New York drain cleaning
There's a reason drain cleaning in New York is mostly handled by small shops, not the big franchises: nobody beats a guy who knows the housing stock and answers his phone. Most of our work comes from neighbors of past customers. That's the only marketing we trust.
What's typical for this job
Drain cleaning sits between simple kitchen-sink clogs and full sewer-line replacements. We do everything in between: tub drains, laundry standpipes, kitchen sinks, toilets, and main lines.
First call is always cable (also called snaking). For most kitchen and bath blockages, a cable hits the obstruction and clears it. Cost: $145 to $340 depending on access.
If the cable doesn't clear it — common with grease accumulation in older kitchen lines, or root invasion in main sewer lines — the next step is hydro-jetting at 4,000 PSI. That actually scours the pipe rather than punching a hole through the clog. Cost: $480 to $950, often with a camera inspection thrown in.
The camera tells you whether you have a recurring problem (cracked tile, belly in the line, foreign object) versus a one-off clog. It's worth doing on a third call to the same drain — that's when something structural is usually behind the clog.
Ballpark numbers
For drain cleaning jobs in the New York area:
- Kitchen sink cable: $180 – $425
- Toilet auger: $225 – $325
- Main sewer line cable: $300 – $675
- Hydro-jet + video camera inspection: $600 – $1,190
- Camera-only inspection: $225 – $350
Local context for New York
Around here, the most common calls we run come from older homes near the city center and newer subdivisions on the fringe — different problems, same crews.