Yes. Our primary methods — mechanical cabling and high-pressure water jetting — use no chemicals at all. Hydrojetting cleans with water alone, which makes it both the most effective option and the most environmentally sound one.
Hydrojetting Uses Only Water
Hydrojetting scours the pipe back to its full inside diameter using high-pressure water. Nothing is added to the wastewater stream, nothing enters the soil, and nothing corrosive is left in your pipe. It is also more thorough than any chemical product — it removes the grease and scale layer from the pipe wall rather than dissolving a channel through a blockage.
Cabling Is Purely Mechanical
A rotating cable clears the obstruction physically. No chemicals involved, and it is the gentler option for older or fragile pipe where high-pressure water would carry risk.
Why We Avoid Caustic Drain Cleaners
Store-bought chemical drain openers are bad on several fronts:
- They generate heat that damages older cast iron and can deform PVC
- They rarely clear an established blockage — they open a channel through it at best
- They leave caustic liquid sitting in the trap for whoever opens it next
- They enter the wastewater stream
- They are hazardous to handle and to store around children and pets
In older Albuquerque homes with aging cast iron and clay pipe, repeated chemical use does genuine, cumulative damage.
Diagnosis Reduces Waste Too
Running a camera inspection before deciding on a method means we do the work the line actually needs — not excavation when a cleaning would do, and not repeated cleanings on a line that needs repair. Trenchless repair methods, where the line is a candidate, avoid digging up a yard entirely.
Water Use
A fair question in a desert city. Hydrojetting uses water during the service, but it also extends the interval between cleanings substantially compared with cabling — fewer service calls over the life of the line, and far less risk of a backup that requires cleanup and remediation.
What You Can Do
Keep grease out of the kitchen sink, use hair catchers, and consider a water softener — hard water scale is a genuine contributor to local drain problems.
