Drain Cleaning in Houston, TX
Signs You Need Drain Cleaning
Drains rarely fail all at once. They warn you first. Call a plumber if you notice any of these:
- A slow-draining sink, tub, or shower that keeps getting slower
- Water standing in the shower after you finish
- A gurgling drain or bubbling sounds when another fixture runs
- Foul drain odor or a sewer smell in the bathroom
- Repeated clogs in the same fixture after you clear it
- A toilet backing up or flushing weakly
- Water backing up in the tub when the toilet flushes
- A drain backup anywhere in the house
That last one matters most. If water comes up somewhere you did not run water, stop using the plumbing and call. That pattern usually points to a main line stoppage, not a simple kitchen sink clog.
First, Find Out Whose Pipe It Is
Here is something most plumbing companies will not tell you. Part of your sewer line belongs to you, and part belongs to the City of Houston. If the blockage is on the city side, Houston Public Works handles it, and you do not pay a plumber at all.
You can check this yourself in about two minutes.
How to Check Your Cleanout
A cleanout is an access point in your sewer lateral, which is the pipe running from your house to the city main. Houston Public Works describes cleanouts as white plastic pipes with a threaded or pull-off cap, usually near the street or in a public space. Some have a metal cover.
- Water pooling on the floor around a toilet or vanity
- Water stains on the ceiling below an upstairs bathroom
- A toilet leaking at the base after every flush
- Sewage or dirty water backing up into a tub or shower
- A cracked toilet tank or cracked bowl
- Sudden low water pressure across several fixtures at once
Planet Houston Plumbing works with homeowners and businesses throughout the Houston area.
Whether you need plumbing repairs, water heater installations, drain cleaning, sewer line replacements, or preventative maintenance, our team is prepared to deliver reliable results.
Schedule Service Soon For These
This is the fastest way to judge how serious the problem is. Run water in a few different fixtures and watch.
One slow fixture usually means a local clog. A hair clog in the shower drain, soap scum buildup in a bathroom sink drain, or a food waste clog in the kitchen drain. These sit close to the fixture, often in the P-trap. They are quick jobs.
Two or more slow fixtures, especially on the lowest floor, point to a main sewer line issue. So does a gurgling toilet when the washing machine drains. Multiple drains clogged at once is a main line problem until proven otherwise.
Tell us what you see when you call. It helps us send the right equipment the first time.
What Clogs Drains in Houston Homes
Grease Is the Number One Cause
Houston Public Works reports that 70 percent of sewer overflows in the city are caused by clogs from fats, oils, and grease poured down the drain, along with wipes flushed down toilets. That is not a national average. That is Houston.
Grease goes down warm and liquid. It cools inside the drain line and hardens on the pipe wall. Every wash adds another layer. Eventually the opening narrows until nothing gets through.
The city also reports that when temperatures drop, it responds to about twice as many grease-related sewer overflows. Cooler pipes let grease solidify faster, and holiday cooking puts more of it down the sink. If you get recurring clogs in the kitchen sink every winter, that is why.
Flushable wipes are the other half of the problem. They do not break down the way toilet paper does. Houston’s guidance is to flush only the three P’s: pee, poo, and toilet paper.
Tree Roots and Shifting Clay Soil
Tree root intrusion is the most common cause of serious main line stoppages in older Houston neighborhoods. Roots look for moisture. A hairline crack or a slightly open joint in a sewer lateral is enough to let them in. Once inside, they spread and catch everything that passes.
Houston sits on Gulf Coast clay from the Beaumont Formation. This is expansive soil. It swells when wet and shrinks when dry, and that movement stresses buried pipe. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation notes that expansive soils are a very common cause of structural problems in Texas, and the same shrink-and-swell cycle opens joints in drain lines.
Our humid subtropical climate keeps the soil damp most of the year, so roots stay active year-round rather than going dormant.
Older Pipe Materials
What your drain line is made of changes how it clogs and what we can safely do about it.
- Cast iron pipe was standard in Houston homes for decades. It corrodes from the inside and develops a rough, scaled surface that grabs debris.
- Vitrified clay pipe is common in older sewer laterals. The joints separate as soil moves, which is where roots get in.
- Orangeburg pipe, a tar-and-paper product used in the mid-1900s, softens and deforms with age.
- We install PVC drain pipe today. It is smooth, sealed, and far more resistant to roots.
Copper pipe and galvanized steel pipe are usually water supply lines, not drain lines, but they show up in older homes, and we check them during an inspection.
We identify the pipe material before choosing a cleaning method. That is not a formality. It is the difference between clearing a line and damaging one.
The A/C Drain Line Nobody Thinks About
Your air conditioner produces water. A lot of it, in a Houston summer. That water leaves through a condensate drain line, and it can clog with algae and sludge.
When it backs up, you may see water stains on a ceiling, water pooling near the indoor unit, or an air conditioner that shuts itself off. A/C drain cleaning is a routine call for us between May and September. If your system keeps tripping its float switch, we check the drain line first.
