24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Rio Rancho, NM

The oldest neighborhoods, around Southern Boulevard and the original Rio Rancho Estates subdivisions, were built from the 1960s through the 1980s with ranch homes on slabs.

Most of Rio Rancho, including Cabezon, Enchanted Hills, Northern Meadows and Mariposa, was built from the 1990s onward with PVC drains on slabs.

Some areas on the city's far edges use septic systems because sewer hasn't reached them.

Rio Rancho sits on a sandy mesa at about 5,300 to 5,700 feet, with dry air, cold winter nights and hard water.

Intel's large plant has been a major employer, and many households are young families.

The City of Rio Rancho's Utilities Department runs the sewer system and its water reclamation facilities. Rio Rancho homeowners own the private sewer line from the house to the public main.

Summer heat and monsoon storms in July and August can flood low streets and arroyos.

Winter nights on the mesa often drop into the teens, freezing exposed pipes and swamp cooler lines.

In the 1960s, a developer sold Rio Rancho lots by mail to buyers across the country, many of them retirees dreaming of the Southwest. The first homes went up around Southern Boulevard, and the community slowly grew. When Intel opened a plant in the 1980s, growth exploded, and Rio Rancho became a city of young families. Its oldest homes are now fifty to sixty years old, with laterals showing their age.

Rio Rancho sits on a mesa of sandy, loose soil. Over time, sand can settle around buried sewer lines, especially where trenches weren't well compacted during construction. That settling creates sags, or bellies, where water and waste collect and clogs form. A camera inspection shows where a line has dropped.

Rio Rancho's water is very hard, and scale builds up in drain pipes, water heaters and fixtures. Kitchen and laundry lines are most affected. Hydro jetting removes scale and grease buildup.

Most Rio Rancho homes are occupied by families, and busy kitchens and kids' bathrooms produce most clogs: grease, food scraps, rice, wipes and toys. Pouring fat into an old coffee can and keeping wipes in the trash takes care of most of them.

After a big family dinner in December, a household in a 2004 home in Cabezon finds the kitchen sink full of greasy water and the dishwasher backing up. The plumber clears a plug of grease, rice and scale from the kitchen line about twelve feet in. After jetting, the line runs clear.

Some parts of Rio Rancho, especially on the far edges of the city, aren't served by sewer and rely on septic systems. In sandy soil, drain fields usually work well, but tanks need regular pumping. Pumping on schedule keeps solids from reaching the drain field.

Rio Rancho keeps growing, and new subdivisions are going up in the north and west. Plumbers sometimes find construction debris in new lines. A drain problem in a house less than a year old is worth reporting to the builder before paying for repairs yourself.

Summer monsoon storms drop heavy rain on the mesa, and water rushes down arroyos and streets. Low areas can flood, and storm water can get into sewers through damaged cleanouts.

Rio Rancho sits higher than Albuquerque, and winter nights are colder. Exposed pipes in garages, on exterior walls and for swamp coolers and irrigation freeze first. Drain cooler lines in the fall and insulate exposed pipe.

A garage water heater or laundry sink on an outside wall is a common freeze point when temperatures drop into single digits.

Homes from the 1970s and early 1980s near Southern Boulevard and the original subdivisions have early plastic or cast iron lines now showing their age. Scale, sags and the occasional root from a landscape tree are common.

Restaurants along Unser Boulevard, Southern Boulevard and around City Center serve a growing population. Commercial kitchens stay open by keeping interceptors pumped on schedule.

Intel's Rio Rancho plant has long run around the clock, and many households keep shift-work schedules. Laundry, cooking and showers at all hours put steady demand on drains.

Nearly every Rio Rancho kitchen has a garbage disposal, and plumbers here pull a lot of rice, pasta, potato peels and tortilla scraps out of kitchen lines. Starchy foods swell with water and form a paste that sticks to grease and scale. The disposal grinds them small, but they reassemble a few feet downstream. Scrape plates into the trash, run plenty of cold water with the disposal and save the disposal for small scraps.

Rio Rancho's southern and eastern edges drop toward the Rio Grande valley and the village of Corrales, where homes on larger lots often have septic systems and big cottonwoods. Cottonwood roots seek out any moisture, including leaking septic lines and cracked laterals. If your home sits near the valley edge, mention any big cottonwoods or elms to the plumber.

Mention the neighborhood, the home's age, whether you're on sewer or septic and which drains are slow. Say whether a big meal or event came first.