TL;DR: Sewer line problem at your NWA home? Franklin diagnoses, repairs, AND replaces sewer lines — using waterproof camera inspection, hydro jetting, spot repair, or full dig-and-replace when the line is shot. $29 service call to get started.
Signs of a sewer line problem
Sewer line issues rarely announce themselves — they sneak up. Watch for any of these:
Multiple drains backing up at once. Toilet bubbles when the washing machine drains, shower fills when you flush, kitchen sink slow at the same time as a bathroom sink. That’s a downstream blockage in the mainline, not a fixture issue.
Gurgling toilets. Air being pushed back up through the trap from a partial blockage. Often the earliest warning sign.
Sewer smell in the yard or near the cleanout. Means waste isn’t flowing where it should — usually a crack or break in the line.
Soggy patches or unusually green grass over the sewer line. Sewage acts as a fertilizer; a strip of bright green lawn following the line is a tell.
Pest activity. Roaches and rodents can travel up through cracked sewer lines. If you’re seeing a sudden uptick around drains, get the line checked.
Camera inspection — what we find and show you
Before any sewer repair quote, we run a waterproof inspection camera through your cleanout (the capped pipe sticking up out of the ground or coming through a basement wall). The camera streams live video to a monitor we set up next to you, so you see what we see — the actual blockage, the actual crack, the actual root mass.
That matters because most sewer line quotes are eye-popping. Seeing the issue with your own eyes turns “trust me, it’s broken” into “yep, that’s clearly broken.
Repair options
Hydro jetting. First-line option for blockages from grease, scale, and minor root intrusion. High-pressure water scours the inside of the pipe back to bare wall. Doesn’t fix structural damage, but for a clog it’s the long-lasting fix.
Spot repair. When the camera shows a single damaged section — a crack, an offset joint, a small root invasion — we dig down to that section, replace it, and backfill. Less expensive than a full replacement when it’s an option.
Full sewer line replacement. When the line is collapsed, severely bellied, root-destroyed, or the path itself is wrong, we excavate the run and install a brand-new sewer line end to end. It’s more disruption than a spot repair, but it’s the right call when the existing line is past saving — and the new line should outlast everyone in the house.