Intown Atlanta · Decatur · Brookhaven · Sandy Springs

Sewer, Drain and Leak Help for Atlanta’s Older Houses

Backed-up basement drain, a toilet that gurgles when the washer empties, a lateral full of oak roots. Describe it once and a local plumbing company calls you back. No charge for the introduction.

Kirkwood, Grant Park, East Atlanta and the streets around them were built before plastic pipe existed. The line from those houses to the street is usually clay or cast iron, it is usually old, and in the City of Atlanta it belongs entirely to the homeowner. Most of the calls this site exists for start there.

Call (470) 243-2699 Describe the problem

Phones answered Mon–Sat, 7am–7pm. Night cover is set by the plumber.

No charge for the introduction · One local plumbing company · Atlanta and intown

A two-storey house with a deep covered front porch, white columns and hanging flower baskets

The lateral is yoursIn the City of Atlanta the owner maintains the whole line from house to city sewer.

Clay joints let roots inPre-war intown houses mostly drain through clay pipe laid in short sections.

Camera before the shovelA main-line camera inspection shows what is wrong before anyone prices a dig.

What plumbing work costs in Atlanta

Clearing a single household clog is usually quoted in the low hundreds. A camera inspection of the main line runs a few hundred more. Replacing a sewer lateral is a different order of money: several thousand dollars, and more when it runs under a driveway or a big tree.

The cost guide breaks down what moves each number.

Get a quote for your job Call (470) 243-2699

Start with the sewer line

A clog in one sink is a drain problem. Water coming up somewhere other than where it went down is a main-line problem: the tub fills when the toilet flushes, the floor drain in the basement wets itself on laundry day, every fixture in the house goes slow in the same week. In an older Atlanta house the main line is the pipe that runs from under the house out to the street, and that is where the expensive surprises live.

Clay sewer pipe was laid in short sections joined with mortar or tar. A hundred years on, the joints are where roots get in. Water oaks and willow oaks, which line a great many east-side streets, send fine roots toward any seam that leaks a little moisture, and once inside they grow into a mat that catches everything else. Cutting the roots out clears the line for a while. It does not seal the joint, which is why the same house tends to call again a year or so later.

Call or send a request. A local plumbing company will ask what the drains are doing and whether there is a cleanout outside, and can usually run a camera down the line to show you what is in there before quoting anything bigger.

Call (470) 243-2699 Send the details

Whose pipe it is

The City of Atlanta’s ATL311 guidance is short and blunt: the sewer service lateral connects the house to the city sewer, and maintaining and repairing the entire lateral is the property owner’s responsibility. That includes the part under the sidewalk and, on many streets, the part under the road. Work in the street needs the city involved, which adds time and cost. Decatur and Brookhaven are on DeKalb County sewer and Sandy Springs on Fulton County sewer, and each of those utilities draws its own line, so the first useful question on any backup is which utility serves the address.

When it is an emergency

Burst supply pipes and sewage coming up into the house are the two that cannot wait. For the first, close the main shutoff, which in older intown houses is often in the crawlspace or basement where the line comes through the foundation, or at the meter box near the street. For the second, stop running water anywhere in the house: every flush and every load of laundry adds to what is coming up. Then call. The plumbing company sets its own after-hours arrangements, and the person who answers will tell you honestly what is possible tonight.

Problems people call about

Where we work in Atlanta

KirkwoodEast side, DeKalb portiona streetcar suburb that voted to join Atlanta in 1922; rows of early-1900s bungalows under big oaks, which is the textbook setting for root-cracked clay laterals
Grant ParkSoutheast, FultonVictorian and Craftsman houses around the park and the zoo, many on sloped lots with partial basements, so a slow main line often shows up first at a basement floor drain
East AtlantaEast side, DeKalb portionbungalows and post-war cottages side by side; the post-war ones are where bituminous fibre (Orangeburg) sewer pipe still turns up on camera
Inman ParkEast side, Fultonlaid out in the late 1880s as the city's first planned suburb; some of the oldest private sewer lines in town, and long front setbacks that mean long laterals
Virginia-HighlandNortheast1910s and 1920s houses packed close on hilly streets; laterals run under driveways, retaining walls and old street trees, which is what makes digging expensive here
West EndSouthwestone of Atlanta's oldest neighbourhoods, with Victorian houses where cast-iron drains under the floor and clay pipe outside are both normal

ZIP codes served30306 · 30307 · 30308 · 30309 · 30310 · 30312 · 30315 · 30316 · 30317 · 30318

Beyond Atlanta

We also cover Kirkwood & East Atlanta, Decatur, Brookhaven and Sandy Springs.

Guides

Common questions

What does it cost to use this site?

Nothing. The plumbing company pays for the introduction. You pay them for the work, at whatever price you agree with them, and nothing you pay goes through us.

My basement floor drain backed up. Is that the city’s problem?

Usually not, but find out before anyone digs. In the City of Atlanta the whole sewer service lateral, from the house to the city sewer, is the owner’s to maintain and repair. If several neighbours are backing up at once, or sewage is coming out of a manhole in the street, report it through ATL311 first, because that points at the public main.

How old is the sewer line under my house likely to be?

If the house went up before the Second World War, which covers most of Kirkwood, Grant Park, Inman Park and West End, the outside line is very likely vitrified clay unless someone has replaced it. Post-war cottages can have bituminous fibre pipe, often called Orangeburg. A camera inspection settles it in under an hour.

Will someone come out tonight?

That depends on the plumbing company and the hour, and we will not promise a time we do not control. If water is spreading, shut the main valve first (the emergency plumbing page shows where it usually is) and then call.

Do you cover my area?

Intown Atlanta first: the east side, Grant Park, West End, Midtown and the neighbourhoods between. Also Decatur, Brookhaven and Sandy Springs. If you are near the edge of that, call with the ZIP code.

Are you a plumbing company?

No. ATL Plumber Pros is an advertising and referral service operated by Pinecrest Advisory Services, LLC. When you call or send a request, it goes to an independent local plumbing company that does the work, quotes it and holds the state licence. We do not do plumbing and hold no plumbing licence.

Tell us what the drains are doing

Say what is happening and a local plumbing company will call you back within one business day. Phones answered Mon–Sat, 7am–7pm. Night cover is set by the plumber. Or call (470) 243-2699. If water is still coming in or sewage is coming up, call instead.