24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Warren, MI

South Warren, between 8 Mile and 10 Mile Roads, has the oldest housing, with small brick and frame homes from the 1920s through the 1950s, many with basements and clay laterals.

The middle of the city, from 10 Mile to 13 Mile, was built almost entirely in the 1950s and 1960s with brick ranches and bungalows over full basements, cast iron inside and clay or early cement pipe outside.

North Warren, above 13 Mile toward 14 Mile, has some 1960s and 1970s colonials and tri-levels, and a few newer subdivisions.

Warren sits on flat, poorly drained clay that holds water after storms, and many homes have footing drains tied into the sanitary sewer from when they were built.

The GM Technical Center, Detroit Arsenal and several auto plants are in Warren, and the city has long been a home for auto industry families.

Warren's own Water and Sewerage Division maintains the city sewers, and much of the flow reaches regional treatment through the Great Lakes Water Authority system. Warren homeowners own their building sewer from the house to the city main.

Heavy summer storms are the biggest risk, especially the slow-moving cells that drop several inches of rain on flat ground. Roots grow fastest in June and July.

Long winters with stretches below zero can freeze drains in attached garages and exterior walls.

In 1950, Warren was a small township with fewer than 50,000 people. By 1970, it had nearly 180,000. That growth came from auto workers moving north from Detroit to new brick ranches on quarter-acre lots, close to the GM Tech Center, the Chrysler and Ford plants and the Detroit Arsenal. Builders worked fast, and nearly every house got a full basement, cast iron drains inside and a clay or cement lateral out to the street. Sixty to seventy years later, those laterals are the reason for most main line calls in the city.

Warren sits on flat lake-plain clay left by ancient Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. Rain soaks in slowly and water stands in yards after a big storm. Groundwater seeps into cracked laterals, and many homes from the 1950s have footing drains tied directly into the sanitary sewer, which was common practice then. During heavy rain, all that extra water fills the sewers, and the lowest opening in each house, the basement floor drain, is where it comes out.

Many Warren homeowners have added backwater valves, and some have disconnected footing drains and installed sump pumps. Those changes take pressure off both the house and the city system.

Inside a typical Warren ranch, cast iron runs from the kitchen and bathroom down into the basement and under the floor to the cleanout. After decades of use, cast iron scales on the inside, narrowing the pipe until grease and paper catch. A camera inspection often shows heavy scale under the basement floor even when the outside clay is in fair shape. Descaling with chain cutters restores most of the original flow.

On a hot August evening, after a two-hour downpour, a retired couple in a 1956 brick ranch near 12 Mile and Hoover finds two inches of water around the basement floor drain. The rain stops but the water stays. The plumber opens the front-wall cleanout and clears roots from a maple in the tree lawn about thirty feet out. The camera shows a cracked clay joint and heavy scale under the floor. The couple books a liner and descaling and asks about a backwater valve.

The blocks between 8 Mile and 10 Mile are some of the oldest in the city, with small homes from the 1920s through the early 1950s. Many have been rentals for years. Their laterals are often clay with several root intrusions, and some homes lack a proper cleanout. Plumbers sometimes clear these lines through a toilet or the floor drain before installing a cleanout for next time.

Above 13 Mile, subdivisions from the 1960s and 1970s have larger colonials and tri-levels. Laterals there may be cement or early plastic. Roots are less common than in the south, but grease, wipes and sagging joints in flat clay still cause trouble.

Many Warren homes house extended families, retirees with grandkids visiting and households with several working adults on different shifts. That means a lot of laundry, showers and cooking. Grease from daily cooking and wipes flushed down basement toilets are two of the most common culprits.

Restaurants along Van Dyke, Mound Road, Hoover, 12 Mile and the Dequindre corridor serve plant workers and families, including many Coney Islands, Middle Eastern restaurants and family diners. Their grease traps need pumping on schedule, and older strip mall lines benefit from regular jetting.

Warren winters bring weeks of hard cold. Drains in attached garages, laundry lines along exterior basement walls and pipes in uninsulated additions freeze first. Keeping the garage closed, insulating the rim joist area of the basement and letting a faucet run slowly on the coldest nights prevents most frozen lines.

Because so many Warren basements are finished, a backup can ruin carpet, drywall and furniture. A backwater valve on the main line, a standpipe or float plug in the floor drain and a working sump pump for groundwater are the main tools. The city has sometimes offered help with flood prevention, so check before you install.

Tell them the nearest mile road and cross street, the home's age and whether the basement is finished. Mention whether it rained before the backup, whether neighbors have water too, whether you have a backwater valve and whether big trees grow near the line.