Unclogging a Toilet Cost - Buyer Experiences and Price Information

Our basement sink was backed up and not moving at all, on a Saturday and into Sunday. It had been running slow for months, and it looked ike this was it. Roto-Rooter showed up within 45 minutes of my call, and asked for $350 plus $25 tax to do the job. It was a messy job, black gunk shot out all over mu basement floor (just painted concrete, thank goodness).

We tested the kitchen sink and it was very slow too, almost stopped flowing. The RR guy tells me it will be another $350 to do the kitchen sink, but with a 10% discount - this is to provide the 6 month guarantee. I balked - almost double the price? So he looks at me sideways and says, if I tip him, he'll do it for free. So he rooted it, and got it going well. Then I mentuioned the tub, and he said, for an extra $100 he'll do the tub too. I said yes. The tub was unneccesary, though, almost no improvement after rooting.

He then got his shop vac and vaccumed up just about all of the black water and gook on my basement floor.

My opinion? $350 is a HUGE amount of money for the job he did, even though it was dirty. I expected to pay half that. And, only one job per $350 charge? Ridiculous! He told me there was a "package deal" of ten lines for $950. So, there's nothing inbetween? One line or ten?

I would like to kow if this is the official RR pricing policy. It seems crazy to me to expect a customer to pay nearly the full price of a housecall for every line cleaned. He was already there with his tools. And, I can't believe I "tipped" him $100. I have never tipped anyone that much money in my life!

End of story, I will most certainly avoid usning RR again; if it hadn't been a real emergency (Sunday morning, no laundry done, no baths/showers taken , school/work the next day) I would have called a local plumber. The standard advice is still true - get competitive bids from at least three reputable (different! see "phone book" comment by San Jose, CA author above) plumbers.

Roto Rooter said over the phone said they charge the same price during the day that they do at night. I paid $354 for Root Rooter to come in take the bathroom sink pipes apart, put a a industrial snake in the pipe wall and clear it out. He was there maybe 30 minutes, including the 7 minutes he spent in his truck making up the bill. He also said he gave a $20 discount and gave a six month guarantee. The sink is unclogged and flows freely. Having said that, I think the price was excessively high. Painfully lesson to learn. How much should have been payed for that type of job at night and in the daytime?

"zip code pricing" is what one of my contractor friends calls it. Unfortunately, there are too many people in my zip codes who drive nice cars, so the standard Roto-rooter price seems to be $315 for the first job (my kitchen sink). Fortunately, I've been procrastinating on having the main drain (terracotta drain tile) checked for tree roots, so I had them look at it as well (there was something in there, but I think it was sanitary wipes and not tree roots). Since they were already here, I got a $75 "discount" on this second job. But only these two drain problems after living in an 80-year-old house for 8 years isn't bad, so I paid the man.

They came and were going to charge 175, but I told him to skip it, and he called his manager and got it dropped to 95. I also told him it's just a paper clog. 20 minutes later he was done, and sure enough it was a paper clog. He just snaked it out.

Had a sewer line cleaned.... Moist wipes and tampons... They were here 25 minutes at the least, and came recommended. I think they were a little high, replacing that one part of the line that has scale would have cost me 500... I had no Idea that it would cost that much, I cost me less at the dentist... Cleaning, set of xray's and doctor consultation...Insane!!!

i'am a plumber, and i do agree, plumbing work is expensive, some companies charge waaaay too much, but being a plumber is not an easy task.....some people say we get doctors wages, not even close, but i'd say this, do doctors come to you? you're not just paying for a 10 min job, you're paying for the knowledge as well. it's a very difficult job. you may have said, "i could have done that" well, why did you call a plumber then? water heaters, tiolets, drain cleaning, sewer repairs, water line repairs, pump repairs etc etc, there are thousands of things we have to know how to fix, and then there are thousands of things we have to know for each one of those thousand things. it's not an easy job at all. but i do agree, $200 to auger a toilet is insain

Was Thanksgiving and the two tech's were very professional and addressed all my questions and concerns. I had previously draino'd the clog free, but a week later clogged again. They said that I have a bad main line, either a collapsed pip or offset coupling and it would cost about $2000 and stated that the issue us occuring about 100 feet from the drain putting it just at the city's system. They stated that it may clog again and I should get it replaced, going to call the city to see what the policy is for piping issues in city system. Will try to post a follow-up to let you guys know how it turns out

had 2 plumbers remove toilet and roots from pipe. also had to cut out concrete and replace with new pipes. It took them 5 hours. I paid 1000.00. They did a good job.

Had clogged toilet. Called Roto Rooter. They snaked it out but the snake got stuck. Cost $1000 to dig out the front yard pull the pipe and put a new sewer pipe in. Unfortunately I later found this was a common scam.

Very professional and only took about 30 minutes

I am a Maintenance Supervisor I do this on a daily basis. People who do not do their homework end up spending more for service from a plumbing company. Why? Simply because they don't expect you to know anything, but there are situations that can become a bit much. I just unclogged 3 kitchen sinks yesterday and what I found in all 3 was rice. Rice is one of the worst things that can go down the drain. So if you have a clog in your sink either learn how to unclog it or make sure you know what the cost is going to be to unclog it and i do mean the real cost

I had a sewer stoppage and was lucky to find this sewer company. Looking at the all the high charges of unclogging a sewer in other parts of the country, I feel great paying so low of a price to have my sewer unclogged.

