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Five Seattle trades, each priced in writing before the work.
Drain cleaning, sewer line repair, water heater replacement, gas line work and repipes in Seattle. Each section below gives the pipe sizes and materials we use, what the price is built from, and the one thing in that trade we refuse to do.
- Drum cable machine
- Push camera with recording
- 1/2 and 3/4 in. PEX-A
- Type L copper
- No-hub couplings
- Seismic strap kits
- Black iron fittings
- Test gauge
Drain cleaning Seattle
Clogged drain? Cable first, water only if the pipe can take it.
Most clogged drains in Seattle are one of two things. Kitchen lines packed with grease that has set like candle wax in a 1-1/2 in. galvanized branch, or a 4 in. main with roots in it. The first one clears with a small drum machine through the trap arm. The second needs the big cable through the basement or outdoor cleanout, with a cutting head sized to the pipe.
We run the cable machine first because it is gentle on old pipe and it tells you something. If the cable comes back wrapped in fine root hair, that is a clay joint letting water out and roots in, and it will be back. If it comes back with grease, it is a kitchen habit. If it stops dead at the same distance twice, something is broken or collapsed, and a camera is the next step, not more force.
Hydro-jetting has its place. A cast iron or PVC main thick with scale and grease cleans up properly under a jetter. A 90-year-old clay line with an offset joint can split under it. So we jet only on lines a camera has already shown can take the pressure.
| Line | Usual size | Method |
|---|---|---|
| Bath sink, tub | 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 in. | Hand auger or small drum through the overflow or trap. Trap pulled and cleaned if it is the problem. |
| Kitchen branch | 1-1/2 to 2 in. | Small drum machine through the trap arm or a branch cleanout. |
| Toilet | 3 in. | Closet auger. Toilet pulled only if the blockage is past the flange. |
| Main line | 4 in. | Large drum cable through an accessible cleanout, root cutter sized to the pipe. |
| Jetting | 4 in. | Only after a camera pass shows the pipe is sound enough. |
Flat rate per accessible cleanout, quoted before the machine is unloaded. If there is no cleanout and we have to pull a toilet or cut one in, that is a separate line on the quote.
We will not snake the same kitchen drain a third time without telling you the line needs replacing. Clearing it again is easy money for us and a wet cabinet floor for you in six weeks.
Sewer camera inspection Seattle
Sewer line repair starts with footage, not a shovel.
Your side sewer is yours, from the house to where it meets the city main, and in a lot of Seattle neighborhoods it is still the original vitrified clay laid in 2 to 3 ft sections. Every one of those joints is a place for roots to get in. Most Seattle sewer backups we see are root intrusion at a clay joint, usually within twenty feet of the foundation.
A sewer camera inspection puts a self-leveling head down the line from the cleanout, with a distance counter on the cable and a recording of the whole run. When the head reaches a problem we locate it from the surface with a sonde, so you know it is at 18 ft and about 5 ft down, under the side yard and not the driveway. You get the recording. Show it to another plumber if you want a second price; that is the point of recording it.
From the footage the repair is one of three things. A spot repair, digging one hole and replacing a section with PVC and shielded no-hub couplings. A full replacement of the side sewer. Or nothing yet: a line with light roots and no breaks may just need cutting and a camera check in a year or two.
| Stage | Detail | You leave with |
|---|---|---|
| Camera run | Push camera from an accessible cleanout through the side sewer, 4 in. line typical. | Recorded footage with distance readings. |
| Locate | Sonde at the camera head, located from the surface at each fault. | Marked depth and distance for every defect. |
| Spot repair | One excavation, failed section cut out, PVC with shielded no-hub couplings. | Camera pass after the repair. |
| Replacement | Full side sewer in PVC from the house to the connection, on the permit. | Inspected line and final footage. |
| Common pipe | Clay · cast iron · Orangeburg · ABS · PVC | A note of which one you have. |
Camera inspection priced on its own, so you are not paying for it inside a repair you have not agreed to. Repair or replacement quoted from the recorded footage: depth, length of excavation, surface to restore, and the permit.
We will not hydro-jet a clay sewer line before a camera has been down it. We run a camera first. If you want the line jetted without one, call someone else.
Water heater replacement Seattle
Water heaters: tank swaps, repairs and tankless done to the gas line you have.
A tank water heater in a Seattle garage or basement usually fails one of two ways. It stops heating, which is often a thermocouple, gas valve or element and can be repaired. Or the tank rusts through at the bottom and leaks, which cannot. We tell you which on the first visit.
A 50-gallon gas tank swap is normally a half-day job; the extra hours, when there are any, are the venting. Older installs often have a vent that is the wrong size or pitched the wrong way, and the new heater goes in on a correct vent or it does not go in. The replacement also gets two seismic straps, an expansion tank on the cold side where the house has a check valve or pressure regulator, a drain pan where the location calls for one, and a permit.
Tankless water heater installation in Seattle is where we slow people down. A whole-house gas tankless unit can draw well over 150,000 BTU at full fire. Plenty of older houses have a 1/2 in. line feeding the old tank and a meter that already runs a furnace and a range. Before we recommend a tankless we size the gas supply from the meter, and if the line cannot carry it, the quote includes the new gas run or we tell you a tank is the better buy.
| Item | Spec | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gas tank | 40 / 50 gal | Atmospheric or power vent, matched to the venting the house can take. |
| Electric tank | 40 / 50 gal | Breaker and wire size checked before the swap. |
| Tankless | Gas, whole-house | Gas supply sized from the meter first. Venting per the manufacturer. |
| Seismic strapping | 2 straps | Upper and lower third of the tank, fixed to framing. |
| Expansion tank | Cold side | Where a check valve or pressure regulator closes the system. |
| Connectors | Copper flex | New water and gas connectors, new shutoff where the old one is seized. |
Written quote covering unit, venting, seismic strapping, expansion tank, haul-away and permit. Repairs are quoted for the part and the labour once we have tested what failed.
