Cleaning Out Your Main Drain

The main drain is the most critical drain in the house to keep clear. Most likely you have noticed water backing up in various drains around the house. Often you will get roots, clogs or other buildup that is slowing down or stopping water from flowing down your main drain. If you have a problem drain, you may want to do this every few years to prevent a larger issue. Here are a few things you can try before calling up the plumber.

Accessing the main drain

The first thing you need to find out is if you have a clean out plug either on your main drain stack or somewhere outside. The main pipe is usually 4-6 inches in diameter and close to toilets. In this pipe you should have a clean out plug. If you do not have a clean out plug you will have to try and access it through a toilet. Your best bet here is to remove the toilet.

Renting the right equipment

Renting a rooter or heavy duty drain snake is a must for this job. You can get them at Home Depot or any local rental store. Some of them have auto feeding snakes, this is a big help! I've used both and it is so much easier with an auto feeding snake. Let the rental store know about your situation and they should be able to suggest one. The most common lengths for this type of snake is 50, 75 to 100 feet long In most cities the code for a main drain heading out to the city is less than 100 feet long. In the case of our house, we had over 100 feet of main drain. Our house previously had a septic system so the main drain went to the back yard, around the house, then finally to the street.

Protecting the area around the rooter machine from a big mess!

Be sure you put up plastic, cardboard or something around the main drum of the drain snake. As it comes back in from the sewer it will be spinning and spraying stuff you don't want on your walls or floor.

Cleaning out the main drain

Open up the cleaning valve and start using the snake. Carefully feed the snake down the drain. Try not to let the snake rest against the side of your access point, it can eventually cause damage. When I cleaned out mine the snake was touching the threads and it left a small divot, but fortunately didn't destroy the threads or any part of my access point.

Feed the drain in slowly and periodically reverse and pull the drain back a few feet. There will be times when the rooter snake seems to get stuck or not be able to go any further. That is probably where your clog is.

At the end of it, you should be able to flush a toilet and listen to hear the water splash into the city sewer which is kind of a hollow splash.

Finally, know when your beat.

If you have been working at it for a few hours, it may be time to call in a plumber. You don't want to damage your drain or your back. Check online for some coupons, shop around a bit, but generally, the rooter companies won't give you an estimate over the phone, but they will come in and give you a free "no obligation" estimate. I ended up calling a plumber who struggled to get my drain clean because of large roots. If you catch it early you probably have a better change than me.
Good luck!