Send photos of the backup — get a realistic range
What to send
- The fixture or fixtures backing up, as they are.
- The cleanout at the house — cap off if you can reach it safely — and the one near the sidewalk.
- Any wet, soft or sunken ground between the house and the street.
- The sequence: what backs up when what is used, and how often this has happened.
- Old invoices or camera footage, if this line has been worked on before.
What comes back
A read on whether this is a fixture, a branch or the lateral; what clearing it runs at that depth; whether an inspection is worth its price yet; and what your cleanout situation means for the section beneath the street. Expect one question back.
Where it goes
To one person, who reads it and writes back. Not to a dispatch queue, not onto anybody's list. Nor is there a shop to visit — printing a street address here would tell you nothing true about how this works.
If it is worse than a slow drain
Sewage on a floor is a contamination problem before it is a plumbing one — keep people and pets out of the room and stop using water in the house. Sewage surfacing in the yard, or a backup that started when a neighbor's line was worked on, is worth reporting to the City as well: the main is theirs, and if the blockage is in it, so is the cleanup.