Most homes around Inverness run on a private septic system rather than a city sewer main. That changes what a slow drain means, and it changes how the line should be cleared.
When a drain slows down in a home on municipal sewer, the usual suspect is a blockage in the line. In Inverness the picture is different. There is no municipal sewer main here. Wastewater leaves the house, runs to a private septic tank on the property, and drains from the tank into a leach field.
So a backed-up drain can mean a clog in the house line. It can also mean a tank that is full, or a leach field that has stopped absorbing. Those are very different problems with very different costs, and the symptom inside the house looks about the same either way.
We start with the drain lines running from your fixtures out to the tank. A camera shows whether a blockage, a root mass, or a broken section of pipe is causing the backup, and whether that line is flowing the way it should. If the tank or the leach field turns out to be the real problem, the inspection makes that clear before anyone starts digging.
West Marin plumbing has its own conditions. Long runs out to the tank, steep drives, older cabins that picked up an extra bathroom somewhere along the way, and winter rain that lifts the water table. We have worked out here since 1986, and we would rather find the actual cause than clear a line and leave you to call again next month.
No. The Inverness Public Utility District provides water and fire protection, not sewer service. Homes in and around Inverness use private septic systems, which Marin County Environmental Health Services regulates as onsite wastewater treatment systems.
From inside the house those two look identical, which is why guessing gets expensive. A camera run through the drain line out to the tank shows whether the line itself is blocked or damaged. If the line is clear and flowing, attention moves to the tank and the leach field.
Our work covers the drain lines inside the house and the line running out to the tank. Tank pumping and leach field work belong to septic specialists. The value of a camera inspection is that it tells you which of the two you are dealing with, so you are not paying the wrong trade to guess at it.
Two reasons, and they often arrive together. A saturated leach field cannot accept as much water once the ground is soaked. And a cracked drain line lets groundwater seep in, which fills the line before your household even uses it. Both read as slower drains after a storm.
That depends on the pipe, so we camera it first. A sound line cleans up well under jetting. A line that has cracked or lost its shape needs repair, and jetting it would be the wrong move. We would rather tell you that before we start than after.
Yes. We work throughout West Marin and across the rest of Marin and Sonoma counties, including properties well off the paved road.
From the Marin coast to Sonoma wine country, we bring honest plumbing, heating & cooling to homeowners across both counties — based locally since 1986.