24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Baton Rouge, LA

Spanish Town, Beauregard Town and the neighborhoods near downtown have homes from the 1820s through the 1920s, many raised on piers with clay laterals.

The Garden District, Capital Heights, University Gardens and the neighborhoods around LSU were built from the 1910s through the 1950s with bungalows and cottages.

Mid City and the neighborhoods off Government Street and Florida Boulevard filled in from the 1940s through the 1960s with ranches.

South Baton Rouge, the Highland Road corridor and suburbs toward Prairieville grew from the 1970s onward with slab homes.

Baton Rouge sits on clay and silt soils near the Mississippi, with heavy rain and occasional major flooding.

The City-Parish Department of Environmental Services runs the sewer system for East Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge property owners are responsible for the sewer service line between the house and the public main.

Heavy rains in spring and summer, and hurricane season from June through November, saturate the ground and can overload sewers, and roots grow all year.

Football season in the fall brings huge crowds to LSU and heavy use in homes and restaurants near campus.

Spanish Town and Beauregard Town, next to the State Capitol, are Baton Rouge's oldest neighborhoods, with cottages and townhouses from the early 1800s. Many are raised on piers, and their laterals were added long after construction. Live oaks and old clay mean roots and cracks. Spanish Town's famous Mardi Gras parade brings huge crowds every year.

The Garden District, along with Roseland Terrace and Kleinert Terrace, has bungalows and Tudors from the 1910s through the 1940s under huge live oaks. Those oaks are more than a century old, and their roots have found nearly every joint in the clay pipe beneath them.

The neighborhoods around LSU, including the Northgate area and blocks off Highland Road, are packed with older homes and apartments rented to students. On game nights at Tiger Stadium, more than 100,000 fans fill the area, and nearby homes host big crowds. Old laterals get pushed hard. Owners who jet lines in summer avoid many fall emergencies.

In August 2016, more than two feet of rain fell in parts of the Baton Rouge area over a few days, flooding tens of thousands of homes, many outside designated flood zones. Sewers overflowed and lines filled with silt. Many homes were gutted and rebuilt. Lines that went through the flood should be inspected for silt and damage.

Two days before an LSU home game, five students in a 1940s cottage near campus find the shower filling with gray water. The plumber opens the cleanout and pulls out hair, wipes and live oak roots about twenty-five feet out. The camera shows cracked clay. The owner books a liner after the season.

Baton Rouge's clay soils swell in wet weather and shrink in drought, shifting foundations and laterals. Cast iron under slabs can crack where the slab moves.

Mid City and the neighborhoods off Government Street filled in after World War II with ranches on slabs, many with cast iron under the floor. After sixty to seventy years, that cast iron scales and cracks. Slow drains throughout the house point to trouble under the slab.

Baton Rouge's petrochemical plants along the river run around the clock, and many households work shifts. Water use at all hours exposes partial clogs quickly.

LSU tailgates are legendary, with jambalaya, gumbo and fried food cooked in huge quantities. Restaurants near campus and downtown run at full capacity on game days. Kitchens that pump interceptors before the season avoid backups.

Baton Rouge sits inland, but hurricanes and tropical storms still bring heavy rain and wind. Before the season, have older lines inspected and cleared, and consider a backflow preventer in low areas.

After a storm, wait for streets to drain before running a lot of water, especially in neighborhoods that flooded in 2016.

South Baton Rouge and the suburbs toward Prairieville have grown since the 1970s with slab homes and PVC drains. Kitchen grease and wipes, rather than roots, account for most of the calls.

Baton Rouge rarely freezes hard, but occasional cold snaps catch exposed pipes under raised houses. Wrap them before the first freeze.

Mid City, stretching along Government Street between downtown and the LSU area, has been revitalized with restaurants, shops and renovated homes. Its neighborhoods, like Ogden Park and Bernard Terrace, have cottages and bungalows from the 1920s through the 1950s, many on low piers or slabs. Clay and cast iron laterals there are now old enough to crack, and live oaks along the streets add roots. When an owner renovates, a camera inspection of the lateral is a smart early step, since replacing it before new floors go in is much easier.

Baton Rouge drains through bayous and canals like Dawson Creek, Ward Creek and the Comite River, and neighborhoods near them sit on lower ground where water collects during heavy rain. Cracked laterals there take in groundwater, and low sewers can surcharge. Homes that flooded in 2016 are often near these waterways, and a backflow preventer is worth considering.

Share the neighborhood, the home's age, whether it's raised or on a slab and whether it's a student rental. Mention live oaks near the line and whether the home flooded in 2016.