Every Drain in the Building Slowing
One slow fixture is local. The whole property draining slowly points at the one pipe they all share.
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OUR SERVICES
Sewer line cleaning, camera inspection, repair, and replacement in Urbandale. One crew for the whole line, from the building out to the connection.
OVERVIEW
The sewer lateral is the single pipe every drain in a building depends on, and in almost every case it is the property owner responsibility rather than the utility. We handle all of it in Urbandale: clearing the line when it blocks, camera inspecting it to find out why, and repairing or replacing the run when the pipe itself has failed.
Urbandale sits at a median build year around 1992, which puts most of the city on material that is now roughly thirty years old. Old enough for mature landscaping to have found any joint that shifted, and young enough that the pipe itself is usually still sound.
All work is performed in compliance with the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code as adopted by the State of Iowa.

SEWER LINE WARNING SIGNS
A lateral gives warning before it fails outright. These are the signals.
One slow fixture is local. The whole property draining slowly points at the one pipe they all share.
A basement floor drain or a ground-floor shower is where a blocked lateral surfaces first, and it is the last warning before a real backup.
Air being forced back through a trap because it cannot escape past a restriction further down the line.
A smell around the yard or near a cleanout can mean the lateral is leaking rather than simply blocked.
Sewer here belongs to two sanitary sewer districts rather than the city, and people lose days phoning the wrong desk.
A lot of Urbandale homes were built in the same window, which means their original equipment tends to reach end of life at the same time.
SEWER LINE SERVICES
The whole line, from clearing a blockage to replacing the run.
Cabling and hydro jetting the lateral, chosen by what the blockage actually is rather than by whichever machine is nearest the door.
The full run recorded, with faults located and marked. This is what turns a guess into a quote you can trust.
Cutting the intrusion restores flow. Repairing the joint it came through is what stops it returning next season.
Spot repairs where a single section has failed, without replacing pipe that is still doing its job perfectly well.
Where the camera shows failure along the length rather than at one point, replacing the run is the honest answer.
An accessible cleanout makes every future service on the line faster, cheaper, and considerably less invasive.
WHY CLOG BUSTERS
Clear it, look at it, and only then talk about repairs.
If the line is blocked that comes before anything else. Nothing useful can be assessed while waste is backing up into the building.
From the building out to the connection, recorded, so the condition of the pipe is a matter of evidence rather than opinion.
Urbandale permits this work through Building Services in Community Development at 3600 86th Street, with water heater and sewer service line permits both named on the city fee schedule.
Position and depth marked from the surface, so any excavation sits over the actual failure and is no wider than it needs to be.
Sometimes the honest answer is that the line is fine and simply needed clearing. When it is not, you get the options and the reasoning behind them.
FAQ
Still stuck? Call the Des Moines shop at (515) 259-1991.
In almost every case the property owner. The utility maintains the public main in the street, and the private line running from your building out to that main is yours, including the portion under the yard and often under the street itself.
Cleaning is the least expensive and the most predictable. Repair depends on depth, length, and what sits above the failure, which is why we camera and locate before quoting rather than giving a number over the phone.
Modern PVC can last many decades. Clay and cast iron laterals have a much shorter practical life, and the joints usually fail well before the body of the pipe does.
Sometimes. Lining needs a host pipe that is structurally continuous, so it works for cracks and root-damaged joints but not where a line has collapsed or lost its bottom.
Yes, on anything older. A general home inspection does not camera the sewer line, and it is among the most expensive things that can go wrong shortly after closing.
Not the city directly. The Urbandale Sanitary Sewer District and the Urbandale-Windsor Heights Sanitary Sewer District maintain the public laterals, trunk lines, and interceptors. Your private lateral from the building to that system is still your responsibility.
For installation and repair, yes, through Building Services in Community Development at 3600 86th Street. The city fee schedule names water heater and sewer service line permits specifically. Routine drain cleaning does not require one.
The Urbandale Water Utility, which is its own board rather than a city department, serving roughly 18,500 accounts across about 225 miles of main with water purchased from the regional producer.
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