I pushed harder. Nothing. The snake was hitting a wall of solid muck.
I capped the cleanout, poured a bucket of water down every drain to test, and breathed for the first time in three hours. how to clear a clogged sewer line
I ran upstairs and flushed the toilet. This time, instead of gurgling, the water roared through the pipes and vanished. No backup. No smell. I pushed harder
The jetter had blasted through a plug of wet wipes and congealed grease the size of a raccoon. I capped the cleanout, poured a bucket of
I ran to the street and popped the cap off the cleanout —that white PVC pipe sticking out of the ground near the foundation. When I unscrewed the lid, dark water rose to the rim but didn’t overflow. Good. That meant the clog was downstream, between the house and the city main. If water had spewed out like a volcano, the clog would be inside the house—a much harder fix.
I had a clogged main sewer line. And I had three choices: call a plumber for $500, ignore it until sewage backed up into the tub, or try to fix it myself.
Here is the story of how I cleared it—without destroying my yard.