HYDRO JETTING — PIPE-WALL CLEAN, NOT JUST A PUNCH-THROUGH

A drain snake works by punching a hole through the middle of a clog so water starts moving again. Hydro jetting works by scrubbing the entire inside wall of the pipe clean. Different tools, different results. If your kitchen line keeps clogging every six months, a snake isn't solving it — the grease layer coating the pipe is still there, narrowing the line, and a fresh clog is already forming. Jetting strips that layer off.

A hydro jetter is essentially a pressure washer designed for the inside of a pipe. A high-pressure hose with a specialized nozzle is fed down the cleanout. The nozzle shoots water forward to break up the blockage and rearward to pull the hose deeper and blast the pipe wall clean as it moves. Residential jetters run 3,500 to 4,000 PSI at 4-8 gallons per minute. Commercial jetters push 4,000-5,000 PSI at 18+ GPM for restaurant grease traps and 4"+ mains.

When hydro jetting is the right call

1. Recurring kitchen clogs — grease coats the pipe wall and no cable clears it fully
2. Cast iron mains built 1950-1970 — scale buildup (tuberculation) narrows the pipe by 30-50% over decades
3. Small root intrusion — roots under 1/4" can be sheared off with a root-cutting nozzle; bigger root problems need repair, not jetting
4. Commercial lines — restaurant kitchens, apartment buildings, car washes, anywhere grease or soap scum builds up fast
5. Pre-inspection prep — before running a camera you want a clean pipe so the lens can actually see the pipe wall
6. Post-hydro maintenance — once we jet a commercial line, we usually set a 6 or 12-month schedule to keep it that way

When hydro jetting is the wrong call

We'll tell you. Jetting a pipe with a structural crack, a belly, or a collapsed section just makes the problem worse — you're blasting water at a damaged wall and potentially washing dirt into a widening gap. If the camera shows structural damage, we stop and price a repair instead of jetting a pipe that needs replacing.

What Mark Johnson & Sons brings to the job

Every drain truck on our fleet carries a residential jetter. We have dedicated commercial jetting rigs for restaurants and property managers running 4" and larger mains. Our techs run a camera before and after on most jet jobs — you see the grease coating in the before shot, and you see bare pipe wall in the after shot. No guessing, no "trust me, it worked."

Pricing is flat-rate and quoted upfront. Residential jetting is priced by line length and how much is in there; commercial scales with pipe size and severity. No hourly creep.

If you're seeing the same kitchen line clog twice a year or you own a restaurant, ask about maintenance jetting — once or twice a year at a locked rate keeps the line clear and kills the recurring emergency calls.