24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Knoxville, TN

Fourth and Gill, Old North Knoxville, Parkridge, Mechanicsville and Fort Sanders have Victorian and early 1900s homes, many on crawlspaces or partial basements with clay laterals.

Sequoyah Hills, Holston Hills, Fountain City and North Hills were built from the 1910s through the 1950s with bungalows, Tudors and ranches on hilly lots.

West Knoxville, Bearden and the areas along Kingston Pike filled in after World War II with ranches and split-levels.

Newer subdivisions toward Farragut, Hardin Valley and Powell have PVC drains.

The city sits on folded limestone and shale ridges, with sinkholes in places, along the Tennessee River.

Knoxville Utilities Board, KUB, operates the city's wastewater system and treatment plants. KUB customers own and maintain the private service lateral from the building to the public sewer.

Spring storms and summer downpours push water into cracked laterals, and August move-in packs Fort Sanders rentals.

Winter cold snaps and the occasional ice storm can freeze pipes in crawlspaces and exterior walls.

Fort Sanders, between downtown and the University of Tennessee, is packed with Victorian houses converted to student apartments. Several students per house push heavy loads through old clay laterals, and hair, grease and wipes cause frequent clogs. Landlords who jet laterals in summer avoid many fall emergencies. On football Saturdays, the neighborhood fills with tens of thousands of fans, adding more strain.

Fourth and Gill and Old North Knoxville, just north of downtown, are historic districts with Victorian and Craftsman homes on tree-lined streets. Many have been restored, and many still have original clay laterals under big oaks and maples. Roots are the leading cause of backups.

Knoxville's terrain rises and falls in ridges and valleys. Homes on ridges have laterals that drop steeply to the street, and homes in hollows can sit below the sewer. Steep runs can leave solids behind, and long runs have more joints for roots. Jetting cleans them well.

East Tennessee's limestone dissolves over time, creating caves and sinkholes. A sinkhole near a lateral can undermine it, causing a sag or break. Rock close to the surface also makes digging slow and costly, so lining and pipe bursting are popular repair methods.

In late August, six students in a 1905 house in Fort Sanders find the basement shower drain overflowing. The plumber opens the cleanout and pulls out hair, wipes and fine roots about twenty-five feet out. On the video, the clay is cracked and one section sits on a ledge of rock. The landlord plans a liner over winter break.

Sequoyah Hills, along the river on the west side, and Holston Hills, on the east side, have Tudors, Colonial Revivals and ranches on wooded, hilly lots. Big trees and long, sloping laterals mean roots and cracked joints.

Fountain City, once its own town, has homes from the early 1900s through the 1950s around a historic park and lake. Clay laterals and cast iron are common, and many homes sit on crawlspaces.

West Knoxville along Kingston Pike filled in after World War II with ranches and split-levels. Cast iron and clay from that era are aging. Newer subdivisions farther west have PVC and fewer root problems.

Many Knoxville homes sit on crawlspaces, and the humid summers keep them damp. Cast iron drains under the house rust and scale, and leaks can go unnoticed. A musty smell or damp floor is a sign to check.

Market Square, Gay Street and the Old City have revived restaurants and bars in historic buildings with old lines. Pumping interceptors on schedule and jetting lines before football season keeps those kitchens open.

Knoxville's winters are mild, but cold snaps and ice storms can freeze crawlspace and exterior wall pipes. Before a freeze, block the crawlspace vents, wrap any exposed pipe and keep a slow trickle running at the farthest faucet.

Parkridge, east of downtown, and Mechanicsville, west of the old rail yards, grew up in the late 1800s as neighborhoods for railroad and factory workers. Their Victorian and Queen Anne cottages sit on narrow lots, many on crawlspaces with drain lines running only a foot or two under the yard before reaching the street. Shallow clay pipe in rocky ground cracks easily, and the hackberries, maples and oaks that took over the yards during the decades of disinvestment have rooted into many joints. Owners restoring these homes now often find the lateral is the last original system left, and lining it while the rest of the house is under renovation is usually the cheapest time to do it.

Knoxville's older neighborhoods drain toward First Creek, Second Creek, Third Creek and the Tennessee River, and the low ground along those creeks floods in heavy storms. KUB spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars rehabilitating sewers under a consent decree to reduce overflows, but private laterals still let groundwater in when they're cracked. Fixing those cracks and pulling downspouts out of the sewer helps both the homeowner and the system.

Because KUB considers the lateral private property, a buyer inherits whatever condition it's in. On older homes, especially in the hillside neighborhoods, ask the inspector to run a camera from the cleanout to the main. A cracked or root-filled lateral found before closing becomes a negotiating point instead of a surprise.

Share your neighborhood, the home's age and whether it's a student rental. Mention whether the lot is steep, whether there's a crawlspace or basement and whether big trees grow near the line.