On the windward side and out in the valleys, the usual culprit is roots. In urban Honolulu it is far more often grease and scale — older buildings, smaller pipe runs, and a lot of cooking going down the same stack.
That changes the fix. Roots want cutting; hardened grease wants heat and pressure. Snaking a grease-lined pipe punches a hole through the middle and buys you a fortnight.
For a single slow bathroom drain, jetting is overkill and we will say so. For a main line that has backed up more than once, or a restaurant line carrying daily grease load, hydro jetting scours the pipe wall back to full bore and the interval between callouts changes completely.
If a line keeps blocking after jetting, the problem is usually structural rather than dirty — that is when a camera inspection earns its keep.
Snaking clears a channel through the blockage but leaves the buildup on the pipe wall, so it closes again. Jetting removes the buildup itself, which is why the interval between callouts is so different.
Yes — kitchen lines and grease traps are a large part of what we do in Honolulu. Regular scheduled jetting is far cheaper than an emergency callout during service.
In most cases, but not all. If a camera shows a line is already cracked or heavily corroded, jetting can make it worse, and we will tell you that rather than jet it anyway.
It depends on access and what is in the line. A single fixture is at the low end; a main line that needs jetting and a camera run is higher. You get the number before we start.