I had a clogged bathtub - I spent about $20.00 for internet access (my monthly rate), and looked into it online. Got some great advice from thisoldhouse.com, on how to remove the overflow drain stopper and how to put it back in, and on the anatomy of the bathtub pipes. Tried a coat hanger, but it didn't work. Then I went to the hardware store intending to buy a drain auger ("snake"), which was really cheap about $5-7 depending on the brand. But I told the guy what I was trying to do, and he told me that most of the tub plugs are in the horizontal fitting pipe BEFORE it gets to the overflow pipe/drain, so he advised this white plastic zip tie thing which is flexible and barbed and only $3. I bought that to try first, and fished it down the tub drain - no hair globs or anything came up. So then I checked the internet again, and got some advice about using the plunger (which I had already tried). The plunger did not work initially, because I did not seal off the overflow drain! So I followed the internet advice, and removed the overflow drain, stuck a small towel in the pipe to make a good seal, then filled the tub with some water, applied the plunger, used a firm downstroke plunge, and then with a much stronger UPSTROKE/PULL UP plunge - that did the trick! The internet saved me from spending money on a plumber. And basically just paid for a year of internet service, based on the quotes y'all are showing. God save the internet!

ok so my 2yr old son puts little toys in the toilet, i use it the next morning and it was clogged already so i call the plumber and he tells me that he will charge me $135 to come and fix it, and i said no thank you i will try it my self., so he tells me that i wont be able to do it by my self because i need special tools to do it. so i go on line and google it, and it says to just buy a toilet auger. so i did,i tried from bowl and i couldn't get them out so i had to put the toilet up side down and thats how i got them out, and all paid was $9 for the auger and $6 for the bottom wax ring. it took me all morning but i got it done. its a nasty job but it is not worth paying some one else to do it when u can do it your self.

Had my shower back up for the first time in 25 years in our home. Plumber came out, showed the cost to be 240.oo plus 74.00(estimate fee). He took less than five minutes to clear the drain and spent 10 minutes cleaning up. Also tried to sell me some biobon drain cleaner for 79.00. He said there was no guaranty on the snaking, but when pressed, he gave me a 30 day warranty. I thought the price was high, but have no comparison to use. I understand a business has employees to pay, overhead, etc., but I would love to make over a thousand dollars an hour clearing drains. I did get to use a 20 coupon from their website. Probably will not use again. I'll just try to keep hair out of the drains.

They were there for 15 minutes. Used an auger.

When my toilet clogged, I was in trouble. I'm a college student, I don't have a car, and my dad only gave me a plunger from the dollar store. After looking around, I found this awesome website to fix a clog in my toilet...

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/removetoilet

I used a toilet auger (about $25 at Lowe's- a lil pricey but let me know I couldnt budge the clog) once the clog wasnt coming undone, I asked advice(NOT HELP) from a plumber to take the toilet out and unclog the toilet itself.

Plumber:"odds are if the clog/item in your toilet is big... it's stuck in your toilet not in your pipes."

so I used this websited to take apart my toilet.
I wound up shaking the clog out(a cap from shaving cream) and couldnt be more relieved to not have to pay roto router tons for a "do it yourself"
It was messy and I lost a towel or two, but all said I only spent at max $30 plus four man hours...
yeah i love the internet and anything you need is on it. I just went out to dinner spending money that plumbers didnt get from me= AMAZING!

Washer flooded utility room off garage. Called Mr. Rooter and given an estimate for $325 to snake it out. Of course that didn't work due to the P-trap buried in concrete, so they had to cut the pipe etc, and snake it again to remove the clog further out(40 feet per the tech). Even you have to admit, KL in Garland TX, that I was overcharged. I even handed out "Excedrin for a headache" and clear safety glasses for the pipe cutting. I agreed to the price thinking the job was bigger than it actually was since they talked about replacing pipes etc,which they didn't. My fault for not knowing about plumbing, (why I called them!) If I ever have another clogged drain, I won't call Mr. Rooter due to the inflated price.

Washer and kitchen sink flooded our garage. Called up Pacifica Plumbing and they sent someone out the next morning. The guy initially thought that the only access was behind the stacked washer/dryer. He took a look, had me test out the sink and gave me a quote of $225. I agreed because we were referred to them by my co-worker and we used them for a previous job.
Found out that the geniuses who built the house decided that the washer and kitchen sink should share a pipe. It was so clogged up that he ended up spending about an hour on the job snaking it out.
The price seems about right for northern Cal. bay area; though I'm not sure because we've only used them.

I got taken. Tech worked for less than 1 hour and cleared a hair glog. He even said he didn't charge me the weekend rate (it was Saturday) and gave me a discount. Can you imagine! Takes hutzpa to do this to a 8 mo pregnant woman at Christmas.

