24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in New Orleans, LA

The French Quarter, Marigny, Bywater, Treme and the Lower Garden District have Creole cottages, townhouses and shotgun houses from the 1790s through the 1900s, many raised on piers.

Uptown, the Irish Channel, Mid-City and Carrollton are full of shotgun doubles, camelbacks and raised bungalows from the 1880s through the 1930s.

Gentilly, Lakeview and parts of New Orleans East were built from the 1920s through the 1970s, many on slabs or low piers.

Much of the city sits below sea level on soft, organic soil that subsides over time, pulling and cracking buried pipe.

The Sewerage and Water Board runs both the sanitary sewer and the drainage pumping system, which can be overwhelmed by heavy rain.

The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans operates the city's sanitary sewers, drainage pumps and treatment plants. New Orleans property owners own and maintain the sewer service line up to the connection at the public sewer.

Summer afternoon downpours and hurricane season from June through November can flood streets in minutes and overload sewers. Roots grow year-round in the warm, wet climate.

Mild winters bring occasional hard freezes that can burst exposed pipes under raised houses.

The shotgun house, one room wide and several rooms deep, is the signature New Orleans home, and thousands line the streets of Uptown, Mid-City, the Bywater and the Seventh Ward. Many are doubles, with two units side by side sharing a wall and sometimes a service line. Most are raised on piers, with drain lines running under the house before dropping to the lateral. When the lateral clogs, the back bathroom usually backs up first.

Much of New Orleans sits on soft, organic soils that compact and subside, especially since the city began pumping out groundwater a century ago. As the ground sinks, buried pipe moves with it. Laterals sag, joints separate and pipes crack where they connect to the house, which is often on piers that don't sink. Sidewalks and streets visibly warp in many neighborhoods. A camera inspection usually shows the damage.

New Orleans's live oaks, along St. Charles Avenue, in Audubon Park and City Park and on neighborhood streets, are spectacular, and their roots spread far through the soft soil. Old clay and cast iron laterals with cracked joints are easy targets. Root cutting and lining keep lines open without harming the trees.

When a summer thunderstorm drops two or three inches of rain in an hour, the Sewerage and Water Board's drainage pumps can fall behind, and streets flood. Sanitary sewers can surcharge too, especially where cracked pipes let storm water in. Backflow preventers help protect homes, and raising cleanouts above street level keeps floodwater out.

In July, a family in an Uptown shotgun double finds the back bathroom tub filling with gray water. The plumber opens the cleanout under the front porch and clears roots from a big live oak about thirty feet out. On the camera, the clay has sagged and pulled apart at a joint where the ground has subsided. They plan to replace the section.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, floodwater sat in Lakeview, Gentilly, the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East for weeks. Many homes were gutted and rebuilt, often raised higher, with new plumbing inside. Some still connect to old laterals or old mains. The joint where a post-Katrina PVC line meets the original clay is a common failure point.

The French Quarter's Creole townhouses and the Marigny's cottages are among the oldest buildings in the country with modern plumbing retrofitted into them. Lines run under courtyards and through old brick. Restaurants, bars and short-term rentals add heavy use.

New Orleans cooks a lot of fried seafood, roux and gumbo, and its restaurants produce huge amounts of grease. During Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest and big conventions, kitchens run nonstop. Keeping interceptors pumped is essential to avoid backups.

Many homes in the Marigny, Bywater, Treme and Uptown are short-term rentals. Bachelorette parties and Jazz Fest crowds don't think twice about what goes down the toilet, and they fry a lot of crawfish in the kitchen. Rental owners who post signs and jet lines between busy seasons avoid emergency calls.

Most older New Orleans homes are raised on piers, with plumbing exposed underneath. On the rare nights when temperatures drop below freezing, like during the 2021 freeze, those pipes can burst. Wrap exposed pipe and leave faucets dripping when a freeze is forecast.

Raised houses also make crawlspace access easier than in many cities, and a plumber can often see sagging or leaking lines directly.

Before hurricane season, have older lines inspected and cleared, and consider a backflow preventer. After a storm, check for slow drains, odors and signs of a backup before running a lot of water.

Gentilly and Lakeview, built on drained swampland from the 1920s through the 1960s, have ranches and raised bungalows. Subsidence is especially severe in some parts, and laterals often show sags and separations.

Share the neighborhood, whether the house is raised or on a slab, whether it's a double and whether it's a rental. Mention big live oaks near the line and whether streets flooded recently.