MVP Plumbing works in Dayton and across Liberty County. Three jobs out here so far: a kitchen sink line cleared of grease from the outside cleanout, a leaking toilet pulled and reset on a new flange, and a slab leak. Licensed master plumber, MPL 38224. Call 832-334-2836, 24 hours.
Dayton sits north-east of Baytown, the next county over. It is part of our normal service area rather than somewhere we make an exception to drive to.
Dayton runs to new houses and old ones, on slabs and up on blocks. Worth knowing which you have before anybody quotes you a leak over the phone — it changes the job more than most people expect.
What have you actually done in Dayton?
Job notes · Dayton — kitchen sink line cleared of grease
A kitchen sink that would not drain. PVC drain line with grease built up inside it. We cleared it from the cleanout on the outside of the house with our sink machine, rather than emptying the cabinet and pulling the trap apart indoors.
Job notes · Dayton — leaking toilet reset on a new flange
A toilet leaking at the floor. We pulled the toilet, replaced the closet flange, and set it back down on a new wax ring with new closet bolts and new tank bolts. Caulked around the base and checked it for leaks before leaving.
Job notes · Dayton — slab leak
A slab leak located and opened up — a saw cut into the concrete to reach the failed line.
What does your house sit on?
It is the first thing we ask about a leak under a floor, and in Dayton it is a real question rather than a formality — there are slab houses and pier-and-beam houses here, new and old, the same as across the rest of our area.
It matters because it changes the job completely. Under a raised house the pipe is reachable: somebody gets underneath, finds the failure and cuts in new pipe. Under a slab the same pipe is buried in concrete, which is why the Dayton slab leak above needed a saw cut, and why a failed drain line under a slab usually means tunneling in from outside rather than cutting through the middle of your floor.
The same wet patch is a straightforward repair on one house and a tunneling job on the next. What it sits on is what decides it.
Which is why we will not price a leak off a description over the phone. The full version of this is on our Anahuac page, where almost everything is raised.
Why did the kitchen line get cleared from outside?
Because there was a cleanout out there to work from, and using it is better for you in every way that matters.
Working from an outside cleanout means nobody empties the cabinet under your sink, nobody pulls the trap apart over a bucket in your kitchen, and what comes out of the line ends up in the yard rather than in the room. It is also quicker, which on an hourly job is your money.
Where a house has no usable cleanout, we will tell you what it would take to add one, because it makes every future visit on that line cheaper. See drain cleaning.
Once is a stoppage. Three times on the same interval is a line that is coated, and cabling it again is treating the symptom.
Grease in a PVC line — does that change anything?
It changes what the pipe will take, and what the honest fix is.
PVC puts a house at the newer end of the stock. Older houses run cast iron, which corrodes and scales from the inside and eventually needs replacing rather than cleaning. A PVC line that blocks is usually blocked by what has gone down it, not by the pipe failing. That is a better problem to have.
What does not change is the grease. A cable bores a path through it and gets the flow back, which is the right call the first time. If the same line blocks again on roughly the same interval, the grease is still on the pipe wall and the line wants jetting instead — 4000 PSI at 9 GPM scours it off and carries it out rather than punching through the middle of it. We will tell you which of the two you are actually looking at rather than selling you the bigger one by default.
What makes a toilet leak at the floor?
Usually not the toilet. The two things underneath it are the wax ring and the closet flange, and either one can be why water is showing up around the base.
On the Dayton job it was the flange, so the fix was the whole assembly rather than a new wax ring set on a bad flange — which is a repair that fails again inside a year. The toilet came up, the flange was replaced, and it went back down on a new wax ring with new closet bolts. New tank bolts went in at the same time, because the tank was already off and those are the next thing to weep.
Worth dealing with early. A toilet that rocks slightly or weeps at the base is a small job right up until the water has been under the flooring long enough to reach the subfloor, and then it is a different conversation. See fixtures, valves and toilets.
How do you handle a slab leak in Dayton?
Find it first. Then open the floor, and only where the leak actually is.
That order is the whole job. Breaking concrete to go looking is how a repair at the small end of the range turns into one at the large end, and if anybody proposes that to you, get a second opinion. Where the failure is a drain line under the slab rather than a water line, cutting through your floor is usually the wrong route altogether and we tunnel in from outside instead, so the work happens underneath the house rather than through the middle of it.
More on leak detection, how to tell if you have a slab leak and what slab leak repair costs.
Everything we do out here
Water heaters · tankless · drain cleaning · hydro jetting · sewer lines · water line repair · leak detection · repipes · fixtures and toilets · water treatment · gas · 24-hour emergency. Full list on services.
Getting out here
We answer 24 hours across the service area. How fast we can get to you depends on where you are and what we are already on, and we will tell you straight rather than guessing to keep you on the phone.
For a burst line, the first thing we will do is walk you through shutting the water off before we even leave. See 24-hour emergency plumbing, or ask for a quote.
Common questions
Do you actually work in Dayton?
Yes. Three jobs out here so far - a kitchen sink line cleared from the outside cleanout, a leaking toilet reset on a new flange, and a slab leak. Dayton is in our normal service area, not somewhere we make an exception to drive.
My kitchen sink keeps backing up. Is that a big job?
Usually not. On a Dayton house we cleared a grease-blocked kitchen line from the cleanout outside with our sink machine - no cabinet emptied, no trap pulled, nothing taken apart inside the house. Where there is a usable cleanout outside, that is how we would rather do it.
Why does grease keep coming back in the same line?
Because cabling clears a path through it rather than taking it off the pipe wall. Once is a stoppage. Three times on the same interval is a line that is coated, and at that point jetting is the honest recommendation rather than a fourth cable job. We will tell you which one you have.
There is water around the base of my toilet. What is that?
Often the wax ring or the flange underneath rather than the toilet itself. On a Dayton job the flange had gone, so the toilet came up, the flange was replaced, and it went back down on a new wax ring with new bolts. A toilet that rocks or weeps at the floor is a small job right up until the subfloor gets involved.
Can you find a slab leak out here?
Yes, and we have done one in Dayton. The order matters: find it first, then open the floor, never the other way round. Where a drain line has failed under the slab we would rather tunnel in from outside than cut through the middle of your house.
How fast can you get to Dayton in an emergency?
We answer 24 hours. How fast we arrive depends on where you are and what we are already on, and we will tell you honestly rather than guessing to keep you on the phone. If a line has burst, the first thing we do is walk you through shutting the water off before we leave.
Last updated · written by a licensed master plumber, MPL 38224