A Clog That Always Comes Back
A line cleared three times in a year is not a blockage problem. Something structural is catching debris, and cleaning it again will not change that.
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OUR SERVICES
Camera diagnosis and permanent repair for broken, cracked, and collapsed drain lines in Clive. Spot repairs, section replacement, and full lateral work.
OVERVIEW
Drain repair starts where drain cleaning stops. When a line keeps blocking no matter how often it is cleared, the pipe itself is the problem, and clearing it again rents a solution rather than buying one. We camera the line in Clive first, identify exactly what has failed and where it sits, then repair that and nothing more.
Median build year across Clive is around 1995, which puts most of the city in a useful middle ground: past the settling and debris of new construction, but not yet into the failure window that older clay and cast iron reach.
All work is performed in compliance with the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code as adopted by the State of Iowa.

WHEN A LINE NEEDS REPAIR
Cleaning fixes blockages. These symptoms say the pipe itself has failed.
A line cleared three times in a year is not a blockage problem. Something structural is catching debris, and cleaning it again will not change that.
A belly, meaning a low section holding water, shows clearly on camera. Waste settles there instead of flowing, and it will keep doing so.
A leaking lateral feeds the lawn above it. A green stripe across an otherwise ordinary yard is worth investigating properly.
A line leaking under a slab washes out the material supporting it. That becomes a structural problem long before anyone calls a plumber.
What is normal for a 1990s Clive home is not what is normal for a newer west side build, and the diagnosis differs accordingly.
Clive requires local contractor registration on top of the state license, and work done by someone without it can create problems later.
DRAIN REPAIR SERVICES
From a single failed section to a full lateral replacement.
Every repair starts here. We find the fault and mark its position and depth from the surface before anyone picks up a shovel.
Where one section has failed and the rest of the run is sound, we replace that section rather than the whole line.
Cutting roots restores flow but leaves the opening. Repairing the joint they came through is what stops them returning next season.
A low section holding water has to be re-laid to proper fall. Cleaning it only empties it until the next time water runs.
When the camera shows failure along the length of the pipe rather than at one point, replacing the run is the honest recommendation.
Many older lines have no accessible cleanout. Adding one makes every future service call faster and less invasive.
WHY CLOG BUSTERS
Find the fault precisely, repair only what has failed, and verify it afterward.
We put a camera through the line and mark the fault from the surface, so any excavation sits over the actual problem rather than a guess.
Crack, offset joint, belly, root intrusion, or collapse. Each has a different repair and a different cost, and you are told which before anything starts.
Clive permits this work through Construction Services in Community Development and requires contractors to register locally in addition to holding a State of Iowa license. We hold both.
A spot repair where one section has failed, a longer replacement where the pipe is failing along its length. We do not default to the larger job.
A second camera pass confirms grade and flow before anything is closed up, then the site is backfilled and put back.
FAQ
Still stuck? Call the Des Moines shop at (515) 259-1991.
A camera answers it in one visit. If the line is sound and simply blocked, cleaning is the fix. If the footage shows a crack, an offset joint, a belly, or missing pipe, cleaning only buys time.
Not always, and never before the fault is located precisely. Where excavation is needed we open the smallest area that reaches the failure rather than trenching the whole run.
A straightforward spot repair is usually a single day. A full lateral replacement depends on length, depth, and what sits above it, and you get that estimate after the camera work rather than before.
If the recurring clog is caused by the fault we repair, yes. That is exactly why we camera first, so the repair addresses the cause instead of the symptom.
It depends on the pipe. Lining needs a host that is structurally continuous. Where a line has collapsed or lost its bottom there is nothing to line, and that section has to be replaced.
You are. Clive Public Works maintains roughly 82 miles of public sanitary sewer, and the private lateral from your building out to that main belongs to the property owner.
Not usually on its own. Median build year here is around 1995, and that material is generally sound. What accumulates over thirty years of use is the more common cause.
Clive Public Works maintains the distribution system, roughly 102 miles of main serving about 7,240 meters, with treated water coming from Des Moines Water Works and the regional producer.
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