Hydro jetting is the safest, most thorough way to clean drain pipes. A hydro jetter is like a glorified pressure washer that uses a spinning nozzle at the end of a high-pressure hose designed to navigate drain pipes. The nozzle pulls the hose through the pipes and absolutely obliterates the blockages and buildups in its way. It is the most thorough way to clean piping by far.

Cable machines (also known as drain augers or drain snakes) often just drill a hole through a blockage, leaving tons of roots in your sewer line or grease lining the walls of your piping just waiting to cause another clog and ruin your life! Hydro jetting will scrape those pipe walls squeaky clean with high-pressure water, leaving you and your home in the best situation possible moving forward.

Hydro Jetting is always the best form of drain cleaning when it is possible to use, however it is most necessary when the drain line is slow because of gunk buildup inside the drain line. Kitchen drain lines are notorious for being slow because of the grease that lines the walls of the pipe over time from just rinsing dishes. A drain cable will only drill a small hole through this gummy build-up, but a hydro jetter will emulsify that grease from off the walls and take the pipe back as close to its original condition as possible. A hydro jet will do the same thing to lines that are filled with soap scum, hair, and mild infestations of roots.

Shower drains all have a trap connected to them just beneath the floor. This trap holds water and prevents sewer gas from pouring into your home when the shower is not in use. These shower traps are known to collect hair and soap scum like crazy! The solution to a slow shower line is to cable the line with a smaller drain machine and hydro jet if possible to clean the walls of the pipe and trap and get it flowing back to full speed.

Sinks are the worst fixtures in the home for building up gunk and draining slowly. Hair, grease, and soap scum will coat the walls of the pipe, restricting the flow dramatically. When a pipe gets so much buildup that it cannot even keep up with the flow of water from the faucet, it usually needs to be cleaned and restored back to its original condition with hydro jetting. At Tennessee Standard, our licensed drain techs have hydro jetters capable of cleaning the walls of your piping so that everything flows freely for a long time.

If your drain is a little smelly, the piping in the walls may have gathered enough buildup (like grease or soap scum) to clog the vent, causing the drain to suck the water out of the sink trap every time water goes down the drain. At Tennessee Standard, we resolve this problem by hydro jetting the sink drain line, opening the connection to the vent pipe, and helping everything to go down smoothly.

Unfortunately, we also come into a lot of homes that were not vented properly when they were remodeled or added, in which case the piping needs to be reconfigured to vent properly or it will have the same problem forever, no matter how clean the drain line is.

If the drain odor is not related to a clogged vent, the best thing to do is perform a smoke test on the home to expose the leak. Smoke is pumped into the plumbing system via a cleanout. I there is a break in a pipe, the smoke will show itself visibly in the home.

If the plunger isn't working, it's time to step it up a notch. Often, the toilet must be pulled from the flange where it is mounted to continue work. If the clog is in the toilet, it can be manually removed after taking the toilet outside. If the clog is in the drain pipe, the pipe can be cabled after the toilet has been pulled. Once the clog has been obliterated, the toilet is reset on the floor flange and the area disinfected. This is a messy and smelly job for sure, but if you call Tennessee Standard, we can take care of this quickly and professionally while you sit back and relax!

Sometimes drain leaks show up only because the pipe is clogged, and the drain line is filled and pressurized from the weight of the water. In this scenario, the line needs to be cleared with a cable and then cleaned with a hydro jetter to restore it to its full flow. The drains beneath the sink can then be reassembled or replaced correctly. After following this process the sink drains should be leak free.

Most emergency drain openers sold at stores are extremely toxic and dangerous. These drain openers will typically only work if the drain is still draining slowly. Once the drain is fully backed up, the drain acid cannot reach the clog that is, for example, 20' down the drain line. The drain acid remains where it was poured and will not open the line.

As a rule of thumb, if you wait until your line is fully clogged, it is too late to use a drain treatment to clear it. The line must be cleared and cleaned using drain cables and jetters before an appropriate drain maintainer can be used to KEEP the drain clean. At Tennessee Standard, we recommend using BioOne drain treatment to maintain a clean drain. (https://1biotechnology.com/index.php) BioOne is a stabilized microbe culture that will come alive inside your drain lines and eat up the FOG (fats, oils, and grease) that wants to build up inside your pipes. It is like a probiotic for your plumbing system and is completely safe for the environment. If you get your drain lines cleaned and maintain them with BioOne, your drain lines will be clear for a long time.