Tom cables from the cleanout.

In a Worcester triple-decker the stoppage is usually in the kitchen arm or in the cast stack, not in the fixture that was tried first. Tom opens the cleanout and runs a 5/8-inch cable. He does not send the machine through a chrome trap when the cleanout is reachable.

A camera in a full line shows brown water and nothing else. He clears the line, then looks. If the break is in the yard, he says so before anyone digs. Digging is a different day and a different price. He calls before that starts.

A jet is for a line that is already open and greasy. It is not for a line that has collapsed. The van carries a jet. That does not mean the jet is the job.

If two floors are backing up at once, say that on the phone. It changes where he opens the stack. A wet basement floor is a different call.