Our Drain Cleaning Services in Houston
Planet Houston Plumbing handles the full range of drain line services for homes:
- Drain cleaning for sinks, tubs, showers, and toilets
- Hydro jetting for grease, sludge, and scale
- Drain inspections and camera inspections to see inside the pipe
- Drain line repairs when cleaning is not enough
- Clog removal and main line clearing
- A/C drain cleaning
- Preventative drain maintenance
We are a residential plumbing company. We do not take commercial or business plumbing work, which means our plumbers spend all day in houses like yours.
Ready to book? Call (832) 898-4922 or schedule drain line service.
Drain Snaking vs Hydro Jetting
Drain snaking punches a hole through a clog to restore flow. Hydro jetting scours the whole pipe wall clean with high-pressure water. Snaking is faster and cheaper. Jetting lasts longer. The right choice depends on what is in the pipe and what the pipe is made of.
| Drain Snaking | Hydro Jetting | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool | Drain auger on a cable machine | High-pressure water jetting hose and nozzle |
| Best for | Hair clogs, foreign objects, soft blockages near the fixture | Grease buildup in pipes, sludge, mineral scale buildup, root cutting |
| What it leaves behind | Buildup still coating the pipe wall | A cleaned pipe wall |
| Typical use | Bathroom sink drain, shower drain, single fixture | Kitchen drain, main sewer line, recurring clogs |
| Cost | Lower | Higher |
| Typical use | Works in most pipes | Pipe must be sound enough to handle the water pressure |
A drain auger is the right tool more often than people think. If a bathtub is not draining because of hair, snaking solves it in minutes, and jetting would be overkill. But if the same drain clogs again three weeks later, snaking did not fix the cause. That is when jetting earns its price.
Is Hydro Jetting Safe for Old Pipes?
Hydro jetting is safe for pipes in good condition, including PVC and sound cast iron. It is not automatically safe for cracked, collapsed, or badly corroded pipe. That is why we run a sewer camera inspection first on older lines. The camera shows pipe material, wall condition, root intrusion, and any breaks before we introduce pressure.
If the camera shows a failing pipe, we tell you. We do not jet a line we think will not survive it.
What Happens During a Drain Cleaning Visit
Most single-fixture jobs take about an hour. Main line work takes longer, especially if access is difficult or a camera inspection is needed.
We talk through the symptoms. Which fixtures, how long, what you have already tried.
We locate the cleanout and check whether the problem is on your side or the city’s.
We test the affected drains to confirm whether it is one fixture or the main line.
We run a video pipe inspection when needed, usually for main line stoppages, recurring clogs, or older pipes.
We explain what we found and what it costs before we start any work.
We clear the line with the right method: a drain auger, high-pressure water jetting, root cutting, or pipe descaling.
We run water to confirm the fix and check that the drain flows normally.
We tell you what caused it and what to do differently.
What Affects the Cost of Drain Cleaning
We give you a price before we start. No surprises after the fact. These are the factors that move it:
Where the clog sits. Cleaning a P-trap at a bathroom sink drain is a small job. A main line stoppage 40 feet out is not.
Which method the pipe needs. Drain snaking costs less than hydro jetting.
Cleanout access. An accessible outdoor cleanout keeps the job simple. No cleanout means more time and sometimes a different access point.
Whether a camera inspection is needed. On older lines, it usually is, and it usually saves money by preventing a repeat visit.
What is actually in the pipe. Hair comes out fast. Roots and hardened grease do not.
Timing. Work outside normal business hours costs more.
For stubborn buildup, we use drain snaking or, when the line calls for it, hydro jetting. If the blockage sits past the fixture branch, we move to drain line services or sewer line services.
When Cleaning Is Not Enough
Drain cleaning clears a blockage. It does not repair a broken pipe. Those are two different problems with two different fixes, and a camera inspection helps you tell them apart. Cleaning is the answer when the pipe is sound, and something is stuck in it.
Look at drain line repair or drain line replacement when:
- The same line clogs again within weeks, no matter how it was cleared
- A camera shows cracks, offset joints, or a collapsed section
- Roots keep returning through the same break
- The pipe is Orangeburg or badly deteriorated cast iron
- You have repeated sewer backups with no clear cause
- There is standing water or a soft spot in the yard above the sewer lateral
For pipe under the slab, we look closely before recommending anything. A drain line under the slab is expensive to reach, so it is worth being certain. Some damaged lines can be repaired with trenchless pipe lining rather than digging. Others need replacement. We will show you the camera footage and explain the options.
If the problem is in the main sewer line, see our sewer line repair and replacement services.
Not sure which one you are dealing with? Call (832) 898-4922 and we will find out.
Skip the Store-Bought Drain Cleaner
We do not recommend chemical drain cleaner, and here is why: it is dangerous to you, and it usually does not solve the problem.
Many liquid drain openers contain sodium hydroxide, also called lye or caustic soda, or strong acids like sulfuric acid. The National Capital Poison Center notes that these corrosive products can cause pain, irritation, and burns on skin contact, including from splash-back out of the drain.
According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, sodium hydroxide is severely corrosive to every tissue it touches, and it releases significant heat when it mixes with water.
