24 hours, 7 days
Sewer backing up in Kamloops?
Call now. Read the rest afterwards if you want to, but make the call first.
Four things to do before anyone arrives
- Stop putting water into the lineNo dishwasher, no washing machine, no showers, and go easy on the toilets. Everything you send down now is part of what comes back up.
- Keep people away from itSewage is a health problem before it is a plumbing problem. Kids, pets and bare feet out of the affected area.
- Lift what you canBoxes off a basement floor, rugs rolled back. Five minutes now saves a restoration bill later, but not at the cost of standing in it.
- Do not pour anything down thereChemical drain cleaner on a fully blocked line just sits in it. And keep an open flame away from a frozen line, always.
What an emergency call actually is
Not everything that is annoying at 9pm is an emergency, and it is worth being honest about which is which rather than charging for a night call-out that could have waited.
Call tonight
- Sewage coming up through a floor drain, tub or toilet
- The main line is blocked and nothing drains
- A frozen water service in a cold snap
- A commercial kitchen or building that cannot operate
Can usually wait for the morning
- One slow fixture while the rest of the house drains fine
- A gurgle or a smell with no backup
- A line that has blocked before and is running now
- Planning a camera inspection or a quote
If you are not sure which one you have, call and describe it. That is a shorter conversation than this page.
Emergency call-outs across the valley
Kamloops, Chase, Barriere, Cache Creek, Shuswap, Merritt and all points in between.
Common questions
Is there really someone at the end of the phone at 2am?
Emergency call-outs run 24 hours, seven days. Call 250-377-5364 and say what is happening and where the property is.
Should I keep trying to plunge it?
If the main line is blocked, plunging one fixture moves the problem to another fixture. The useful thing is to stop adding water and call.
What about drain cleaner from the hardware store?
On a fully blocked main it sits in the line and does very little except make the water that eventually comes back up caustic. Tell whoever attends what has already gone down there.
Is it my problem or the city’s?
It depends where the defect is. Broadly the private service is the property owner responsibility and the main is not, and the camera and the locate are what establish which side of the line the problem sits on.