Drain Cleaning in Concord, NC

The North Union Street historic district and the neighborhoods around downtown have homes from the 1880s through the 1930s, many Victorian and Craftsman houses on crawlspaces with clay laterals under oaks.

Mill villages built by Cannon Mills and other textile companies, such as the area around the old Gibson and Locke mills, have small frame houses with shallow, aging laterals.

Postwar neighborhoods around Concord were built from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, some with Orangeburg fiber pipe.

Since the 1990s, Concord has boomed with subdivisions along I-85 and toward Harrisburg and Kannapolis, mostly with PVC drains.

Charlotte Motor Speedway, zMAX Dragway and Concord Mills bring huge crowds several times a year, filling hotels, campgrounds and rented homes.

The City of Concord's water resources department provides sewer service, with treatment through the Water and Sewer Authority of Cabarrus County. Homeowners maintain the line from the house to the city connection.

The Coca-Cola 600 in May and the fall race bring hundreds of thousands of fans, and many homes and campgrounds fill up.

Spring and summer storms soak the clay. Winter ice storms can freeze crawlspace pipes.

The North Union Street historic district has some of the finest Victorian homes in the Carolinas, built by mill owners and merchants in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Their clay laterals run under oaks and magnolias that are as old as the houses, and roots fill most of them. Lining is popular because it preserves the trees and the historic streetscape.

Cannon Mills and the other textile companies around Concord built villages of small frame houses for their workers, and after the mills closed, those houses were sold to the families living in them. The sewer lines were laid quickly a century ago, often shallow and sometimes shared between houses before reaching the main, and they've been patched with whatever pipe was handy ever since. A camera run usually finds a mix of clay, iron and plastic, with roots at the old joints. When neighbors back up on the same day, it's worth tracing where their lines meet before anyone pays for a repair.

Twice a year, NASCAR fans pour into Concord for races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the dragway hosts big events too. Homes near the track are rented out, campgrounds fill and restaurants run nonstop. Hosts who jet the line beforehand and post clear notes avoid most Sunday morning backups.

Concord's growth since the 1990s, along I-85 and out toward Harrisburg, Kannapolis and Mount Pleasant, has brought thousands of new homes in subdivisions like Skybrook, Christenbury and Moss Creek. They have PVC drains and cleanouts near the driveway, and the pipe itself rarely fails. Most calls there are about busy family kitchens and bathrooms: grease from weeknight dinners, wipes in the kids' toilet, hair in the master shower. In homes less than two years old, grout or drywall mud from the build sometimes causes a first backup, and the builder usually covers it.

On the Sunday morning of the Coca-Cola 600, a homeowner hosting eight race fans near the speedway finds every toilet backing up. The plumber clears the main from the front cleanout, pulling out a mass of wipes. The host adds trash cans and signs before the fall race.

Ranch homes built around Concord from the late 1940s through the early 1970s, on streets off Church Street, Branchview and the older parts of Kannapolis Highway, sometimes have Orangeburg pipe, a fiber pipe soaked in tar. After decades in red clay, it softens, sags into an oval and blisters on the inside, catching paper. A camera inspection shows it immediately. Lining won't bond to it, so bursting a new pipe through or replacing the run is the usual fix.

Concord Mills, one of the largest malls in the state, the Great Wolf Lodge and the dozens of restaurants clustered around the speedway and Bruton Smith Boulevard serve enormous crowds on race weekends. Commercial kitchens there need interceptors pumped on a regular schedule and an extra service before each race week.

Concord sits on the same red Piedmont clay as Charlotte. It soaks up storm water and holds it, then shrinks and cracks in a dry August. Over decades, that cycle opens joints in old clay and iron laterals, and during wet seasons, rainwater seeps through those openings and adds to the flow. A line that's fine all fall may back up in a rainy spring.

Outside the city's sewer area, many Cabarrus County homes toward Mount Pleasant and Midland use septic. Red clay drains slowly, so fields there saturate after heavy rain. When every drain slows at once, check the tank.

Give your neighborhood and the home's age, whether it's a mill house, historic home or new build, and whether you're hosting race fans. Mention big trees near the sewer path, whether neighbors are having trouble too and, for a new home, whether the builder warranty still applies.