Slow drain? Backed up?
Let's get it flowing.
Kitchen sinks, showers, tubs, toilets, floor drains, and main lines. Reliable Plumbing clears the clog, finds out why it happened, and tells you how to keep it from coming back. Serving Salt Lake City and the surrounding communities, with 24/7 service for backups.
Sewage coming up a drain? Stop running water and call us right now.
What's actually in there
Knowing which drain is slow tells us most of what we need to know before we arrive. Here's what we typically find.
Grease, cooking oil, and food particles. Grease goes down warm and liquid, then cools and coats the pipe walls. Add coffee grounds, rice, and pasta and you get a plug that a plunger won't touch. Garbage disposals make it worse when they're used as a trash can.
Hair and soap scum, almost every time. Hair catches on the drain crossbars or in the trap, soap residue binds it together, and the drain slows a little more every week. Salt Lake's hard water makes soap scum stickier and heavier.
Too much paper, "flushable" wipes that aren't, and the occasional toy. If one toilet clogs, it's the toilet. If every toilet and the tub back up at once, it's the main line, and that's a different job.
Hair, toothpaste, and the pop-up stopper mechanism collecting all of it. Often a quick clear at the trap. If it keeps coming back, buildup is further down the line.
Lint, detergent sludge, and sediment. A floor drain that backs up when the washer drains usually means a partial blockage in the branch line. A floor drain that backs up on its own is often the first sign of a main line problem.
Tree roots, collapsed clay pipe, grease buildup over decades, or a belly in the line where waste collects. Symptoms show up as multiple drains backing up at once, gurgling toilets, or sewage in the lowest drain in the house.
Before you reach for the bottle
We see the aftermath every week. Here's what's safe to try yourself, and what makes the job harder and more expensive.
Safe, cheap, and sometimes all it takes.
These cost you more in the end.
If the plunger didn't do it, that's the point to call. The clog is past the trap and needs a proper tool.
Drain cleaning services
Reliable Plumbing provides drain cleaning services throughout Salt Lake City, UT. We match the method to the blockage so it's cleared safely, without damaging your pipes.
Professional drain augers clear hair, grease, soap residue, and debris from sinks, tubs, showers, and toilets. We clear it, run water to confirm full flow, and check whether the clog was local or a sign of something further down the line.
High-pressure water scours the full inside of the pipe wall, removing years of grease and scale that a cable just pokes a hole through. The right answer for recurring kitchen clogs, restaurant lines, and main lines with heavy buildup.
When every drain in the house is affected, the blockage is in the main line. We clear it, then run a camera through to show you the cause, whether that's roots, a break, or buildup, and what to do about it.
A camera down the line takes the guessing out of a recurring clog. You see what we see, on the spot, and the repair recommendation is based on the actual condition of your pipe instead of a hunch.
Routine cleaning for homes with a history of clogs, older plumbing, or big families, and for rental properties and restaurants where a backup means real money. Keeps lines clear and catches problems while they're still small.
Overflowing toilet, sewage in the tub, a kitchen sink full of standing water the night before company. Emergency drain cleaning is available around the clock across Salt Lake City.
What happens next
No runaround. Here's how a drain call goes with Reliable Plumbing.
Tell us which drain, how long it's been slow, and whether anything else in the house is backing up. That last part matters.
Trap, branch line, or main. We locate it before choosing a tool so we're not cabling blindly.
Clear it with an auger, jet it, or scope it. We explain what each involves and what it costs before we start.
We confirm full flow, clean up, and tell you what caused it so you can keep it from coming back. (801) 803-0847
Drains, answered
When a drain in a Salt Lake City home clogs again soon after being cleared, Reliable Plumbing usually finds that the cause is further down the line, not in the fixture itself.
Clearing the top of a clog restores flow for a while, but grease, scale, or roots left on the pipe wall catch the next load of debris. If more than one drain is slow, or water appears in a tub when a toilet flushes, the problem is likely the main line. For a repeat clog the next step is a camera, so you see what the pipe looks like inside before choosing how to clean it. You get the options and the price before we start.
Reliable Plumbing uses snaking (a drain auger) to punch through a clog in Salt Lake City homes, and hydro jetting to scour the whole inside of the pipe when buildup is the real problem.
An auger works well for hair, paper, and a single blockage near a fixture, and it’s quick. Jetting sends high-pressure water around the full circumference of the pipe, so grease, scale, and small roots come off the walls instead of having a hole punched through them. That makes jetting the better choice for kitchen lines, commercial kitchens, and drains that keep coming back. A camera look first shows which one your line needs.
Reliable Plumbing advises Salt Lake City homeowners not to use chemical drain cleaner, because it rarely clears a real blockage and it can damage older pipes and seals.
When the chemical doesn’t break through, caustic water sits in the pipe and in the fixture. The next person to work on that drain, whether that’s you with a plunger or a plumber with an auger, is working in it. If you’ve already poured some in, say so when you call so it can be handled safely. For a clog that keeps returning, the money is better spent finding out why than buying another bottle.
Where we do this work
Based in Salt Lake City and serving the cities around it. Call with your address and we'll confirm.
Drain cleaning questions
What Salt Lake homeowners ask us most about clogged drains.
(801) 803-0847The drain clogs Reliable Plumbing clears most often in Salt Lake City come from grease and food waste in the kitchen, hair and soap scum in the bathroom, wipes and excess paper in toilets, and lint and detergent sludge in laundry lines. If the same drain keeps clogging after being cleared, there's usually buildup further down the pipe, a partial blockage in the main line, or a problem with the pipe itself, and we recommend a camera inspection to see which.
How Reliable Plumbing clears a clogged drain in Salt Lake City depends on where the clog is and what it's made of. Drain augers (cable machines) clear most hair, paper, and debris clogs. Hydro jetting uses high-pressure water to scour grease, scale, and buildup off the entire pipe wall. For main lines we clear the blockage, then run a camera to find the cause.
Hydro jetting, a drain cleaning method Reliable Plumbing uses in Salt Lake City, pushes high-pressure water through a specialized nozzle to clean the full inside of the pipe, removing grease, scale, sludge, and even small roots that a cable would only punch a hole through. It's the most thorough drain cleaning method and the right choice for recurring clogs and heavily built-up lines.
Yes: Reliable Plumbing warns Salt Lake City homeowners that a clogged drain can damage the plumbing around it. A blocked drain raises pressure in the line and can stress joints and seals, and a backed-up main line can push sewage into your home. Chemical drain cleaners add a second risk by corroding older pipes. Clearing clogs early is much cheaper than repairing what they cause.
Reliable Plumbing doesn't recommend chemical drain cleaners for Salt Lake City homes. They rarely clear a real blockage, they can damage older metal pipes, PVC joints, and seals, and they leave caustic water sitting in the drain. If you've already poured one in, let us know before we arrive so we can work safely.
Reliable Plumbing finds that many Salt Lake City homes benefit from professional drain cleaning every one to two years. Older homes, large households, homes with mature trees near the sewer line, and rental properties and restaurants often do better on an annual schedule.
Yes. Reliable Plumbing clears and maintains drains for restaurants, offices, and rental properties across Salt Lake City, including hydro jetting for grease-heavy commercial kitchen lines and recurring maintenance schedules for property managers.
More answers in our plumbing FAQs.
Drain cleaning in Salt Lake City
Cleared right, explained plainly, priced before we start.
(801) 803-0847