Same-Day Commercial Drain Stoppage Service in Phoenix

We ask which fixtures are stopped, how long, whether anything has come up on the floor, what kind of business it is, and whether you know where the cleanout is. Our aim on a same-day stoppage is a tech on site within the hour or so. That is a target, not a guarantee, and traffic, the time of day and how many calls are already running all move it. If we cannot meet it, you hear that on the phone.

After hours, a night dispatcher takes the call, and a supervisor calls back in the morning for anything that does not need an emergency response. We offer 24/7 emergency service.

The tech arrives with a cable and a jetter on standby, and the cable goes in first. A cable opens most stoppages quickly, and getting your drain running is the first job. If the cable meets a coating of grease or starch instead of a plug, the jetter comes off standby, because a jet scours the pipe wall that a cable leaves behind. RIDGID's manual describes its portable jetters as built for grease and soft blockages, which is the kind of material that coats a kitchen line.

The tech works from the closest cleanout upstream of the stoppage, since the code arranges cleanouts to clean in the direction of flow. If no cleanout is reachable, the way in may be a pulled trap or a fixture.

A cable clears the stoppage. A jetting pass clears the pipe. If we find the line coated, or if the same drain has stopped before, we write a hydro-jet proposal for the permanent fix. The proposal is stored by date under your account, and we can email it to you again whenever you are ready, so you are not deciding at the worst moment of your day.

You do not have to approve it that night. For a restaurant account, that same pass can be the first step of a scheduled drain maintenance program.

A few minutes now can save your floor.

• Stop using the affected fixtures. Water you send down a stopped line has to go somewhere. In a kitchen, turn the dish machine off.
• Keep the area clear. Move product and equipment away from floor sinks and drains that may overflow.
• Find the cleanout. If you know where it is, have the cap accessible, and do not open it.
• Check the neighbors. If other tenants or neighboring businesses are also backing up, say so on the call. The blockage may be in the city's main, and Phoenix takes overflow reports on its 24/7 hotline at 602-261-8000.

If sewage is already on the floor of a food establishment, the rules change. Under the food code that Maricopa County adopts, a sewage backup is an imminent health hazard, and the answer is on our page for commercial sewer backup response.

What comes back on the cable, and how the drain behaves afterward, decides the next step.

• Paper, wipes or a foreign object. A one-time plug. The line is fine once it is out, and the answer is a reminder to staff.
• Grease and starch. A coated pipe. This is the case for the jetter and the proposal, because the cable only opened a channel.
• Roots or a gritty, sandy residue. A problem outside the building, usually in the main. That needs a camera before anyone quotes a fix, and our page on restaurant main line jetting covers that run.
• Water that still stands after the cable. Then the pipe has a sag or a break, not a clog, and no amount of cabling fixes it. A camera shows which.

The cable also helps us tell a branch from the main. If every drain is slow, we start at the main cleanout, and our guide to telling a main line clog from a branch clog shows how you can check before we arrive.

• The drain is slow and nothing has come up. A scheduled visit before opening or after close usually serves you better. See before-open and after-close drain service. Call anyway if it is getting worse.
• One sink, one strainer. A plunger and a clean strainer basket handle a single sink with a simple plug. Save the call for when it does not clear.
• The city's main is stopped. If the blockage is in the street, it is the city's, and the emergency hotline is the number to call.

Call us with the fixtures, the time it started and the cleanout location, if you know it. We give an upfront price before work starts, and estimates are free. For a stoppage in an apartment building, see apartment building drain cleaning. For the services behind it, see emergency plumber, commercial drain cleaning and hydro jetting.