We clear blocked drains across Richmond, typically $150–$350 for a fixture and $300–$650 for a main line, reaching the city in 90 minutes.
If your Richmond main line has blocked more than once, there's a specific reason that's more common here than anywhere else we work, and it's one that cabling cannot fix.
Why this is different here
Bellies — Richmond's distinctive drainage problem
Richmond is built on the Fraser delta. The soil is soft, saturated and it settles — slowly, unevenly, over decades.
Underground pipe settles with it. A sewer lateral installed with correct fall in 1988 can develop a belly by now: a sagged section where the pipe dips below its intended grade.
Waste doesn't flow through a belly. It collects there, water sits in it permanently, and solids build up until the line blocks. Then a plumber cables it, the blockage clears, and the sag is still exactly where it was. It fills again.
This is why a Richmond drain that blocks twice will block a third time. It isn't a blockage problem. It's a grade problem, and the only things that fix it are excavation and re-grading, or replacement.
A camera finds it in ten minutes. You'll see standing water sitting in the pipe where there shouldn't be any.
⚠️ And it's the reason trenchless sewer repair often isn't the answer in Richmond. Trenchless replaces the pipe along its existing path — which reproduces the sag. Anyone quoting trenchless here without confirming there's no belly is quoting a method rather than a solution.
The other Richmond causes
Flat topography. Richmond is genuinely flat, which means drainage runs have less fall to work with than in a hillside neighbourhood. Less fall means slower flow, and slower flow means more opportunity for material to settle out.
The water table. Groundwater infiltration into older laterals through cracked joints adds volume the line wasn't designed for, and carries silt in with it.
Grease, same as everywhere. Kitchen lines cool, grease hardens, the bore narrows.
Roots, less than in Vancouver's east side — Richmond's tree canopy is younger and the housing is newer — but present in the older Steveston and Broadmoor streets.
In the Brighouse and Golden Village towers
Richmond's tower core behaves like any other: your suite's drains connect to a shared waste stack, and multiple suites backing up on the same line points to the building rather than to you.
We identify which and document it before doing any work.
What we do
You get the footage, a written report, and the position and depth marked if anything needs digging.