We will not sell a tankless unit into a house whose gas line cannot feed it. Undersized gas means lukewarm showers and an error code every time the dryer runs, and that is a complaint we would rather not earn.
Gas line installation Seattle WA
Gas line repair and new runs, tested before the meter goes back on.
Most gas work we do in Seattle is a new run for an appliance: a range where there was only electric, a gas dryer, a replacement furnace, a tankless heater that needs more gas than the old tank did. The rest is gas line repair, usually after the utility has found a leak and shut a line off.
Black iron or CSST, pressure-tested before the meter goes back on. No test, no sign-off. Black iron is threaded schedule 40 steel, cut and threaded on site, and it is what we use where the pipe is exposed in a basement or garage. CSST is the flexible yellow-jacketed tubing that pulls through joists and walls with far fewer openings, and it gets bonded to the electrical ground as its instructions require. Which one goes in depends on the route, not on what is easier for us.
Pipe size comes from the total load on the meter and the length of the longest run, added up appliance by appliance in BTU. A 3/4 in. trunk feeding 1/2 in. drops is common. When a new appliance pushes the total past what the existing pipe can carry, the trunk gets upsized and the quote says so.
| Item | Spec | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Black iron | Sch. 40, threaded | Exposed runs in basements, garages and utility rooms. |
| CSST | Jacketed, bonded | Concealed runs through joists and walls with small openings. |
| Typical sizes | 1/2 · 3/4 · 1 in. | Set by total BTU load and run length from the meter. |
| Shutoff | At each appliance | Accessible quarter-turn valve, sediment trap where required. |
| Pressure test | Gauge on open end | Held for the test period before any appliance is lit. |
Quoted per run by length, pipe size and appliance load. Permit and inspection included where the work requires them.
We will not work on a line while the utility's red tag is still on a live leak, and we will not sign off any run that has not held a pressure test. If you smell gas, leave the house and call the utility from outside first.
Repipe Seattle
Plumbing repair, and the repipe when galvanized has had its day.
Day to day this is the general plumbing: a leaking supply under a sink, a toilet that runs, a shower valve that won't hold temperature, a hose bib split by frost. Small jobs, quoted flat once we have seen them.
The bigger job is the repipe. A lot of pre-1960 Seattle houses still have galvanized steel water lines, and galvanized steel rusts from the inside. Pressure drops a fixture at a time, the water runs brown after a day away, then a nipple rots through behind a wall. Patching it buys a few months. Replacing it ends the problem.
We repipe in PEX-A or Type L copper. PEX-A expands over its fittings, takes a freeze better than copper does, and pulls through a crawlspace in long runs with few joints, which is why it is our usual choice. Type L copper is the right call where the line is exposed, near heat, or where the owner simply wants copper. Either way we route through the crawlspace and attic so the wall openings stay small, usually one hand-sized hole per fixture.
| Item | Spec | Why |
|---|---|---|
| PEX-A | 1/2 · 3/4 in. | Expansion fittings, long runs, tolerant of a freeze. |
| Type L copper | 1/2 · 3/4 in. | Exposed runs, near heat sources, owner preference. |
| Main to house | 3/4 or 1 in. | Sized to fixture count so the far bathroom keeps pressure. |
| Support | Joist hangers | Fixed at the spacing the pipe maker sets, insulated in crawlspaces. |
| Openings | 1 per fixture | Routed from below or above to keep wall cuts small. |
| Test | Pressure, then flow | Every fixture run before walls are closed. |
Written flat quote per job after inspection. Repipes are quoted per fixture run, so you can see what each bathroom, the kitchen and the laundry add up to, plus permit and wall patching to rough.
We will not tie new PEX-A into rotten galvanized pipe and call it a repipe. If only part of the house is being done now, the quote marks where old pipe remains so nobody is surprised later.
How a booked job runs.
- Call or form. Tell us the trade and the address. Booked work gets a visit time; emergencies get the truck.
- Look and write. We inspect, camera or test as the trade needs, and write the quote on site. Nothing starts unsigned.
- Permit if needed. Water heaters, gas runs, side sewer replacement and repipes go on a permit. We pull it.
- Work, with a stop rule. Something hidden that the quote did not cover means we stop and give you a revised number first.
- Test and hand over. Pressure, burn or camera test, the invoice matching the quote, and the inspection booked. The terms cover the workmanship warranty.
What owners ask before they book.
Can I just get the clog cleared and skip the camera?
Yes, for a branch drain or a first-time main clog. We clear it with the cable and tell you what came back on it. The camera is the next step only when the cable says something is broken, or before anyone jets a clay line.
Do you install heaters customers bought themselves?
Sometimes. We check the unit suits the venting and gas or electrical supply before we agree. The quote then covers labour, fittings, strapping and permit, and the unit's own defects stay with whoever sold it.
Is a repipe a week of open walls?
Not usually. Most of the pipe goes through the crawlspace or attic, and the openings are small. The quote lists the openings we expect and who finishes the drywall after our rough patch.
Who is this not right for?
Anyone who wants a price over the phone for a job nobody has seen, or a fixed arrival time to the minute. We will not give either honestly.