Tips for Residents

Keep Your Toilet Bowl Lid Down
Our sanitary sewer jet-cleaning machine uses high-pressure water to clean the sanitary sewer. This high water pressure may affect your home's sanitary sewer plumbing.

You may experience gurgling or bubbling water in the toilet bowl or, in rare cases, splash out of the bowl. The water that could come from this type of incident is from the bowl itself.

So, to minimize water splashing out of your toilet bowl, make it a habit to keep the lid down. Sanitary sewer cleaning does not damage your sewer system.
An illlustration of a sewer cleaning nozzle spraying water into a pipe.
Root Invasion
Root invasion from mature trees into old sewer pipes is a common cause of back ups.
A photograph of roots clogging a sewer drain.
A diagram of a P-Trap with explanations written out of every part of the drain.
P-Traps
Traps are an important part of a home/business sewer system. A trap is configured to hold water which prevents sewer gases from traveling into the home from the sewer mainline in the street. Traps that are located in areas where water is rarely added such as a basement floor drain may dry out. Once the water is gone, there is nothing preventing the gases from entering the home. To prevent this from occurring it is good practice to occasionally pour water down the drain to refill the trap.
Grease Blockages
Fats, oils, and grease aren't just bad for your arteries and your waistline; they're bad for sewers too.

Sewer overflows and backups can cause health hazards, damage home interiors, and threaten the environment.

The second leading cause of all sewer overflows is grease blockages. Grease can get into the sewer from household drains as well as from poorly maintained grease traps in restaurants and other businesses.

Sewer Main Lines are sized to handle waste water only, that is why:

City ordinance prohibits property owners from disposing of clear water into the sanitary sewer system. This includes water from any roof, surface or ground sump pump, or foundation drain.