I read these postings and complaints about the cost - I'm not a plumber . However I own Handyman Express Unlimited in Dallas Tx.
JUST ONE QUESTION - What would you charge to swamp around in someones toilet/ urine and other human waste. When my guys do this kind of work I pay them extra due to nasty mess and the health hazards.

Roto Rooter charged me 289.00 to snake out a hair clog that was discovered within the first 5 mins. of work. After that nothing else was found. I decided to go with R.R. because they could come faster then anybody and I didn't have to take time off of work during the week (work done on a Sat.).
I had asked other questions about other things that needed looked at and I was quoted such high numbers that I said no thank you. I should have known that I was being taken at that moment.

The technician was very nice and showed me the price to unclog a drain for 289.00 and I found R.R. to be very convenient, but at that cost I will do it my self in the future. I will definately scratch them off of my list of plumbers to try.

They wanted $189 for the job plus $59 for the service call. I said no so they waived the service call fee. I still think for the 10 minutes it took to use their snake, $197 was steep. If I had known the snake we tried to use ourselves was not the type for a toilet I would have gone to Home Depot instead and done it myself.

Plumb Tech Group of Miami was in my bath room, remove the toilet, pass big snake into pipe line, reinstall the toilet with new wax and caulking and charge only $ 150.
they make excellent Service.

Roto rooter was in my kitchen for 5 minutes and told me it would be $289 to unclog the sink. When I said thnk you no they said $200 - I then said thank you no and the manager called me to swing a deal - at which point I said again thank you no. I want an honest estimate up front - when they build in a 100% mark up it makes me mad knowing that if I had not known better and paid them the $289 they would have been laughing all the way to the bank!

Clothes washer drain was overflowing from high pressure on drain cycle. Normal pressure would drain ok. Tried baking soda etc, and hand auger, but did not fix problem. Called plumber who tested pipes and brought in his power auger. Spent about 20 minutes pushing auger as far through as possible. Appears to have cleared the partial blockage of maybe lint and soap scum. Job took about 45 minutes. I thought maybe $150, but gave me bill for 295 with so-called 10% discount? Very professional, but thought charges were excessive. Hope the job holds up or I will be calling back expecting no charge.

Our kitchen sink was clogged and water was coming back up into both sinks after putting some vegetables through the garbage disposal. We suspected the p trap was clogged and saw that a pipe was leaking, and since it was midnight, we called someone in rather than buying the parts the next day at Home Depot. So first the plumber guy wanted me to scoop all the water out of the sinks for him (what are we paying him for?) Then, he wanted $135 to replace the p trap ($95 labor + $40 parts), which seemed too high because the parts are only $20, and he'd only settle as low as $125. But he was convinced we'd need to also snake the pipes for an additional $70. After he removed the p trap, he showed me nothing was in the u shaped pipe, so he insisted the blockage was further along the pipes and he'd have to snake it. I looked with a flashlight, and I saw a pulpy pile of vegetables right at the opening of the pipe, so I put on a glove and pulled it out, and, feeling around the pipe with my finger, I could tell the pipe was all clear after that. He said I was "lucky" we didn't need to snake the pipe this time -- I guess I was lucky that I actually bothered to see if it would be necessary.

Our toilet was leaking -- there was brown water oozing from around the rim of our toilet. I think the last plumber (from a national chain) didn't seal the toilet properly. So this time we called a local plumber, Water Quality Plumbing (in San Jose, CA). They did a pretty good job of carefully replacing the wax seal and fixing one of the nuts and screws. Now the toilet doesn't leak. It took them less than 30 minutes, but their minimum charge is 1 hour ($105/hr + $7 in parts), so they said they'd credit the remaining 30 minutes if we later hire them for a larger project.

The drain in the shower was severely clogged because of a combination of regular use and grout water being poured into it by tile installers 2 years previously.

The plumber snaked the drain to clear blockage.

Additionally, he performed a "minor rebuild" on 1 toilet.

The technician was courteous, professional and appears to have corrected the problems we were having. Also, he offered to fix an issue with our dishwasher for "free" but was unsuccessful because the aforementioned tile company tiled it in under a counter top so it wasn't possible to slide it out to get at the hoses connected to the back.

We feel that $420.83 is definitely at the high end of what you'd expect to pay for this work. However, when you consider how convenient the service was, that the problems appear to be fixed successfully and that the work has a 6 month guarantee, we grudgingly accept the price.

We've needed to call in the plumber to clear out toilet/drain twice. The first time, we were quoted $200 to lift the toilet, clear the sewage line with an industrial 2" snake, and re-seal the toilet. We also had a $25 coupon from the Yellow Pages. The next time (about a year later), a different company quoted us $235 for the same service. After I complained that the other company had charged only $175 (with coupon), they lowered the price to $210. The price still seemed too high, but what am I going to do? Our toilets were clogged and we couldn't shower or use any of our bathrooms, so I paid him the $210. It's hard to get competing quotes because they claim they have to drive out and look at the problem to give you a quote, so if I say no to one company, I have to wait another hour for the next one, and the same company will put multiple listings under different names in the phone book, so it's hard to find a competitor.