24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Washington, DC

Capitol Hill, Shaw, Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park have brick rowhouses from the 1870s through the 1910s, many with English basements and old cast iron or clay sewer laterals.

Petworth, Brightwood, Columbia Heights and Brookland were built from the 1900s through the 1930s with porch-front rowhouses and detached homes.

Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, AU Park and Palisades have detached homes from the 1910s through the 1950s on tree-lined streets.

East of the Anacostia, neighborhoods like Anacostia, Hillcrest and Congress Heights have homes and garden apartments from the 1880s through the 1960s.

About a third of the city, mostly the older core, has combined sewers, and DC Water's Clean Rivers Project has built deep tunnels to capture overflows.

DC Water operates the city's sewers and the Blue Plains treatment plant. In the District, the property owner is responsible for the sewer lateral from the house to the property line, and DC Water maintains the section from the property line to the public main.

Summer thunderstorms can drop inches of rain in an hour, overwhelming combined sewers and flooding basements in Bloomingdale, Shaw and other low areas. Roots grow fastest from May through August.

Winter cold snaps freeze pipes in unheated basements, back additions and exterior walls of old rowhouses.

Many DC rowhouses have an English basement, a lower level partly below grade with its own entrance, often rented as a separate apartment. It holds the lowest drains in the building. When the lateral clogs or the public sewer surcharges, water rises there first. Owners who keep the lateral clean, install a backwater valve and add a floor drain plug protect their tenants and income.

The older parts of DC, including Capitol Hill, Shaw, Bloomingdale, Columbia Heights and downtown, are served by combined sewers that carry rain and wastewater together. During big storms, they overflowed into the Anacostia, Potomac and Rock Creek, and low neighborhoods like Bloomingdale flooded repeatedly. DC Water's Clean Rivers Project built the Anacostia River Tunnel and the Northeast Boundary Tunnel to store overflow, and flooding has dropped. Extreme storms can still surcharge local sewers.

Capitol Hill's rowhouses, from small frame homes to grand Victorians, and Shaw's and Logan Circle's brick rowhouses date mostly from the 1870s through the 1910s. Laterals are often cast iron or clay, running under the front yard and sidewalk. Street trees along the sidewalks send roots into the joints.

Petworth, Brightwood and Brookland have porch-front rowhouses and detached homes from the early 1900s, on streets lined with oaks and maples. Those trees are a big part of the neighborhoods' charm, and they are also why so many Petworth and Brookland plumbing calls end with a root cutter.

After a July thunderstorm, the English basement tenant in a 1905 rowhouse in Bloomingdale finds water rising from the shower drain. The owner calls a plumber, who opens the cleanout at the front basement wall and cables toward the street, clearing roots about fifteen feet out under the sidewalk. The camera shows cracked clay. The owner books a liner and a backwater valve.

Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, AU Park and the Palisades have detached homes on wooded lots. Long laterals under big trees mean roots and cracks. Many homes have finished basements, making flood protection worthwhile.

Anacostia's historic district has some of the city's oldest homes, and neighborhoods like Hillcrest and Congress Heights have homes and garden apartments from the early and mid twentieth century. Old clay and cast iron laterals are common, and low areas near the river can see higher groundwater.

Some older rowhouse blocks have laterals that join before reaching the main or pass under a neighbor's property. A clog in a shared section affects multiple homes. A camera inspection traces the line and shows who owns which part.

14th Street, U Street, H Street, Barracks Row and the Wharf are packed with restaurants, many in old rowhouse buildings with old laterals. Kitchens there avoid shutdowns by keeping interceptors pumped and lines jetted on a regular cycle.

Repairing a lateral under a DC sidewalk or street requires permits from DDOT and coordination with DC Water, since the city maintains the part beyond the property line. Trenchless lining can reduce the need for public space excavation.

Shared walls keep rowhouses fairly warm, but back additions, unheated basements and pipes along rear walls freeze in a hard cold snap. Keep the basement warm and let a faucet drip on the coldest nights of January.

Washington has a constant churn of residents: Hill staffers, students at Georgetown, GW, Howard and Catholic, and people on short government postings. Rental rowhouses and English basements turn over often, and new tenants rarely know a building's plumbing quirks. Owners who leave a note on where the cleanout is and what not to flush save themselves a lot of late-night calls.

Give the neighborhood and quadrant, the home's age and type, and whether there's an English basement apartment. Mention whether it rained hard, where the cleanout is and whether neighbors have water too.