Roto-Rooter

The Jamestown Roto-Rooter offers a preventive maintenance program for customers with re-occurring drain problems. This is available during normal working hours only.  This program can benefit you the customer, when it helps you to avoid the mess and inconvenience of plugged drains and a 10% discount applies to this program. This is beneficial to our company because we can schedule the service at a time when our workload accommodates.

After a drain is cabled thoroughly, we recommend the use of our Pipe Shield®, Root Destroyer, RootX® or Septic Tank & Cesspool Treatment to keep the drains running free and clear. For more information on these products, check out the tab entitled Drain Care Products.

Never pour grease down the drain. Use an empty tin can instead and dispose of when full.

Improper use of garbage disposals is a common problem in plugging the drain. A few tips include:

1. Do not include stringy foods such as celery, onions or artichokes
2. Run plenty of cold water as you turn on the disposal
3. Add the food slowly...allow the disposal to grind the material properly
4. Continue running the cold water when finished to completely clear the line

Use a screen or a stopper to catch hair, the most common blockage for bathtubs. A secondary problem is toys or shampoo bottle caps. Skin oils are another problem...try to minimize use of these products.

Sometimes a diamond ring can go down a sink. Should this happen, do NOT use any water and call Roto-Rooter immediately.  We have been successful retrieving these in the past.

Newer toilets are designed to save the environment by limiting the amount of water per flush and therefore tend not to flush as well. Compared with older toilets their flush is only 1.6 gallons whereas the older ones used 3–4 gallons. Therefore, a few tips are in order.

1. Do not flush handy-wipes, baby wipes, paper towels or feminine products (despite what the package says)
2. Never use acid products or corrosive cleaners
3. Try using a plunger with successive flushing before calling Roto-Rooter

Proper toilet care can assist in preventing a plugged sewer line, i.e. no foreign products except for toilet paper.

Roots are a common problem. Our cables have blades that shave the interior of the pipe. After this is done, we strongly recommend our root products to prevent root re-growth for as long as possible.

If a drain has not been used for a lengthy period of time, the U-shaped trap will dry out and odor can seep from it. In this case, simply run a small amount of water once a week for a sink or, for a floor drain, add about a quart or a bucket of water every 1 to 4 weeks.

Know where your shut-off valves are in advance.  When a water emergency occurs, such as water is flooding a room, this information will be useful. If a toilet is overflowing, there is a shut-off valve underneath the toilet tank. But, for the main water supply it is useful to know where the water enters the house. There should be a shut-off valve at that point, usually in the basement near the water meter or water pump depending on whether you live in the city or the country. A mobile home will have specialized locations so be sure and know this ahead of time.

Rule number one is to insulate pipes against the cold. Never let an inside pipe be exposed to a draft. In the case of extreme cold, however, when all else is done, a good prevention is to leave cupboard doors open and permit a small stream or trickle of cold water about the size of a pencil to run overnight.