MAMBA DRAINAGE SERVICES
Drain Cleaning Vancouver
Slow sink, gurgling toilet, or sewage backing up in the laundry room? Our Vancouver crew clears it - and films the inside of your line so you know exactly what caused it.
We run 24/7 across Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, New Westminster, Surrey and Delta. Most calls get a same-day window. Call (778) 961-0824 or book online for a free quote.
Need a Drain Cleaning Service in Vancouver?
Vancouver’s drainage is older than most cities on the west coast. About 90% of properties built before 1990 still sit on a combined sanitary-plus-storm sewer, so a single clog in the lateral can back up both your kitchen sink and your foundation drains at the same time. East Vancouver lines run through cast iron and clay tile installed in the 1950s and 60s. Hastings-Sunrise and Renfrew-Collingwood bungalows are the worst for root intrusion at the property-line joint. Olympic Village and Yaletown high-rises have a different problem: low-flow fixtures plus shared horizontal stacks that grease up fast.
We clear all of it. Sinks, tubs, toilets, floor drains, main lines, perimeter drains, downspout tie-ins, parkade trench drains, restaurant grease lines. If water is sitting where it shouldn’t, we get it moving the same day in most cases.
Standard call timeline: 30-60 minute response within Greater Vancouver, 90 minutes out to Surrey or Delta. Every clear ends with a quick camera pass so you see the pipe interior on a monitor before we leave. No “trust us, it’s done.” You see it clean.
What Vancouver Drain Cleaning Actually Takes
A blocked drain in a 1958 Vancouver Special on Nanaimo Street is a different job from a clogged trap arm in a 2019 East Fraser Lands condo. We carry equipment for both.
For residential mains we run a Spartan Model 300 cable machine with sectional 5/8″ cable – it tracks corners cleanly through cast iron without springing back the way a cheaper handheld auger does. For tighter branch lines we use a RIDGID K-1500 with a 3/8″ inner-core. Roots come out on a U-cutter, grease comes out on a spade, scale comes out on a chain knocker. The bit matches the blockage, not the other way around.
For full restorations and any line over 75 feet we bring in our hydrojetter at 4,000 PSI and 18 GPM. Jetting scrubs the pipe wall back to bare iron or PVC instead of just punching a hole through the buildup. We call this “wall-to-wall” cleaning and on a typical Vancouver lateral it adds three to seven years before the next service.
Every job ends with a camera inspection. The footage is yours – we send it as an MP4 the same day so you have a record for insurance, a future buyer, or just peace of mind.
Commercial Buildings, Restaurants and Stratas
Commercial drains fail differently. Restaurants on Commercial Drive and Main Street build up FOG (fats, oils, grease) at the trap-to-stack joint every six to ten months. Strata buildings in Brentwood and Metrotown get hair-and-soap chokes at the shared horizontal stack between floors. Parkade catch basins on big-box sites in Marine Drive and Grandview Highway fill with silt every winter after the first atmospheric river rolls through.
We run preventative maintenance contracts for property managers and strata councils across Metrotown, Brentwood, and downtown core. Quarterly hydrojet on the kitchen stack, semi-annual jet on storm laterals, annual camera pass with written report. Owners get certificates of service for insurance audits.
After-hours work is standard for us. Restaurants get jetted at 2 AM so the kitchen reopens for breakfast service. Strata common-area work happens evenings so residents stay clear of the parkade. We carry $5M general liability and full WCB coverage – documentation is in your inbox before our truck arrives.
Drain Cleaning Services We Offer
Residential Drain Cleaning
Kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks, tub and shower drains, toilets, laundry standpipes, basement floor drains, and main sewer laterals. We start with a camera scope on anything that’s repeat-clogged so we’re not guessing. Standard single-drain clear runs $189-$299 with the camera included. Most jobs take 45-90 minutes. We bring shoe covers, drop cloths for the work area, and a vacuum for the cleanup. Your floors look better than when we arrived.
