Drain Cleaning & Clogged Drains in Boston

What you can safely try before calling

For a single slow or clogged fixture, start simple. A plain cup plunger works on sinks and tubs (cover the overflow hole with a wet cloth so the pressure goes down the pipe), and a flange plunger is the right one for toilets. For a bathroom sink or shower, pulling the stopper and removing the hair under it clears a surprising number of clogs. Hot (not boiling) water helps shift grease in a kitchen sink.

Be careful with chemical drain cleaners. They can damage old pipes and the finish on tubs and sinks, they rarely clear a solid blockage, and they make the job dangerous for the plumber who has to open the line afterwards. If you have already poured some in, tell the plumber before they start. Clearing a stoppage is one of the few plumbing jobs Massachusetts lets anyone do without a permit, so trying a plunger first is entirely reasonable.

1. Use the right plunger: a cup plunger for sinks and tubs, a flange plunger for toilets.
2. Pull and clean the stopper or strainer on bathroom sinks and showers.
3. For a kitchen sink with a disposal, check the disposal is not jammed (power off first) before plunging.
4. Stop if water rises toward the rim of the toilet or tub; don't keep flushing a clogged toilet.

Single fixture or main line? How to tell

A clog in one fixture's branch line affects only that fixture: the kitchen sink is slow but the bathroom drains fine. A blockage in the main drain or the building sewer affects everything downstream of it, and because the lowest fixtures fill up first, the signs show in the basement or the first-floor tub. If flushing an upstairs toilet makes water appear in a downstairs shower, the blockage is in the main line below both of them.

In older Boston houses the main drain usually runs as a cast-iron stack down to the basement and out under the front of the building to the city sewer. Roots get into old joints in the outside section, scale builds up inside old cast iron, and grease from decades of kitchen use narrows the line until one more flush closes it. A plumber clears a main line through a cleanout with a sectional drain machine or a high-pressure water jetter, and can run a camera down afterwards to show you why it blocked.

What a plumber will do

For a fixture clog, the plumber usually removes the trap or works through the drain opening with a hand or small electric drain snake. For a main line, they find the nearest cleanout (often a capped fitting low on the stack in the basement or near the front wall) and run a larger machine toward the street. Hydro jetting, which scours the pipe with high-pressure water, is used for grease and for scale in larger lines; most plumbers look inside the pipe with a camera first, because some old or damaged pipes are too weak to jet.

If the same line keeps blocking, ask for a camera inspection. It shows whether the problem is a one-off clog, a sag in the line that holds water, roots, or a broken section that needs repair. In older buildings that is often the difference between paying for a drain cleaning every few months and fixing the cause once. Our sewer line page explains the repair options.

Toilets, showers and kitchen sinks: the usual culprits

Toilets clog mostly on wipes (including ones labelled flushable), paper towels, cotton swabs and too much paper at once in older low-flow toilets. Showers and bathroom sinks clog on hair and soap. Kitchen sinks clog on grease, coffee grounds, eggshells and starchy food, which set in the trap and the branch line. Laundry drains catch lint, which is worth a lint trap on the standpipe in older basements where the washer drains into a laundry sink.

• Only toilet paper goes in the toilet: no wipes, paper towels, floss or cotton swabs.
• Wipe greasy pans with a paper towel before washing them, and keep coffee grounds out of the sink.
• Fit hair catchers in showers and tubs, and clean them weekly.
• If one drain has needed clearing twice in a year, have the line looked at.

When the problem is the vent, not the drain

Every drain needs air as well as a clear pipe. Plumbing vents run up through the house to the roof and let air into the system behind the water, which is what lets drains run freely and keeps the water seal in each trap from being sucked out. When a vent is blocked, by leaves, a bird's nest or, in a Boston winter, snow and ice over the roof opening, drains slow down and gurgle even though nothing is stuck in them, and you may notice a sewer smell where a trap has been siphoned dry.

The clue is a fixture that drains slowly and noisily but doesn't fill up the way a real clog does, sometimes in several rooms at once and often after a storm. Don't climb onto an icy roof to check; tell the plumber what you've noticed, because a vent problem won't be fixed by snaking the drain, and older houses that have been renovated several times sometimes have vents that were never connected properly.

What drain cleaning costs in Boston

Clearing a single fixture costs less than a main line, and a camera inspection or hydro jetting adds to the bill. Access matters too: a main line with a clean, easy cleanout costs less than one where the plumber has to pull a toilet to get in. Ask on the phone whether the price is per visit, per hour or per line, and whether a camera look is included. The ranges below are published figures, not quotes; the only Boston-specific one is for a single drain.