Hydro Jetting in Hyattsville, MD

Signs the problem is in the main line

• The basement floor drain backs up when the washer empties
• A toilet on the lowest floor rises when the upstairs shower runs
• Roots or rust flakes came up on the last cable
• The main line has been cleared more than once in a year
• A sewage smell lingers near the basement drain

Older pipe in an older city

Hyattsville is one of the older inner-ring suburbs of Washington, incorporated in 1886. The Hyattsville Historic District holds late-1880s Victorians alongside interwar Sears kit houses and Arts and Crafts bungalows, and the city's median home dates to 1963, with about half the homes older than that. Many of those houses still have cast iron drains inside and clay or iron laterals running to the street. Decades of scale narrow cast iron from the inside, and clay joints let roots in from the many mature street trees. A cable punches through, but jetting is what actually clears the pipe wall.

Old pipe is also why a careful plumber often runs a camera before jetting. Thin or cracked iron can be cleaned at lower pressure, but a collapsed section needs repair instead. WSSC Water provides sewer service in Hyattsville, and the city has no permit office of its own: plumbing permits and inspections come from WSSC, and repairing a sewer service line takes a plumber holding a WSSC license.

If a manhole overflows or the whole block is backing up, call WSSC Water's Emergency Services Center at 301-206-4002 first.

What affects the cost

• Cleanout location: many older homes have only an interior cleanout, or none
• Pipe condition and whether a camera inspection is needed first
• Roots versus grease and scale
• Run length to the WSSC connection
• Timing outside regular hours

What happens when you call

The number on this page puts you in touch with an independent local plumber who serves Hyattsville. Say roughly when the house was built, which drains are affected and whether there has been past root trouble. In the meantime, keep water use to a minimum so the backup doesn't spread.