Backed up right now?
Crew’s rolling.
Typical response: 60–90 minutes, anywhere in the five boroughs. A dispatcher answers — no phone tree, no callback queue. Tell them what’s backing up and you’ll get a real arrival window on the same call.
Three things to do before we arrive
1. Stop putting water into the system. No flushing, no dishwasher, no laundry, no showers — anywhere in the building. Everything that goes down a drain upstream of the blockage comes up at the lowest open point, which is currently your floor.
2. Move what you can, touch as little as possible. Get storage, rugs and electronics off the floor and away from the water. If it’s sewage, treat it as contaminated — gloves if you must handle anything, and keep kids and pets out of the room.
3. Find your cleanout or house trap if you know it. Don’t open anything — just knowing where it is saves the crew minutes when they arrive. If you have no idea, that’s fine too; finding it is our job.
