drain cleaning

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. Call (778) 961-0824 or book online for a free quote.

Inside a drain line packed with grease and scale before cleaning

What Vancouver drain cleaning actually takes

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 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 towers have a different problem, low flow fixtures plus shared horizontal stacks that grease up fast.

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 inch 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 inch 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 the hydrojetter at 4,000 PSI and 18 GPM. Jetting scrubs the pipe wall back to bare iron or PVC instead of punching a hole through the buildup. We call that wall to wall cleaning, and on a typical Vancouver lateral it adds three to seven years before the next service.

Commercial drains fail differently. Restaurants on Commercial Drive and Main Street build up fats, oils and 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 the big box sites along Marine Drive and Grandview Highway fill with silt every winter, once the first atmospheric river rolls through. After hours work is standard for us. Restaurants get jetted overnight so the kitchen reopens for breakfast service, and strata common area work happens in the evening so residents stay clear of the parkade. We carry full general liability and WCB coverage, and the documentation is in your inbox before the truck arrives.

Every clear ends with a camera pass, so you see the pipe interior on a monitor before we leave. No trust us, it is done. You see it clean, and the footage is yours as an MP4 for insurance, a future buyer, or your own records.

Drain cleaning services we offer

The same drain line with the walls cleared after cleaning

Residential drain cleaning

Kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks, tub and shower drains, toilets, laundry standpipes, basement floor drains and main sewer laterals. Anything that is repeat clogged gets a camera scope first so we are not guessing. Shoe covers, drop cloths and a vacuum come with us.

Commercial drain cleaning

Restaurants, retail strata, medical clinics, parkades and industrial sites. Quarterly hydrojet cycles on kitchen stacks, maintenance contracts with emergency priority, and volume pricing for multi unit ownership groups. Your floor stays open during business hours.

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, then verify on camera. Cabling alone will not stop active root intrusion for good.

Commercial buildings, restaurants and stratas

Restaurants on Commercial Drive and Main Street build FOG at the trap to stack joint. Strata buildings in Brentwood and Metrotown get hair and soap chokes at the shared horizontal stack. We run preventative contracts for property managers across both, with certificates of service for insurance audits.

Old Vancouver cast iron work

Most of our work is on pipe 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.

24/7 emergency dispatch

A slow drain today is a flooded basement in November

Get it scoped before the next atmospheric river rolls in. Phones are answered live around the clock, and the written quote is free.

Drain cleaning FAQ, Vancouver

Yes. Phones are answered live around the clock by our own dispatch, weekends and stat holidays included. Call (778) 961-0824 and you get a real human, and a real arrival window on the call.

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 at 4,000 PSI. Both are safer for old Vancouver pipe and for the people in the house.

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. No extra charge. It is how we prove the job is done and how you get a baseline for the next service.

Repeat blockages at one fixture mean a structural problem. A belly in the line, an offset joint, root intrusion, or scale that has narrowed the pipe. Cabling clears the symptom. A camera scope finds the cause. Once we see it we will tell you whether a hydrojet, a spot repair or a full lateral replacement is the right fix. The other one worth watching is your downspouts. Vancouver’s first big atmospheric river usually lands between late October and mid November, and a clogged downspout overflows into the foundation perimeter drain and backs up the same way a blocked sewer does.

Yes. Commercial drain cleaning is roughly half our work. Quarterly hydrojet contracts on restaurant kitchen stacks, semi annual jets on storm laterals for parkades, and emergency priority for maintenance clients. We carry full general liability and WCB coverage, and certificates of service go out by email.

Yes. 24/7 dispatch, weekends included. After hours call out adds a premium, waived if the underlying issue is covered by a previous Mamba warranty. Restaurants get jetted overnight so the kitchen reopens for breakfast service.

Snaking 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 has failed again since the last cable clean, jetting lasts three to five times longer. We pick the tool for the blockage, not a default.

Yes, all of Greater Vancouver on the same pricing structure. That covers Metrotown, Brentwood, New Westminster and every Vancouver neighbourhood. See the areas we serve page for the full list.

Yes, and it is the single cheapest thing you can do. Even with hot water and dish soap, fats and oils cool and cling to the cast iron stack inside the wall. Wipe pans into the green bin first, then wash. Run hot water for thirty seconds after every dishwasher cycle as well, because the dishwasher drain ties into the kitchen sink trap. Two more that save us call outs: put a silicone hair catcher in every tub and shower drain and empty it weekly, and keep the Drano out of cast iron. Sodium hydroxide eats the pipe interior, speeds up scale, and voids most warranty claims.

It is worth real money on an offer. Date, what was done, what the camera showed. We email a digital record of every job, so when you sell the house the documentation is already sitting in your inbox.

24/7 EMERGENCY DISPATCH

Water where it should not be?

Ryan picks up. Live dispatch, and you get a real arrival window on the call.