Commercial Drain Cleaning
Restaurants, retail strata, medical clinics, parkades, industrial sites. We jet kitchen stacks on a quarterly cycle and run maintenance contracts that include emergency same-day priority. After-hours and overnight work standard for hospitality and retail clients – your floor stays open during business hours. Volume pricing for multi-unit ownership groups. Certificates of service emailed within 24 hours for your insurance file.
Hydrojetting
4,000 PSI / 18 GPM trailer-mounted jetter for grease, scale, and root removal in 3″-12″ lines. Jetting scrubs the pipe wall instead of just clearing a tunnel, which is why a jetted line typically stays clear three to five times longer than a snaked one. Required for any line that’s failed within a year of the last cable clean, and for all FOG-heavy commercial work. Cost: $450-$850 for a typical main line, depending on length and access.
Root Removal and Cabling
Cedar, maple, and Norway spruce roots love the joints in old clay tile and cast iron – particularly in pre-1970 East Van laterals. We cable through with a Spartan U-cutter sized to the pipe diameter, then verify with camera. If roots are back within 12 months we recommend you also see our trenchless line replacement and pipe replacement services – cabling alone won’t stop active root intrusion long-term.
Why Vancouver Customers Choose Mamba
24/7 Same-Day Service
Drains don’t wait for business hours. Neither do we. Phones answered live around the clock by our dispatch, and the truck is rolling within 30-60 minutes for emergencies inside Vancouver and Burnaby. Weekends and stat holidays included.
Camera Inspection on Every Major Job
Every main-line clear, hydrojet, and repeat-blockage job ends with a camera scope. You see what was wrong, you see it cleared, and you keep the video file. We don’t bill camera time as an extra – it’s how we close the job.
Old-Vancouver Cast Iron Specialists
Most of our work is on pipes older than 50 years. Pre-1970 cast iron from Hastings-Sunrise through Grandview-Woodland and into Strathcona. We know where the offset joints sit, where the bell-and-spigot transitions fail, and which lots have clay-tile property-line connections.
Transparent Flat-Rate Pricing
Quoted price is the paid price. We don’t run hourly meters or invent extras on-site. If the job grows past the original scope we stop, show you the camera footage, and rewrite the quote before any extra work begins. 86 Google reviews, 4.9 stars – read them yourself.
Vancouver Drain Cleaning Price Ranges
Pricing varies with access, line length, and what we find on camera, but the most common ranges from our recent Vancouver jobs:
Single sink, tub, or toilet clear: $189-$299 including camera scope, 30-day workmanship guarantee on the same drain.
Main sewer line cable clear (residential): $349-$549 from an exterior cleanout. Add $150 if no cleanout exists and we have to pull a toilet for access.
Hydrojet of main line (residential): $450-$850 depending on length and condition. Includes pre-jet and post-jet camera footage.
Commercial kitchen stack jet: $650-$1,400 per session, with maintenance-contract pricing materially lower per visit.
Emergency / after-hours / stat holiday call-out: $99 premium added to any of the above. Free if the underlying cause turns out to be a covered warranty issue from previous Mamba work.
We quote firm prices over the phone for typical jobs once you describe what’s clogged. No surprises when the truck arrives – if conditions don’t match what you described, we stop and re-quote before work starts.
Slow drain today is a flooded basement next month. Get it scoped before the next atmospheric river rolls in.
9 Drain Cleaning Tips from a Decade in Vancouver Pipes
- Stop pouring grease down the kitchen sink. Even with hot water and dish soap, FOG cools and clings to the cast-iron stack inside the wall. Wipe pans into the green bin first, then wash.
- Run hot water 30 seconds after every dishwasher cycle. Dishwasher drain lines tie into the kitchen sink P-trap. Hot rinse pushes residue past the slowest section of pipe so it doesn’t park there.
