I've lived in my home for 25 years and every 3 to 5 years or so I have a different drain that will slow. I bought a nice electric drain snake, dealt with it myself for 20 years, but the unit got old and didn't work anymore (basically I snapped the drum cable because it was rusted). Thinking that I would rather just pay someone to snake my drain every once in while, I turned to Yelp for a plumber instead of spending $300/$400 on a new snake. I found Cesar with 25 glowing reviews. He was available and could get right out so I hired him.
Within minutes, I could sense that Cesar had no interest in snaking my drain. Cesar wanted to open up my wall and replace the drain line. He was absolutely certain that my system was a lost cause. I reassured him that every 5 years or so this would happen, and the drain backed up about 9' feet in. After an hour of trying to convince me that the answer was to open the wall and me saying no, Cesar finally decided to get his snake. He fed the snake in 5' and claimed to have busted through the clog. I encouraged him to go deeper, and again stressed that the blockage was close to 9' in, but he didn't want to go deeper. When we tested the sink it drained very slowly and he again stressed that I needed to replace the drain line. He said I should poor bleach, CLR and some other chemicals in to help in the short term. $200 later, and upon him leaving, the sink completely stopped up, I would say within 15 minutes of him pulling away.
So, I decided hiring a plumber was a waste of time and headed to Home Depot to buy a new snake. $350 dollars later I had purchased a new snake. I headed home, opened the trap and fed the snake in 9' or so. Boom, I hit the blockage, cut through it with a spade and the drain has been literally flows like brand new. While I was doing the bathroom sink, I thought might as well run the tub too. So now everything runs like new. Even filled buckets to overwhelm the drains and bask in the glory of my own success.
At the end of the day Cesar's a nice guy, and he is responsive. However, I don't personally believe he's a good plumber that I would refer to someone. I felt like I threw $200 out the window, and just should have bought a new snake. Plumbing Service Solutions in San Pedro is great, but they're very busy. They're also a little bit expensive, but you'll get what you pay for. If you can wait and your not in a hurry I would suggest them. As for me, I think I'll stick with being my own plumber. read more