If you have a sink that will not drain, a bathtub filling up around your ankles, or a kitchen line that gurgles and backs up every time the dishwasher runs, you are probably standing there wondering one thing: who do I actually call for this?
I am Joe with Topline Plumbing, and I have been clearing drains in the Redding area since 1998. Short answer: for anything past a simple surface clog, you call a licensed plumber. The longer answer, including what you can safely try yourself first and when you should stop, is below. I would rather you fix a small one on your own than pay me to come out for something a cup of hot water would have handled.
First, figure out which kind of clog you have
Not every slow drain is the same problem. Here is how I sort them out when a homeowner calls.
One fixture is slow or stopped. Just the bathroom sink, or just one tub. The clog is usually local to that fixture, often hair and soap in the trap or the pop-up assembly. This is the most DIY-friendly kind.
A whole group of fixtures is slow. The kitchen sink and the dishwasher, or both bathroom sinks on the same wall. Now the clog is further down the branch line that serves that group, past the easy reach of a plunger.
Everything backs up, and the lowest drains overflow. When you run the washing machine and the toilet bubbles, or water comes up in the shower when you flush, that is not a sink clog. That is your main line, and that is a stop-and-call situation. Keep reading down to the sewer section, because the wrong move here can put sewage on your floor.
What you can safely try yourself first
For a single slow fixture, try these before you call anyone. None of them cost money and none of them will hurt your pipes.
- Pull and clean the stopper or pop-up. On a bathroom sink, most clogs are a wad of hair right at the pop-up assembly an inch down. Lift it out, clean it, run the water. This solves more sink clogs than anything else.
- Plunge it correctly. Fill the basin with a couple inches of water so the plunger seals, block the overflow opening or the second basin with a wet rag, and give it firm, steady plunges. A good seal is the whole game.
- Try hot water and a little dish soap on a greasy kitchen drain. Not boiling water on PVC, just hot tap water. Grease is the number one kitchen clog around here, and soap plus hot water can loosen a soft one.
- Clean the P-trap under the sink. Put a bucket under it, unscrew the curved trap, and clear out what is caught. This is the trap that catches dropped rings and the gunk that slows a sink. It is messy but it is not hard.
A note on chemical drain cleaners: I am not a fan. They sit in the pipe, they do not always clear the clog, they are rough on older metal pipes, and when they do not work I have to fish my hand and tools into a line full of caustic chemicals. If hot water and a plunger did not do it, skip the chemicals and call instead.
When to stop and call a plumber
Stop the DIY and call us if:
- More than one fixture is slow or backing up at the same time.
- A drain backs up when you use a different fixture (flush the toilet, the shower gurgles).
- The clog comes right back within a day or two of clearing it. A clog that returns fast usually means buildup deeper in the line, not a surface plug.
- You see or smell sewage, or water is coming up out of a floor drain.
- You have an older Redding home with original cast-iron or galvanized lines. Those corrode and narrow from the inside, and they clog more often as they age. They also do not take kindly to aggressive DIY.
Plumber vs. handyman vs. "drain guy"
People ask me this a lot, so here is the honest version.
A plunger and a hardware-store hand auger handle surface clogs. Past that, you want a licensed plumber for a real reason: we carry the right equipment, we can read what the drain is telling us, and if the problem is bigger (a broken line, roots in the sewer, a venting issue) we can actually find it and fix it instead of just poking at it. A general handyman may clear a simple one, but they are not set up to diagnose a recurring or main-line problem, and they are not licensed for the work that sometimes turns out to be necessary.
Topline is a licensed California plumbing contractor, CSLB #596557. That license means the work is done to code and you have real recourse. When you are letting someone open up your plumbing, that matters.
How we actually clear a drain
When you call us out for a clog, here is roughly how it goes.
We start by figuring out which line is affected and where the nearest cleanout is. For most branch and kitchen clogs, we run a drain cable (a snake) through the line to break up and pull out the blockage. For a greasy kitchen line or a sewer line packed with grease or roots, cabling alone sometimes will not cut it, and we use hydro-jetting, which is high-pressure water that scours the inside of the pipe clean rather than just punching a hole through the clog.
If a clog keeps coming back, we can run a camera down the line to see exactly what is going on. That is how we catch things like a bellied pipe, root intrusion, or a section of old line that has collapsed. No guessing, no upselling you on work you do not need. We show you what we see.
One local note: hard water is a real thing in the Redding area, and over the years it leaves scale and mineral buildup inside pipes and fixtures. Combined with the older housing stock around here, that is a big part of why drains in this area clog more than people expect. It is not that you are doing anything wrong.
What it costs
I am not going to throw a fake number at you in a blog post, because the honest answer is that it depends on the line, the access, and the method. What I can tell you is how we handle pricing: we give you a price upfront before we start, and we do not add an after-hours markup. We also offer a free estimate with any service, so you are not paying just to find out what is wrong. For the specific cost on your job, the fastest answer is to call.
How to get a drain cleared fast in Redding
If you have tried the simple stuff and the drain is still slow or backed up, call us at (530) 704-6989. We serve Redding, Anderson, Bella Vista, Palo Cedro, Red Bluff, and Shasta Lake, and we offer same-day service during business hours when the schedule allows.
One thing I want to be straight about: we are a local family shop, not a 24/7 outfit. Our hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00a to 4:30p. If something happens after hours, shut off the water to the affected fixture and call us first thing. You can read more about how our drain cleaning works on our drain cleaning in Redding page.