Hydro Jetting in Lithonia, GA

Who handles the sewer in Lithonia?

DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management provides water and sewer here, and the city doesn't run its own system. DeKalb's 24-hour emergency repair line is 770-270-6243; call it if sewage is coming up from a manhole or several neighbors are backing up. A clog limited to your house is in your private drain line, which is a plumber's job. DeKalb is responsible for the water line up to and including the meter; past the meter, the plumbing is the owner's.

Are Lithonia's drain lines old?

It depends on where you are. The small historic City of Lithonia, the "City of Granite," has a Main Street core ringed by older residential streets, where cast iron or clay pipe and mature trees make scale and roots more likely. The Lithonia mailing area is much larger and overlaps Stonecrest and unincorporated DeKalb, with many newer subdivisions. City-data figures for ZIP 30058 suggest roughly 16% of houses there were built before 1980, so most homes in the wider area have plastic drains that clog from grease, wipes and soap. Either way, jetting cleans the full pipe wall, so it outlasts a cable on repeat clogs.

Which office issues a repair permit?

Cleaning doesn't need one. For repairs, it depends on your address. Inside city limits, the City of Lithonia's Building and Permitting Division handles plumbing as its own trade permit, through the city's Citizen Portal, from City Hall on Main Street. Addresses with a Lithonia mailing address outside the city, including those in Stonecrest or unincorporated DeKalb, go to those jurisdictions instead.

A local note

Before the plumber arrives, stop running water, find the outdoor cleanout, and note which drain backed up first. If you're not sure whether your address is inside Lithonia city limits, your property tax bill will say, and it determines who issues a permit if a repair turns out to be needed.

On price, the main factors are access through a cleanout or toilet, the length of the lateral to the DeKalb main, how much grease or root growth is inside, whether a camera inspection is added and whether the visit is after hours. When you call the number on this page, an independent plumber who serves Lithonia will ask which drains are affected and whether the line has been cleaned before.