The short answer
A slow drain in a Northern Virginia house is almost never nothing. It’s a partial clog, and partial clogs don’t clear themselves: every bit of soap, hair or grease that goes down sticks to what’s already there, so the drain gets a little slower each week until one day it stops. If one sink, tub or shower is slow and everything else is fine, it’s that drain, and it’s usually a small fix. If two or more drains are slow at once, or the lowest drain in the house gurgles or fills when you run water somewhere else, it’s the main line, and that one shouldn’t wait.
Is it worth fixing? Yes, for three reasons. It costs the least now, while it’s a wad of hair at the stopper and not a line packed solid. A slow drain is often the only warning a main line gives before it backs up into the basement. And the bottle of drain cleaner people reach for while they wait is hard on older metal pipe and still sitting in the trap when somebody finally has to open it (is Drano bad for pipes).
Slow drain, clog, or main line
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| What you see | What it usually is | How soon |
|---|---|---|
| One sink, tub or shower slow, everything else fine | Hair and soap at the stopper or in the P-trap | This month. It’s getting worse, not better. |
| Kitchen sink slow, worse after a big meal | Grease and food in the trap or the line under the sink | Soon. Grease hardens as it cools farther down. |
| Toilet bowl fills high and drains slowly | A partial clog in the toilet itself | Plunge it. If it keeps coming back, see toilet not flushing all the way. |
| Two or more drains slow at the same time | The main line, or a branch two fixtures share | This week. Stop pouring anything down. |
| Toilet gurgles when the washer drains or the tub empties | The main line partly blocked, or a vent | Now. A backup is close. |
| Water comes up a basement floor drain or shower | The main line is blocked | Today. Stop running water (sewer backup in the basement). |
One test sorts most of it out in two minutes. Run the slow sink hard for a minute and listen to the drains around it. Then flush the toilet nearest to it and watch the tub. If anything else gurgles, bubbles or rises, the problem is past that one drain. The longer version, fixture by fixture, is in clogged drain: fixture or main line.
$99 Drain Clearing
This offer focuses on clearing a blockage up to the P-trap, the curved section of drainpipe beneath the sink where debris can collect. See the drain clearing
What waiting costs
Drain problems climb a ladder, and every rung costs more than the last. Here’s each rung in Northern Virginia.
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| The step | What it is | What it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Cleared at the trap | Hair or gunk at the stopper or the P-trap of one sink, tub or shower | $99 |
| One drain cleared deeper | A clog past the trap, augered out of the line that drain runs into | $200 to $800 |
| Main line cleared | The pipe that carries the whole house to the street, cleared with a machine | $550 to $1,650, and the middle of that is about $1,100. A camera while we’re there is $89. |
| A backup | Sewage on the basement floor. The plumbing is the main line price. The carpet, drywall and cleanup are their own bill. | A base homeowners policy usually won’t pay for it |
| Line dug up and replaced | A pipe that’s cracked, rooted through or collapsed | $7,500 to $9,000 |
A slow drain doesn’t break a sewer line. It’s how you find out about a bad one early, while it can still be cleared and looked at with a camera, before the basement floods. Replacing a line dug up runs $7,500 to $9,000. From about $125 a month at 0% APR for 60 months, the whole price financed, on approved credit. Some lines can be lined instead of dug (trenchless sewer repair).
Signs it’s more than a slow drain
- Gurgling from a toilet or a drain nobody’s using (why a toilet gurgles).
- More than one drain slow at the same time.
- The tub or shower on the lowest floor fills a little when you flush or the washer drains.
- Water around the basement floor drain after a load of laundry.
- A sewer smell that comes and goes.
- A soggy or extra-green strip of lawn over where the sewer line runs, in dry weather.
- Plunging fixes it, and a week later it’s back.
Mistakes that make it worse
Chemical drain cleaner on a drain that won’t drain. If it can’t get through the clog, it sits in the trap, and the next person to plunge or open that trap is working in it.
Grease down the kitchen sink with hot water behind it. The hot water carries it farther down the line, where it cools, sticks and catches everything after it. Grease goes in a can. (What never goes down a drain, and the holiday kitchen version.)
Wipes labeled flushable. They go down fine. They don’t break apart the way toilet paper does, and they’re one of the most common things wrapped around roots in a main line.
A regular drain snake in a toilet. It scratches the porcelain. Toilets get a toilet auger (how to use a drain snake).
Running the dishwasher and the washer while the main line is slow. That’s how a slow line turns into water on the basement floor. Space them out until it’s cleared.
What works
For a bathroom sink, pull the stopper. Most pop-up stoppers lift straight out, or come out after you loosen the nut on the rod under the sink, and there’s usually a wad of hair on the bottom. That alone fixes a lot of slow sinks (bathroom sink draining slowly). For a tub or shower, a barbed plastic drain strip from any hardware store pulls hair out in a minute (unclogging a shower drain). For a sink that’s stopped, a cup plunger works if you block the overflow hole with a wet rag, so the push goes down instead of out.
Baking soda and vinegar won’t hurt anything, but it does less than the fizz suggests (what baking soda and vinegar does to a drain). Hot tap water with a squirt of dish soap does more for a greasy kitchen sink. Put a hair catcher in every shower. Run water in a drain you rarely use every few weeks, so its trap stays full and keeps the sewer smell out. And find your sewer cleanout now, before you need it (what a sewer cleanout is).
When to call
Call when the stopper’s clean and it’s still slow, when it keeps coming back, when more than one drain is slow, or the moment anything gurgles or backs up. SwiftPro’s $99 drain clearing covers one drain up to the P-trap. Deeper drain or main sewer-line work is a separate service, and we’ll give you that price before we start. Our plumbers carry a camera on the truck, so if it’s the main line, you watch the screen with us for $89 added to the visit. There’s $50 off any plumbing repair over $400, and the whole-house plumbing inspection is included with any repair, a $149 value (every current deal).
Book it
Book the $99 drain clearing. Call (703) 997-9757, or book online from goswiftpro.com/cookiesoffer and a box of warm cookies comes with the visit. Our plumbers work in Fairfax, Reston, Herndon, Ashburn and across Northern Virginia, 24 hours a day. Rated 5.0 stars across 1,138 reviews on Google, Angi, Yelp, the BBB and Facebook, Virginia Class A license 2705192276.
Questions people ask
Is a slow drain a big deal?
One slow drain usually isn’t an emergency, but it won’t fix itself. It’s a partial clog that gets a little worse every time something sticks to it. Several slow drains at once, or gurgling and backing up on the lowest floor, point to the main line, and that one shouldn’t wait.
Why are all my drains slow at the same time?
When every drain is slow, the problem is past all of them, in the main line that carries the house to the sewer. Roots, wipes, grease and old pipe are the usual causes.
How much does it cost to fix a slow drain?
In Northern Virginia, SwiftPro clears one drain up to the P-trap for $99. A clog farther down that drain’s line runs $200 to $800, and clearing the main sewer line runs $550 to $1,650. You get the price before the work starts.
Can a slow drain fix itself?
No. Hair, soap and grease only build up. Hot water can move a little of it for a day or two, which is why a slow drain sometimes seems better, but the clog is still there and it keeps growing.
Why does my toilet gurgle when the washer drains?
Air is being pulled through the toilet’s water as the washer’s water tries to get past a blockage. It usually means the main line is partly blocked, sometimes a blocked vent. Have it looked at before it backs up.
