24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Ann Arbor, MI

The Old West Side, Kerrytown, Burns Park, the Old Fourth Ward and the blocks around central campus have homes from the 1850s through the 1930s, nearly all with basements and clay tile laterals.

Neighborhoods like Lower Burns Park, Ann Arbor Hills and the near north side filled in from the 1920s through the 1950s with colonials, Tudors and bungalows over basements.

The postwar edges of the city, including Lansdowne, Pittsfield Village and the northeast side, were built in the 1950s through the 1970s with ranches and split-levels.

Newer subdivisions and condos on the outskirts have PVC drains, sump pumps and finished basements.

The Huron River winds through town, and many neighborhoods sit on hills with steep laterals and heavy tree cover.

Ann Arbor's Public Services Area runs the city's sanitary sewer and wastewater treatment plant. The private lateral from an Ann Arbor home to the city main is the owner's to maintain.

Late August move-in packs student rentals, and late spring and summer bring the fastest root growth and the heaviest storms.

Winter cold freezes drains in garages, porches and exterior walls, and spring thaw raises groundwater around basements.

The Old West Side was settled largely by German immigrants in the mid 1800s, and it still has rows of small frame houses, many with original details, along streets shaded by huge maples and oaks. Kerrytown, around the Farmers Market, has a similar mix of old homes and shops. Clay tile laterals there are often well over a century old, and roots are the most common cause of backups. Because these are historic districts with valued trees, lining is usually the preferred repair.

Burns Park, just southeast of campus, has early 1900s foursquares, colonials and bungalows on tree-lined streets, many owned by faculty families. The blocks closer to campus, north of Burns Park and around South State and Packard, are packed with student rentals. Several students per house push heavy loads through old clay laterals, and backups in late August and September are common. Landlords who jet mains each summer save themselves a lot of emergency calls.

Many older Ann Arbor homes had their foundation footing drains connected to the sanitary sewer when they were built. During heavy rain, those drains send a lot of groundwater into the sewer system, which can overload it and push sewage back into basements. The city's footing drain disconnection program addressed this in many neighborhoods by rerouting footing drains to new sump pumps. If your home was part of the program, keep that sump pump in good shape.

The second week of the fall semester, six students in a 1910 house off Packard Street see water rising through the basement floor drain. The plumber clears the main from the basement cleanout, pulling out hair, wipes and a mass of maple roots about thirty-five feet out. The camera shows offset clay joints. The landlord schedules a liner and annual jetting.

Ann Arbor's neighborhoods climb hills on both sides of the Huron River. Homes on slopes, especially in Ann Arbor Hills, the near north side and along Geddes, often have steep laterals. Steep runs can let solids settle out, and hillside soil can shift pipe. Jetting cleans these lines thoroughly.

Neighborhoods built after World War II, including Lansdowne and the areas off Packard, Stadium and Plymouth Road, have ranches and split-levels with cast iron inside and clay or early plastic outside. Scale in the cast iron and roots in the clay are common at this age.

Main Street, State Street, South University and Kerrytown are packed with restaurants, bars and cafes, many in buildings from the 1800s. On football Saturdays, crowds swell to more than 100,000, and kitchens run hard. Grease traps pumped regularly and lines jetted on schedule keep them running.

Ann Arbor winters bring long cold stretches, and drains in garages, enclosed porches and uninsulated additions freeze first. In spring, snowmelt raises groundwater and stresses sump pumps and cracked laterals. Keep sump discharge lines clear of ice, insulate exposed pipe and let faucets drip during deep cold.

Beyond undergraduate houses, many older Ann Arbor homes are rented to graduate students, hospital residents and young families. Long-term tenants often notice slow drains and gurgling before a full backup. Reporting those early signs to the landlord lets them schedule a cleaning before it becomes an emergency.

A sewer scope is especially valuable in the historic neighborhoods. Watch the full video for roots, cracks, offsets and sags, and ask whether the home was part of the footing drain disconnection program.

Share the neighborhood and the home's age, whether it's a rental and how many people live there. Mention whether there's a sump pump, big trees near the lateral and whether the trouble started after a storm or move-in.