeps the cable out of toilets and finished spaces.
2. Clear the clog with a cable machine. A drain auger with the right head breaks up hair, grease and paper; a root-cutting head clears roots in a main line.
3. Jet the line when it needs scouring. Hydro-jetting uses high-pressure water to clean grease and scale off the walls. It is thorough but not right for every pipe, so fragile or broken lines should be inspected first.
4. Camera-inspect repeat clogs. A sewer camera shows roots, breaks, sags and offsets and records video you can keep.
5. Test. Running water through every affected fixture, including the basement floor drain, confirms the line is flowing before the job is done.

Is it my line or the city's?

If several homes on the street are backing up at once, or a backup comes during a very heavy rain, the public sewer may be overloaded. Call 311 to report it. If only your home is affected on a dry day, the blockage is almost certainly in your building sewer. See sewer line repair and backups for who owns what, and the guide to basement sewer backups for cleanup.

Skip the chemical drain openers

Caustic drain openers can dissolve a soft hair clog, but they rarely clear grease, lint or roots. When they fail, they sit in the pipe and make the next step dangerous for whoever opens the trap, and repeated use is hard on old metal drains and on disposals. A plunger with a good seal, or a hand auger for a bathroom sink, is a safer first try.

Keeping drains clear

• Pour cooled grease into a can and scrape plates into the trash.
• Use hair catchers in tubs and showers.
• Add a lint trap to the washing machine discharge hose if it drains into a laundry tub.
• Flush only toilet paper.
• Pour a bucket of water into a basement floor drain a few times a year so the trap does not dry out and let sewer gas in.
• If your main line has roots, ask about a maintenance cleaning schedule or a permanent repair.

Related guides

• Sewage in the Basement: What to Do in Fort Wayne

Sources: Fort Wayne City Utilities, Prepare for Heavy Precipitation; EPA WaterSense, Statistics and Facts.