Floor and Laundry Drain Snaking in Huntington Park

The short answer

What is floor and laundry drain snaking?

Floor and laundry drain snaking covers two kinds of utility drain. The first is the standpipe, the open vertical pipe that a washing machine hose hooks into. The second is the floor drain, a grated opening set in the floor of a laundry room, garage, service porch or patio to take spills and wash-down water.

Both are usually 2 inch lines with a trap below floor level, and both tend to run a long way at a shallow slope before joining the main. They are also the least maintained drains on any property. Nobody looks at them until water is on the floor.

Snaking them calls for a mid-size cable, larger than a sink cable and smaller than a main line machine, with enough stiffness to push through a flat run of settled sludge. In Huntington Park the laundry is often on a back porch, in a detached garage or in an add-on room, connected by a branch that was run later and not always to an ideal slope. That history is the root of many laundry drain complaints.

Method

How are standpipes and floor drains cabled?

A standpipe is cabled from the top. The washer hose is lifted out and the cable is fed straight down the pipe, through the trap at the bottom and into the horizontal branch. Lint clogs feel soft and matted. The cable winds into them, and much of the material comes back on the head as a gray felt.

A floor drain is opened by removing its grate, which is usually held by one or two screws. Many floor drains have a cleanout plug inside the body, just beside the trap. Taking that plug out lets the cable bypass the trap and go directly into the line, which is far more effective than forcing it around the bend.

Sediment needs a different approach from lint. Sand, soil and grit from a garage or patio sit on the bottom of the pipe and do not hook onto a cable. The technician uses a head that stirs and drags the material while water runs, so the flow carries it away. Several passes with a steady stream from a hose are typical.

Before finishing, the trap is dealt with. If a cleanout plug was removed it is refitted and sealed, because an open plug lets sewer gas straight into the room. The trap is then filled with water to restore its seal, and the drain is tested with a bucket or hose. For a standpipe the real test is a full washer drain cycle.

Symptoms

What are the signs of a floor or laundry drain clog?

Utility drains show trouble in ways that are easy to blame on the appliance. These eight signs point to the pipe.

1. Water spills from the top of the standpipe. The washer is pumping out faster than the narrowed drain can take it.
2. Suds rise from the floor drain during a wash. The laundry branch is backing up into the next opening along the line.
3. A puddle around the floor grate. Water is arriving at the drain and not going down.
4. The washer stops with an error mid-cycle. Some machines detect that water is not leaving and halt the drain stage.
5. A sewer smell in the laundry or garage. A dry trap or a missing cleanout plug is letting gas out of the drain.
6. The laundry sink fills when the washer drains. Both discharge into one branch that is restricted further on.
7. Slow draining after hosing the floor. Sediment has built up in the trap and the first few feet of pipe.
8. Drain flies near the grate. These small insects breed in the organic film inside a drain that rarely flushes.

Root causes

Why do these drains block?

Lint is the chief cause in laundry lines. Every load releases fibers, and synthetic fabrics shed fine threads that do not rot. Mixed with detergent residue and fabric softener, lint forms a dense felt that lines the pipe. Using more detergent than the load needs makes it worse, because the extra suds leave a sticky film for lint to cling to.

Floor drains collect whatever is on the floor. In a garage that means sand, leaves, sawdust and oily grit. On a patio it means soil washed from planters and debris blown in during the dry months, which then gets flushed into the drain all at once when winter rain arrives.

Dry traps are a separate issue. A floor drain that sees no water for months loses its seal to evaporation, and Southern California's long dry season speeds that up. With no water in the trap, sewer gas has a clear path into the building. The drain is not blocked, but it smells as though something is badly wrong.

Finally, there is capacity. High-efficiency washers use less water in total, but their pumps discharge it quickly. An older 1.5 inch standpipe, or one that is too short, cannot accept that surge even when it is clean. And because these drains connect low on the system, they are the first place a blocked building sewer shows itself.

Before you call

What can you look at before calling?

Several quick checks can tell you whether this is a simple local issue or something that needs a machine.

• Pour a bucket of clean water slowly into the floor drain. If it goes down, the line is open and a smell was probably a dry trap.
• Lift the grate and scoop out leaves, lint and sludge from the drain body with a gloved hand.
• Check that the washer hose is not pushed too far down the standpipe, which can cause siphoning and overflow.
• Fit a mesh lint trap on the end of the washer hose if it empties into a laundry sink.
• Flush a toilet and watch the floor drain. If water moves or rises there, the main line is involved.

Step by step

What does a floor drain visit involve?

A typical visit for a laundry or floor drain runs as follows. Your provider may order the steps differently.

1. 1

   Find the source

   The technician works out whether the overflow comes from the standpipe, the floor drain or a backup from the main.

2. 2

   Give a price

   You are quoted for clearing that branch. If the main turns out to be the cause, expect a revised quote before any more work.

3. 3

   Move the appliance

   The washer is eased forward to reach the standpipe, with care for the supply hoses.

4. 4

   Open the access

   The hose is lifted from the standpipe, or the grate and cleanout plug are removed from the floor drain.

5. 5

   Cable the branch

   A mid-size cable is run the length of the line, with water flowing to carry away loosened lint and grit.

6. 6

   Seal and refill

   Plugs are replaced, the trap is filled and the grate is screwed back down.

7. 7

   Run a real test

   The washer is put through a drain cycle while the standpipe and floor drain are both watched.

Pricing drivers

What affects the cost of clearing a floor or laundry drain?

The provider you speak with will set the price. These are the things that influence it.

Urgency

When is a floor drain backup urgent?

An overflowing standpipe is urgent only while the washer is running. Stop the cycle and the water stops. You can usually wait for a normal appointment as long as you do no laundry in the meantime.

A floor drain that is bringing up water when nothing nearby is in use is a different matter. That is the building sewer backing up at its lowest point. Read main sewer line snaking, stop all water use and call without delay. Water spreading toward a water heater, a furnace or electrical outlets near floor level adds a safety risk.

Questions

Floor and laundry drain FAQs

Keep reading

Which related page fits your problem?

Utility drains are easy to overlook. To see how they fit with the other lines in a home, visit the Huntington Park Drain Pros homepage.

Laundry and kitchen often share one branch in older houses. If both are slow, the kitchen sink drain snaking page explains the grease side of the problem. Water rising at a floor drain during a flush belongs under emergency drain snaking.

Detached garages and rear laundry rooms are especially common on the deep residential lots of Walnut Park.