Slow drains, backups, and recurring clogs. We clear the line and find out why it clogged in the first place.
A kitchen sink that drains slower every week, a tub that pools around your ankles, a floor drain that gurgles when the washer empties — these are the early signals of a clog that is only going to get worse. Standard Services clears blocked drains for homeowners throughout Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery Counties, and we do it without guesswork. We open the line, restore full flow, and tell you plainly what caused the backup.
There is a difference between clearing a drain and cleaning it. A quick chemical dose or a plunger might buy you a few days, but the grease, soap scum, hair, and mineral scale that built up inside the pipe are still there. We use professional cabling and, when a line calls for it, hydro jetting to remove the buildup itself — so the same drain isn't backing up again next month.
Our plumbers are licensed and insured in Pennsylvania, we protect your floors before we ever open a cleanout, and we quote the job before we start. As a family-owned and women-owned company based right here in the region, we treat your home the way we'd want ours treated — clean drop cloths, honest answers, and a line that actually drains when we leave.
From a single slow fixture to a backed-up main line, we handle every drain in the house.
Kitchen lines clog from cooking grease, fat, and food scraps that congeal on the pipe wall and narrow the opening over time. We cable the line back to open diameter and, when grease has coated the whole run, recommend jetting so it drains fast again.
Hair and soap scum are the usual culprits behind slow bathroom sinks, showers, and tubs. We pull the blockage rather than push it downstream, clear the trap and branch line, and check that the vent is drawing so the fixture drains fully.
A toilet that won't flush, or multiple fixtures backing up at once, often points past the toilet itself to the main line. We locate the cleanout, run the right cable for the pipe size, and confirm the whole drain path is clear before we call it done.
Basement and floor drains protect Delco and Chesco homes from standing water, so a slow or backing one is worth clearing before the next heavy rain. We flush the line and trap, remove sediment and debris, and make sure water evacuates the way it should.
Washing machine standpipes and utility sinks handle lint, detergent, and heavy surges of water, which is a recipe for clogs and overflow. We clear the standpipe and branch drain and check that the line can keep up with a full wash cycle.
If the same drain clogs again and again, or several fixtures back up together, the real problem is usually deeper in the system. We clear the immediate blockage and then help you find the underlying cause instead of selling you the same visit twice.
Most drain cleaning is completed in a single visit. Serving Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery Counties.
We ask which fixtures are affected and whether more than one is backing up, so the plumber arrives with the right cable, jetter, and camera for the job.
Drop cloths go down and the work area is covered before we open a cleanout or pull a fixture. Drain work is messy — keeping your floors clean is part of the job.
We find the right access point and identify whether you're dealing with a fixture clog, a branch line, or the main. On recurring problems we can run a camera to see exactly what's happening.
We cable or hydro jet the drain back to full diameter — removing the blockage and the buildup around it, not just poking a hole through the middle.
We run water to confirm full flow, clean up completely, and tell you why it clogged and how to keep it clear — including whether a deeper issue needs attention.
The tools we bring — and the care we take — are what separate a real drain cleaning from a temporary fix.
Powered cabling clears roots and stubborn blockages from main lines.
Hydro jetting scours grease and scale off the full pipe wall.
A camera inspection shows exactly why a line keeps clogging.
The two main ways to clear a drain do very different things. Cabling — running a motorized steel cable, or "snake," down the line — is the right tool for a large percentage of clogs. The cutting head at the end bores through the obstruction, breaks up the blockage, and restores flow quickly. It's fast, effective on most fixture and branch clogs, and the go-to first step when a drain suddenly stops draining.
The limitation is what cabling leaves behind. A cable essentially punches a hole through the clog. If the pipe walls are coated in years of hardened grease, soap scum, or scale, the cable opens a channel through the middle while the buildup stays put — which is why a snaked drain can back up again within weeks.
Hydro jetting takes a different approach. A high-pressure hose sends water down the line at a pressure that scours the full interior diameter of the pipe, flushing grease, sludge, scale, and small roots completely out of the system. It cleans the pipe rather than just opening it. Jetting is the better choice for grease-heavy kitchen lines, recurring backups, and main lines that need to be restored to like-new flow. We reach for cabling when a fast, targeted clear is what the situation calls for, and recommend jetting when the pipe itself needs to be cleaned — and we'll tell you honestly which one your line needs. Learn more about our hydro jetting services.
A drain that clogs over and over is trying to tell you something. In kitchens, the usual story is grease: fats poured down the sink cool, solidify, and grab onto passing food particles until the pipe narrows. In bathrooms, it's hair bound together by soap scum. In older homes, it can be the pipe material itself — cast iron that has corroded and roughened on the inside, giving debris something to catch on.
Habits matter too. Coffee grounds, rice and pasta that swell with water, "flushable" wipes that don't actually break down, and cooking oil are among the most common causes of the clogs we clear. When a fixture keeps backing up despite regular cabling, the real answer is usually to clean the pipe fully with jetting — and, if the trouble is in the main, to look inside with a camera and find out what's actually going on down there.
In the older boroughs of Delaware and Chester Counties — the mature, tree-lined streets of Media, Springfield, Swarthmore, West Chester, and the like — root intrusion is one of the most common reasons a main line backs up. Decades-old clay and cast-iron sewer laterals develop tiny cracks and loose joints, and the roots of large trees are drawn straight to the moisture and nutrients inside. Once a root finds a joint, it grows into a dense mat that catches everything flowing past.
The signature is seasonal and recurring: backups that return every few months, often worse in spring and fall when roots grow fastest, and gurgling from multiple drains at once. Cabling with a root-cutting head clears the immediate blockage, but roots grow back. To solve it, we use a sewer camera inspection to see the intrusion and pinpoint its location, then lay out your options — from routine maintenance jetting to sewer line repair when the pipe itself has failed. Seeing the problem beats guessing at it.
Sometimes what looks like a clogged drain is really a failing sewer line. The tell-tale signs are hard to miss once you know them: multiple fixtures backing up at the same time, a toilet that bubbles when the washer drains, water rising in a tub when you flush, or sewage appearing at the lowest drain in the house. These point to a blockage or break in the main line that serves the whole home, not a single fixture.
When we see that pattern, we don't just keep cabling. We run a camera to determine whether the line is blocked, bellied, root-invaded, or broken — and then recommend the right fix rather than a repeat visit that only buys a little time.
Store-bought chemical drain cleaners are one of the few products we steer homeowners away from. The caustic ingredients that make them work also generate heat and can damage older pipes — exactly the kind of aging cast iron and PVC common in Delco and Chesco homes. They rarely clear a full blockage; the liquid often finds a small channel and drains past the clog without removing it, leaving you back where you started. Worst of all, they create a genuine hazard: when a plumber later opens a line that's holding a pool of caustic chemical, that liquid can splash and burn. It's safer, cleaner, and more effective to have the drain cleared mechanically the first time. If you've already poured a product in, just let us know before we arrive so we can handle the line safely.
Standard Services provides drain cleaning throughout Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery Counties. Whether you're in an older twin in Springfield, a Main Line colonial in Ardmore, or a new build in Glen Mills, we're your local drain and sewer team.
Don't see your town? We likely serve it too — call 610-545-1000.
Tell us what's going on with your drain and we'll get back to you fast to schedule a visit. Prefer to talk it through? Call us — we answer the phone.
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