We are on a septic system. Does that change anything about a slow drain?

Two things. First, nothing caustic goes down the drain, because it ends up in the tank and kills the bacteria that digest the waste, and a tank that stops digesting is a far bigger problem than a slow sink. Second, if more than one fixture is slow, or the lowest one is, the cause can be the tank or the leach field rather than the pipe at all, and that is a septic contractor's job rather than a drain machine's. A single slow fixture on a septic house is still just a drain.

The drain gurgles and smells but it is not blocked. What is that?

Usually venting. Every fixture has a trap holding a plug of water that keeps sewer gas out of the room, and the vent piping is what lets air in behind the water so the trap is not sucked dry when something drains. A blocked or badly run vent pulls that plug out, the drain gurgles as it happens, and the smell follows. Clearing the line will not fix it because the line is not the problem.

Why does the kitchen sink keep coming back every few months?

Because clearing it is treating the symptom. Kitchen lines block on grease that cools and coats the pipe, and each clearing removes the plug and leaves the coating. A line that recurs on a schedule usually has a section that is flat or sagging where the grease settles, or a pipe that was too small to begin with. The fix is finding that section, not clearing the same spot again.

Is there anything I should try before calling?

A plunger on a sink or tub is fine and often works on a trap blockage. Boiling water down a kitchen drain is fine on metal pipe and unwise on old plastic joints. Pulling and cleaning the trap under a sink is fine if you can get the nuts off by hand. What is not worth trying is a chemical cleaner, a wire coat hanger down a toilet, or a rented cable machine on a line you cannot see the other end of.

Services

Drain cleaning

The sink that has been slow for a month and stopped today. One fixture and the branch line behind it, cleared properly, with the cause named so it does not come back.

Call (508) 380-2629 Request service

This is the fixture and the branch line behind it. If several fixtures back up at once, if the lowest drain in the house goes first, or if the same blockage keeps coming back every few months, the problem is the main line and it belongs on sewer and drain lines.

What it covers

A sink, tub, shower, toilet or laundry drain that has slowed down or stopped, and the branch it runs into before that joins the main. The kitchen line that has been narrowing with grease for years. The bathroom line packed with hair and soap. The trap that has collected what traps collect, and the one thing dropped down a drain that was never going to go round the bend.

It covers clearing the blockage, and it covers saying why it happened, because a drain that blocks once is telling you something about slope, venting, or what has been going down it, and a clear drain with no explanation is a drain you will be clearing again.

And it covers houses that do not drain to a sewer. Many homes around here, especially in Sherborn, send everything to a septic tank in the yard, which changes what a blocked drain can be and what is safe to pour into it. More on that below.

What the job involves

Establishing how far it reaches. One slow fixture is a local problem. Two on the same branch is a branch problem. Everything at once is the main, which is a different page and a different job.
The trap first. A surprising share of kitchen and bathroom blockages never get past the trap, and that is the cheapest place to find one.
Getting in the right way. Through an opening made for it, rather than by forcing a tool through a finished fixture that would show the marks afterward.
Clearing all of it. Through the blockage, so the drain is open along its length and not left with a narrow channel through the middle.
Running it under real flow. A full basin, not a cupful. A line that takes a trickle and backs up under a real drain is not clear.
Naming what it was. Grease, hair, an object, a sagging line or a venting fault all look the same once the water is moving again, and they have very different futures.

When you need it

One sink, tub or shower that takes noticeably longer to empty than it did
Water standing in the basin, or a shower you are standing in an inch of
A toilet that empties slowly but refills and flushes normally
A kitchen drain that is worst after the dishes from a big meal
A drain that has already had the bottle poured into it and is slow again
A smell rising from one drain and not the others
Two fixtures that share a wall slowing down at the same time
A drain the last owner clearly fought with, and lost

Why it matters

A slow drain is information, and it is cheap information while it is still only slow. A blockage that gets cleared and returns is not a cleaning problem but a line problem, and the sooner that gets named the less of it you pay for.

The bottle under the sink deserves its own paragraph. Drain chemicals do not know what they are dissolving. They sit in the trap, they work on old pipe and the joints in it, and they are still sitting there, hot and caustic, for whoever opens that trap next. On a septic house they then go on to the tank, where the biology that makes a septic system work has no defense against them. A house on a tank is a house where the bottle costs twice.

And a drain that gurgles and smells is not always blocked. Bad venting pulls the water out of traps and lets sewer gas into the room, which smells like a drain problem and is a plumbing problem. Clearing the line does nothing for it.

How Connerney handles it

Licensed and insured. Licensed and insured in Massachusetts.
The cause, not only the clearance. If the line is going to block again, you hear that on the day rather than in three months.
Run before we leave. Under a full basin, and the area left clean.
Owner run. Bill Connerney owns the business, answers the phone and books the jobs, and our team of experienced plumbers does the work. Rated 5.0 on Google across 20 reviews, and BBB accredited since 2018.

Questions people ask

We are on a septic system. Does that change anything about a slow drain?: Two things. First, nothing caustic goes down the drain, because it ends up in the tank and kills the bacteria that digest the waste, and a tank that stops digesting is a far bigger problem than a slow sink. Second, if more than one fixture is slow, or the lowest one is, the cause can be the tank or the leach field rather than the pipe at all, and that is a septic contractor's job rather than a drain machine's. A single slow fixture on a septic house is still just a drain.
The drain gurgles and smells but it is not blocked. What is that?: Usually venting. Every fixture has a trap holding a plug of water that keeps sewer gas out of the room, and the vent piping is what lets air in behind the water so the trap is not sucked dry when something drains. A blocked or badly run vent pulls that plug out, the drain gurgles as it happens, and the smell follows. Clearing the line will not fix it because the line is not the problem.
Why does the kitchen sink keep coming back every few months?: Because clearing it is treating the symptom. Kitchen lines block on grease that cools and coats the pipe, and each clearing removes the plug and leaves the coating. A line that recurs on a schedule usually has a section that is flat or sagging where the grease settles, or a pipe that was too small to begin with. The fix is finding that section, not clearing the same spot again.
Is there anything I should try before calling?: A plunger on a sink or tub is fine and often works on a trap blockage. Boiling water down a kitchen drain is fine on metal pipe and unwise on old plastic joints. Pulling and cleaning the trap under a sink is fine if you can get the nuts off by hand. What is not worth trying is a chemical cleaner, a wire coat hanger down a toilet, or a rented cable machine on a line you cannot see the other end of.

Related services

Where we work

Based in Natick, working across MetroWest Massachusetts.

Plus the surrounding MetroWest towns. If you are nearby, call and ask.

Call us, or request service

Tell us what is going on. If no one picks up, leave a message and Bill will call you back as soon as he can. If it is easier to write it down, the form reaches the same place.

Call (508) 380-2629 or request service