Two practical problems follow from that:
The chemical sits in a pipe; it cannot clear. If the clog is solid or far down the line, the product pools against it and stays there. Then it is waiting for whoever opens that drain next, including your plumber.
Never mix products. Combining an acid cleaner with a caustic one can react violently.
Store the products you already own out of reach of children. If someone swallows a drain opener, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 right away.
A plunger is a reasonable first try. A drain strainer prevents the problem in the first place. Beyond that, clog removal is a job for tools, not chemicals.
How to Keep Your Drains Clear
Most clogs are preventable. These steps come straight from Houston Public Works guidance:
- Put grease in the trash, not the sink. Let it cool in a container and throw it away.
- Wipe greasy pans with a paper towel before washing them.
- Use a drain strainer in every sink and tub to catch food scraps and hair.
- Flush only the three P’s: pee, poo, and toilet paper. No wipes, even the ones labeled flushable.
- Go easy on the garbage disposal. Fibrous scraps and coffee grounds are hard on drain lines.
- Run water after the disposal for a good 20 seconds.
- Know where your cleanout is before you need it.
For homes with a history of recurring clogs, preventative drain maintenance on a set drain maintenance schedule costs far less than an emergency drain backup. We can recommend a sensible interval based on your pipe material and household size.
Why Houston Homeowners Choose Planet Houston Plumbing
Licensed & Regulated
Licensed and regulated by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. Our Responsible Master Plumber License number is 46295. You can verify any Texas plumber's license through the TSBPE. We think you should.
Residential Only
Residential only. We do not take commercial work. Every job is a home.
15+ Years Experience
15+ years of experience and 5,000+ customers served.
5.0 Google Rating
Rated 5.0 across 87 Google reviews, as published on our website.
Advanced Inspections Equipment
Advanced inspection equipment, including drain and sewer camera inspection.
Connected Solutions
Honest recommendations. If your problem is the city's responsibility, we will tell you to call 311.
Clear Pricing
Clear pricing before work starts.
Business hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM; Saturday, 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM; with limited services on Sunday. Learn more about our team or browse our full range of plumbing services.
Most homes do not need scheduled drain cleaning. Clean drains when symptoms appear. Kitchen drains that see heavy cooking benefit from professional cleaning roughly once a year. Homes with older cast iron pipe or a history of tree root intrusion often do better on a regular schedule. Your plumber can recommend an interval after a camera inspection.
Most single-fixture jobs take about an hour. A kitchen sink clog or hair clog in a shower drain is usually faster. Main line cleaning takes longer, especially with hydro jetting or root cutting. Add time if a sewer camera inspection is needed or if the cleanout is hard to reach. We give you a time estimate when we diagnose the problem.
In Houston, the homeowner is responsible for private wastewater pipes closer to the home. Houston Public Works is responsible for public pipes and pipes in the public right-of-way. Check your cleanout at the street. Standing sewer water means the city’s blocked, so call 311. A dry cleanout means the problem is on your private line.
A sewer smell usually means sewer gas is escaping where it should not. The most common causes are a dried-out P-trap in a rarely used shower drain or floor drain, a blocked vent stack, or a partial clog holding decomposing waste in the line. A plumber can trace the source. Persistent odor after clearing a drain is worth investigating.
Hydro jetting does not damage sound pipes. Risk comes from jetting pipe that is already failing, such as cracked vitrified clay pipe, deteriorated Orangeburg pipe, or heavily corroded cast iron. That is why we camera-inspect older lines before jetting. If the pipe can’t safely handle the water pressure, we recommend a different approach.
Not for a simple clog. A video pipe inspection is worth it when drains clog repeatedly, more than one fixture backs up, you suspect roots, or you’re hydro jetting an older line. It shows pipe material, wall condition, and any breaks, so you find out whether you need cleaning or drain line repair.
Stop running water in the affected fixtures, including dishwashers and washing machines, since that adds volume to a line that cannot drain. Avoid pouring chemical drain cleaner down the drain, which makes the job more hazardous. If wastewater has come up into the house, keep children and pets away from it and do not use those drains.
No. Planet Houston Plumbing serves residential properties only. We do not offer plumbing services for commercial or business properties. Restaurants and commercial kitchens in Houston are separately regulated and must maintain permitted grease traps, so they need a commercial provider.
Areas We Serve
Planet Houston Plumbing provides drain cleaning services across the Houston area from our location at 24285 Katy Fwy, Katy, TX 77494.
We serve Houston-area homeowners in:
Not sure whether we reach your street? Call and ask. Houston neighborhoods vary in age and pipe material, and knowing your area helps us prepare.
Schedule Drain Cleaning in Houston
If a drain is slow, smells, or is backing up, we can help. Call (832) 898-4922 or request service online.
Tell us which fixtures are affected and whether you have checked your cleanout. That way, we send the right plumber with the right equipment on the first visit.
Planet Houston Plumbing, 24285 Katy Fwy, Katy, TX 77494. Responsible Master Plumber License 46295. Licensed and regulated by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners.