Your sewer system has a big job – to carry wastewater away from your house. In most houses here in northeastern Ohio, there are actually two different sewer lines, both connected to larger pipes in the street (see illustration below.) The sanitary sewer carries wastewater generated inside your house – by activities like bathing, dishwashing, or laundry – to a waste treatment plant, where the impurities are removed before the water is sent back to Lake Erie. The storm sewer carries water from outside your house – rain and melted snow from your gutters and any drains in your yard and/or driveway – directly back to the lake, bypassing the water treatment plant (since the water presumably does not need to be purified).   In some communities, older homes may have “conjoined systems,” where the two lines join together and send all the water to the waste treatment plant.

You probably never even think about this system, until there’s a problem. But, when your laundry drain gets clogged with lint, or when roots invade either sewer line, water can no longer flow freely to the main sewers in the street. The result can be slow toilets, water backed up onto your basement floor, wet foundation walls, or soggy areas around your yard drain.

There is no chemical that will dissolve these obstructions in your drain lines. You have to snake them out, using a sewer snake with a thick enough cable and strong enough motor to chew through roots or other blockages.

The biggest problem can be getting access to the sewer line. (Read more….)