This page exists because you should be able to see how this site is built and how we make money before you trust anything on it. Nothing here is a legal formality — it is the honest version.
What we are
DrainDispatch is a referral service. We publish information about drain and sewer problems, and we route homeowner phone calls to independent plumbing contractors through a partner network. We are not a plumbing contractor. We own no trucks, employ no plumbers, hold no plumbing license, and perform no plumbing work of any kind.
How we make money
Contractors in the partner network pay to receive calls. That is our entire revenue. You are never charged for the referral, and we never take payment from homeowners for any reason.
The consequence you should know about: calls are routed on partner coverage and bids, not on a quality ranking. We do not score contractors, we do not rank them, we publish no star ratings, and we do not claim that the contractor you reach is the best one in your area. We claim only that they cover your ZIP code and are available.
What we do not do
- We publish no reviews, ratings or testimonials. We have no way to verify them and we will not invent them.
- We publish no invented statistics. Every figure on this site is attributed to a named source.
- We do not claim to independently license-check, insurance-check or background-check every contractor. Contractors are expected to hold the licenses their state requires, but we are not a licensing body — which is why we link the state licensing authority on every state page and ask you to verify before work starts.
- We do not have a physical office you can visit, and we do not pretend to. There is no street address on this site because there is no location where plumbing work happens.
Where the numbers come from
| Data | Source | How it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Cost ranges | HomeGuide, Angi, Forbes Home and Roto-Rooter published figures | Shown as labeled national ranges for context. Never presented as our prices or as a quote. |
| Frost line depth | Compiled state-level figures from published frost-line tables (worldpopulationreview.com). There is no federal or state-level standard for this. Frost depth is set by the local building jurisdiction — IRC Table R301.2(1) instructs each jurisdiction to fill in its own figure — and it varies within a state. The underlying federal data is NOAA’s Air-Freezing Index, which is station-level rather than per state. | State and town pages, to explain freeze-related joint movement. Treat the number as indicative, not as a code requirement — confirm the actual depth with your local building department. |
| Water hardness | Compiled state-level ranges from published hardness data (leafhome.com, a water-treatment company). Hardness is a property of your individual water supply, not of your state. The authoritative national picture is the US Geological Survey’s hardness mapping, which is regional and drawn from historical monitoring rather than current per-state figures. The EPA does not regulate or publish hardness at all. | State and town pages, to explain scale build-up. Your own utility publishes the real number for your supply — ask them. |
| Housing age | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2023, table B25035 (median year structure built) | Town pages and the Drain Risk Index, to indicate what the buried pipe is likely made of. 4,851 of our 5,293 towns have it. |
| Coverage (towns and ZIP codes) | Our own partner coverage list | Every state and town page states exactly which ZIP codes we can route. If we cannot route yours, we say so. |
How these pages are made
The site has three kinds of page and they are built differently.
- Service and guide pages (how a main line clog is diagnosed, what hydro jetting is, the cost guide) are written once and reviewed before publication.
- Town and state pages are generated from our coverage data combined with the state-level environmental and licensing data in the table above. The explanatory writing is shared; the coverage, ZIP codes, frost depth, water hardness and licensing authority are specific to that place. We use software to assemble them — there is no other sensible way to cover thousands of towns — and a page is not published for a town we cannot actually route a call for.
- Automation and AI assistance are used in drafting and assembling this content. Facts, figures and sources are checked by a person before publication. We think you are entitled to know that rather than have to guess.
What we will change if we are wrong
If something on this site is inaccurate, tell us at hello@draindispatch.com and we will correct it. If a contractor you were routed to behaved badly, tell us at the same address — we cannot discipline an independent business, but we can stop routing calls to them.
Is this a plumbing company?
No. DrainDispatch is a referral service. The contractor who takes your call is an independent business that sets its own prices and does its own work.
Do you vet contractors?
Contractors in the partner network are expected to hold the licenses their state requires. We do not independently verify every license ourselves and we will not claim otherwise. Check the license number before work starts — every state page links the authority that issues it.
Why are there no reviews on this site?
Because we have no honest way to collect and verify them. Publishing ratings we cannot stand behind would be worse than publishing none.
Why is there no address?
Because there is no location where plumbing work happens. Putting a street address on a referral site would imply a physical business that does not exist.