- Hair catchers in tub and shower drains. A $4 silicone hair trap from Home Depot prevents 80% of the residential drain calls we get. Empty it weekly.
- Skip the Drano on cast iron. Sodium hydroxide drain cleaners eat away at the iron pipe interior, accelerate scale buildup, and void most warranty claims. If a plunger and hot water don’t move it, call a real auger.
- Watch your downspouts in October. Vancouver’s first big atmospheric river usually hits between late October and mid-November. Clogged downspouts overflow into the foundation perimeter drain and back up the same way a clogged sewer does.
- Test sump pumps before the rainy season. Pour a bucket of water into the pit. Pump should kick on inside 5 seconds. If it doesn’t, see our sump pump service.
- If your line backs up twice in a year, scope it. A repeat clog at the same fixture means there’s a structural issue – belly, root, offset joint – that snaking won’t fix. A camera inspection shows you the cause and tells you whether a jet, a spot repair, or a full pipe replacement is the right next step.
- Keep tree roots away from old laterals. Cedar, maple, and willow within 10 feet of a clay-tile lateral will eventually find the joint. If you’re planting in an East Van yard, stick to ornamentals with shallow root systems and keep them on the street side, not the lateral side.
- Keep a record of every drain service. Date, what was done, what the camera showed. When you sell the house, that documentation is worth real money on the offer. We email a digital record of every job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most calls inside Vancouver, Burnaby, and Richmond get a 30-60 minute response window. Surrey and Delta typically 90 minutes. Overnight calls and stat holidays included – phones are answered live around the clock. Call (778) 961-0824 and you’ll get a real human dispatch.
Single drain (sink, tub, toilet) runs $189-$299 with camera scope included. Main sewer line cable clear $349-$549 from an exterior cleanout. Hydrojet on a main line $450-$850. We quote firm prices on the phone once you describe what’s clogged, and we don’t change them on-site without showing you camera footage first.
No. Chemical drain cleaners like Drano destroy cast iron from the inside and void most plumbing warranties. We clear mechanically with cable machines or hydraulically with 4,000 PSI water. Both are safer for old Vancouver pipes and for the people in the home.
Yes – on every main-line clear, every hydrojet, and any repeat-blockage call. You watch the live feed on the monitor and we send you the MP4 file the same day. No extra charge. It’s how we prove the job is done and give you a baseline for future service.
Repeat blockages at the same fixture mean a structural issue: a belly in the line, an offset joint, root intrusion, or scale buildup that’s narrowed the pipe diameter. Cabling clears the symptom; a camera scope diagnoses the cause. Once we see it, we’ll tell you whether a hydrojet, a spot repair, or a full lateral replacement is the right fix.
Yes. Commercial drain cleaning is roughly half our work. We run quarterly hydrojet contracts on restaurant kitchen stacks, semi-annual jets on storm laterals for parkades, and emergency same-day priority for our maintenance clients. Carry $5M general liability and full WCB. Certificates of service emailed within 24 hours.
Yes. 24/7 dispatch with same-day weekend service. After-hours call-out adds a $99 premium – waived if the underlying issue is covered by a previous Mamba warranty. Restaurants are jetted overnight so kitchens reopen for breakfast service.
Snaking (cabling) punches a tunnel through the blockage. Hydrojetting scrubs the pipe wall back to bare metal or PVC. For a one-off clog, snaking is faster and cheaper. For grease, scale, or any line that’s failed within a year of the last cable clean, jetting lasts three to five times longer. We recommend the right tool for the specific blockage, not a default.
Yes – all of Greater Vancouver. Same pricing structure across the service area, with response times stretching to about 90 minutes in the outer cities. We service Metrotown, Brentwood, New Westminster, and all Vancouver neighborhoods. See the full areas we serve page for the complete list.
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QUALITY IS OUR GAME
Mamba Drainage strives to deliver excellence one client at a time by upholding our core values throughout our services. We believe honest and meaningful work creates and sustains the foundation for exceptional client relations.