24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Athens, GA

Cobbham, Boulevard, Milledge Avenue and the neighborhoods around downtown have homes from the 1840s through the 1920s, many on crawlspaces with clay laterals.

Five Points, Normaltown and the neighborhoods off Prince Avenue were built from the 1910s through the 1950s with bungalows and cottages.

The east side, Eastside and the areas off Lexington Road filled in from the 1960s onward with ranches and apartments.

Many older homes near campus have been converted to student rentals, and apartment complexes ring the city.

Athens sits on red Piedmont clay along the North Oconee River.

Athens-Clarke County's Public Utilities Department runs the sewer system and water reclamation facilities. Athens property owners are responsible for the lateral up to the public sewer.

August move-in and fall football season bring the busiest stretch for rental and restaurant calls, and summer heat drives roots toward water.

Mild winters with a few hard freezes can catch crawlspace pipes.

The neighborhoods around UGA's North and South campuses, including Boulevard, Cobbham, Five Points and the blocks off Milledge Avenue, are full of old houses rented to students. Many have four or five tenants and a steady stream of guests. Hair, grease, wipes and party debris fill old clay laterals. Landlords who jet lines in July avoid many August and September emergencies.

On Georgia football Saturdays, more than 90,000 fans pack Sanford Stadium, and tens of thousands more tailgate across town. Houses near campus host crowds, and old laterals and kitchen drains get pushed hard. Restaurants downtown run at capacity. Rental owners and restaurants who prepare before the season avoid game-day backups.

Cobbham and Boulevard have antebellum and Victorian homes on tree-lined streets, many restored, many rented. Milledge Avenue's grand homes, many now fraternity and sorority houses, see heavy use. Old clay laterals under big oaks fill with roots.

Five Points and Normaltown have bungalows and cottages from the early and mid twentieth century, popular with faculty, families and grad students. Oak and pecan roots in the clay pipe, and rusty drains dripping in the crawlspace, account for most of the calls here.

The week before the home opener, five students in a 1920s house on Boulevard find the bathtub filling with gray water. The plumber's cable comes back from about twenty feet out wrapped in hair, wipes and fine roots. The video shows cracked clay. The owner books a liner over winter break.

Athens sits on Georgia red clay that shrinks in dry summers and swells in wet winters. That movement shifts laterals and cracks joints over time. It also makes digging messy, so trenchless repairs are popular.

Most older Athens homes sit on crawlspaces, and the humid climate keeps them damp. The cast iron and galvanized drains hanging from the joists rust, sag and eventually drip; a musty smell from the floor vents is often the first clue.

Athens has hundreds of apartment complexes built for students, many from the 1970s through the 2000s. Shared lines carry the waste of many units, and grease from many kitchens builds up fast. Property managers who jet lines on schedule see fewer emergencies.

Downtown Athens's restaurants and bars, famous for the music scene that produced R.E.M. and the B-52s, sit in old buildings with old lines. Busy weekends and football Saturdays push kitchens hard, and interceptors need frequent pumping.

The east side and areas off Lexington Road grew from the 1960s onward with ranches, newer subdivisions and apartments. Newer lines resist roots, and grease and wipes cause most clogs.

Many east side homes are owner-occupied by families and long-term residents rather than students, and their drain trouble tends to come from the kitchen.

The North Oconee River and its tributaries run through Athens, and neighborhoods near them sit on lower ground with higher groundwater after storms. Cracked laterals there take in water during wet spells.

Athens winters are mild, but a few nights each year drop into the teens. Crawlspace pipes and those on exterior walls freeze first. Block foundation vents and leave a tap running slowly when a freeze is forecast.

Milledge Avenue and the surrounding blocks hold dozens of fraternity and sorority houses, many in grand old homes with additions built over the decades. Kitchens serve dozens of members a day, and bathrooms see far more use than any family home. The old laterals under these houses carry enormous loads, and grease from commercial-style kitchens is a constant concern. Houses that jet their lines over the summer and before rush week, and that keep their grease traps pumped, avoid most of the emergencies that otherwise arrive in late August.

Before UGA dominated the economy, Athens had textile mills along the Oconee, and small mill villages grew up around them, including the old neighborhoods near Oconee Street and the east side of downtown. Those cottages have very old clay laterals, often shallow and sometimes without cleanouts. Many are now rentals or have been renovated by new owners, and the lateral is frequently the last thing to be updated. Adding an outside cleanout makes future service much easier.

Tell the plumber which neighborhood you're in, roughly how old the house is, whether students rent it and how many live there. Mention big trees near the line and whether there's a cleanout.