Bob from La Mesa
If you are looking for a plumber who knows what they are doing and are not out to gouge you for all your worth, these are the guys. I recommend them highly.
We have had trouble on and off with the main drain in our master bathroom over the years. Lots of plunging to keep things moving. About 3 weeks ago I finally would up with one I could not snake myself so I called McNulty plumbing and asked for some help. Coleman, one of Bill's field men came over and cleared the drain. He had a lot of trouble and finally came to the conclusion that there was a partial obstruction that he could not get out and we should probably use the TV camera to see what we were dealing with.
Next day Bill McNulty and Coleman came over and worked a couple hours attacking the obstruction from different locations. Then while they were up on the roof working through the 4" vent pipe Bill discovered what he described as a "lead over pour". That means that obstruction has been there since this house was remodeled back in 1965. So they went after it with the big power snake from the roof top, breaking 2 cutters in the process. But that slug of lead was not budging.
We were discussing the problem and options and I was ready to throw in the towel and have our entryway floor jack hammered so we could get to the offending cast iron pipes which are under the slab. But Bill came up with a better one. First thing he said was, "that would be awful expensive so let's try something different". He took a 12' length of copper pipe and a blow torch up on the roof. Because the vent pipe went straight down he was able to see the blockage down at the bottom with a flashlight. He held the pipe vertically at the top of the vent while Coleman heated the end with the torch until it was cherry red. Then he put the copper pipe down the hole and worked on the lead bulge with the hot end. Sounds kind of crazy but here is a picture of one end of the copper pipe after he pulled it out of the vent. He cut this piece off when he was done so I could have a souvenier.
He then took the other end of the copper pipe and pounded it flat so he could use it like a blade and repeated the heat and cut process many times. Then they put the TV camera and the power snake down the vent together and by slowly manually manipulating the snake, guided by the TV picture, they were able to get rid of the lead bulge.
That is Bill and Coleman with the power snake and the TV camera working their magic.