Hydro Jetting in Arlington, VA

Warning signs in an Arlington house

• A basement floor drain gurgles or seeps when the washer empties
• The kitchen line was augered before and is draining slowly again
• Toilet water rises, then drops away slowly, on more than one floor
• A sewer odor hangs around the cleanout or the laundry tub
• The last cable run pulled back root hairs or a gray paste

A single sluggish fixture is usually a trap or branch line problem. When the lowest drains in the house act up together, the restriction sits further down, in the main building drain or the lateral running out toward the street.

What Arlington's housing and sewers mean for jetting

Arlington County's Department of Environmental Services runs both the public water system and the sanitary sewers through its Water, Sewer, Streets Bureau, and wastewater is treated at the County's Water Pollution Control Plant. Away from the high-rise corridors around Rosslyn, Clarendon and Ballston, much of the county is single-family streets such as Cherrydale, and the median home here dates to about 1976. That puts many houses in the age range where cast iron drains carry decades of scale and where mature yard and street trees have had time to reach lateral joints.

Those are the conditions jetting handles well. The nozzle's rear-facing jets scour the full circumference of the pipe instead of boring one hole, so grease and scale leave with the rinse water. On older iron, a careful plumber usually runs a camera first and turns the pressure down where the wall looks thin.

Cost factors

• Where the line can be reached: an outdoor cleanout, a basement cleanout, or a pulled toilet
• How far the lateral runs before it meets the County main
• Soft grease versus a packed root mass
• Whether a camera inspection is added before or after
• Evening or weekend timing

If the camera turns up a cracked or separated section, the job becomes repair work, and plumbing permits in Arlington go through the County's building permits and inspections program, applied for through Permit Arlington.

When you call

The number on this page reaches independent plumbers who work in Arlington. Mention which drains are affected, whether the house has a basement cleanout, and when the line was last cleared. If water is surfacing in the street or yard rather than inside, the County's 24-hour hotline, 703-228-6555, takes reports of main breaks and water showing up in unusual places. Until help arrives, run as little water as you can.