Drain Cleaning in Abilene, TX

Abilene was founded by the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881. Neighborhoods near downtown and the three universities, including Sayles Boulevard, Elmwood and the streets around Hardin-Simmons, have homes from the 1910s through the 1940s with clay or cast iron laterals under big elms and pecans.

Postwar neighborhoods spread south and southwest through the 1950s and 1960s, mostly slab homes with cast iron drains.

South Abilene and the neighborhoods near the Mall of Abilene filled in from the 1970s onward with plastic-plumbed homes and outside cleanouts.

Dyess Air Force Base brings thousands of airmen and families, many of whom rent homes on the west and southwest sides.

Abilene's water is hard, and the red clay soil swells and shrinks with drought and rain, moving slabs and pipes.

The City of Abilene's water utilities department provides sewer service and treatment. Owners are responsible for the private line from the house to the city main.

West Texas droughts can last for months, shrinking the clay and cracking old pipes. Roots chase any moisture they can find.

Spring thunderstorms can bring heavy rain and hail. Winter cold fronts sometimes freeze drains in exterior walls. Student move-in each August and PCS season each summer bring rental clogs.

The neighborhoods around Hardin-Simmons, Abilene Christian and McMurry, and the older streets near downtown, have homes from the early twentieth century with clay or cast iron laterals. Roots from big elms and pecans are routine. Many homes there are rented to students, and shared houses add hair, grease and wipes to old lines.

Neighborhoods built from the 1950s through the 1960s have slab homes with cast iron drains that are now heavily scaled. Drought cycles in the red clay add cracks. Running a camera from the yard cleanout back under the house tells you how much of the pipe's opening is left, and whether cleaning it out will buy a few years or whether the line needs a liner now.

Dyess Air Force Base brings families who rent on the west and southwest sides and move every few years. On move-in, find the cleanout, run water in every fixture and report anything slow right away. Landlords who clean main lines between tenants avoid many calls.

During a long summer drought, a family in a 1958 home near Sears Park notices the toilets gurgling and the tub draining slowly. The plumber clears the main and runs a camera, which shows heavy scale and a crack in the cast iron where the clay pulled away. The family schedules lining.

Abilene's red clay shrinks hard during long droughts and swells when rain finally returns. That cycle bends slabs and opens joints. Watering near the foundation evenly in dry months helps keep movement down.

Abilene draws water from Fort Phantom Hill, Hubbard Creek, O.H. Ivie and other reservoirs, and during long droughts the city leans on sources heavier in minerals. Scale builds in traps, shower drains and the bottom of water heaters. A bathroom sink that slows a little more every month usually has a crusted trap. Pull and clean traps every year or two, use hair catchers in every shower and drain a few gallons from the water heater each fall.

Blue northers can drop Abilene temperatures from the sixties into the teens in an afternoon. Pipes running through the garage, along a north wall or under an old pier-and-beam house are the ones that ice up. Before winter, wrap exposed pipes and close crawlspace vents. During a freeze, keep the garage door shut, open sink cabinets on outside walls and let faucets drip. If a drain freezes anyway, warm the space slowly; never use a torch.

Downtown Abilene's restaurants in the Frontier Texas district, and the barbecue and steak joints along Treadaway Boulevard and South 14th, serve hearty food with plenty of grease. Commercial kitchens need interceptors pumped on a fixed schedule and lines jetted a few times a year. At home, chicken-fried steak night sends oil toward the sink; let it cool and throw it out.

Spring thunderstorms on the Rolling Plains can drop two or three inches of rain and golf-ball hail in an hour. Low areas near Cedar Creek, Elm Creek and Lytle Creek can see gray water come up through a tub or floor drain when the public mains are overloaded. Homes that have had that happen once are good candidates for a backwater valve, a flap in the service line that lets water out but not back in.

Abilene's older neighborhoods offer a lot of house for the money, but laterals there may be seventy or a hundred years old. Before closing, have the line scoped from the cleanout to the city main. Roots, scale and a cracked joint are common findings and are much easier to negotiate before you own the house.

Give your neighborhood and the home's age, whether it's a rental and whether the drain might be frozen. Mention big trees, whether the trouble started during a drought or after rain, and whether the home is near a creek. If you rent near Dyess, have the property manager's number handy.