24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Gresham, OR

Historic downtown Gresham and the blocks around Main Avenue have homes from the 1910s through the 1940s, many on crawlspaces with clay or concrete laterals.

Most of Gresham, including Rockwood, Centennial, Powell Valley and Northwest Gresham, was built from the 1960s through the 1980s with ranches and split-levels.

Neighborhoods around Gresham Butte, Hogan Butte and the southern hills were built from the 1980s onward on sloped, wooded lots.

Parts of the city were annexed from unincorporated areas that relied on septic before sewers arrived.

Gresham sits at the mouth of the Columbia Gorge, where east winds bring ice storms and the wet season runs from October to May.

Gresham's Department of Environmental Services runs the city's sewer system and its wastewater treatment plant on the Columbia. Gresham property owners own the private lateral from the house to the public main.

Months of rain from October through May saturate the soil and seep into cracked laterals, and spring brings fast root growth.

East wind out of the Gorge brings ice storms and freezes that hit Gresham harder than Portland.

For most of the twentieth century, Gresham was surrounded by berry fields, nurseries and dairy farms. When MAX light rail reached Gresham in 1986 and Portland's growth pushed east, subdivisions replaced the fields. The ranches and split-levels built then now have laterals forty to sixty years old, often concrete or early plastic, and the trees planted in their yards have grown large enough to root into them.

Rockwood and Centennial, on Gresham's west side, were built mostly in the 1960s and 1970s and annexed later. They're among the most diverse and densely populated parts of the city, with many apartment complexes and large family households. Heavy use, grease and aging laterals are the usual causes of clogs.

Some neighborhoods in Gresham were on septic systems before they were annexed and connected to sewer. Conversions sometimes left the old tank in place, odd connections or sections of pipe that don't line up well. If a home was converted, a camera inspection shows exactly how the line runs.

Gresham Butte, Hogan Butte and the southern hills are old volcanic cones now covered with homes on wooded, sloping lots. Laterals there can run steeply downhill, and Douglas firs and big-leaf maples send roots far. A handful of houses sit lower than the street and need a small sewage pump to push their waste uphill.

In December, a family in a 1974 split-level in Powell Valley finds water rising in the lower-level shower while the dishwasher drains. The plumber opens the outside cleanout and clears roots about thirty feet out, near a large maple. The camera shows a cracked concrete joint letting in groundwater. They schedule a liner for spring.

Gresham gets the brunt of the cold east wind that blows out of the Columbia Gorge in winter, and ice storms here can be much worse than in Portland. Power outages and days below freezing freeze pipes in crawlspaces, garages and exterior walls. Close crawlspace vents, insulate exposed pipe and keep a faucet running slowly when the east wind blows.

Many Gresham homes from the 1960s and 1970s sit on crawlspaces, with drain lines running under the floor. In the long wet season, crawlspaces stay damp, and leaks can go unnoticed. A musty smell or wet insulation under the house is a sign to check.

Gresham gets more rain than Portland, and the soil stays saturated for months. Any crack in a lateral lets that water in, so drains that work fine in August can turn sluggish by December. Sealing cracks and keeping downspouts disconnected from the sewer help.

Johnson Creek runs through south Gresham and floods regularly in heavy winter storms. Neighborhoods near the creek have higher groundwater, and cracked laterals there take in more water.

Historic downtown Gresham, Gresham Station and the corridors along Burnside, Division and Stark have many restaurants. Kitchens stay open by pumping interceptors on schedule.

Gresham has many young families and multigenerational households. Busy kitchens and kids' bathrooms produce most of the clogs in newer homes: grease, rice, wipes and toys. Keeping bacon fat in a can and wipes in the trash solves most of them.

In apartment complexes, a clog in a shared line can affect several units, and the lowest apartment usually gets the water.

Along the MAX Blue Line and the busy arterials like Burnside, Stark and 181st, Gresham has hundreds of apartment complexes built from the 1970s through the 1990s. Their sewer lines carry the waste of dozens of households, and a clog in a building lateral can send water into several ground-floor units at once. Property managers who schedule regular jetting, especially of kitchen lines, see far fewer emergency calls. Tenants help by keeping grease out of sinks and wipes out of toilets.

Gresham's nursery-farming history left many homes on larger lots with mature trees, hedges and old irrigation lines. Some older properties still have the remains of farm drain tile in the ground. Plumbers occasionally find a lateral that crosses or connects to old drain tile, which can let in a lot of groundwater during the wet season. A camera inspection shows what's really connected.

Mention the neighborhood, the home's age, whether it's on a crawlspace and whether it was ever on septic. Say whether an ice storm or heavy rain came first.