Rapid Flow Sewer & Drain Cleaning

Rapid Flow Sewer & Drain Cleaning has spent four decades handling the calls other plumbers punt on — a blocked main line at 8pm, a sewage backup on a Sunday, roots that keep finding their way into an old clay pipe. The company says it started in 1985 when Mark Meads began running drain-cleaning jobs out of a single van around Boston and the North Shore; it now describes itself as family-owned and a Local 12 union shop, working out of Chelsea and serving the Boston area. The thing that shows up again and again is speed. With 531 Google ratings averaging 4.9 and a BBB A+ accreditation, the story repeats across dozens of reviews: someone calls about a clogged drain or a flooded basement, and a named technician — Jason, Chris, Pete, Charlie — is at the door within the hour, sometimes after hours or on a weekend. One homeowner in Watertown described Jason showing up at 8pm to clear a blocked main before it could force tenants into a hotel for the night; another said their Rapid Flow tech had a burst-pipe emergency diagnosed within an hour of the call, after a different company had left mid-job unable to solve it. Several reviewers, from a 2024 account through ones written in the past few months, mention the crew using a video camera to show them the actual state of the pipe rather than just describe it. Two reviews from this year are worth knowing about before booking. One, from May 2026, describes a kitchen grease clog that took three separate visits to actually resolve — the crew said it was fixed twice before it wasn't. Another, from June 2026, describes a main-line snake job done in April with a stated 30-day guarantee that needed a second visit in mid-June for the same clog, and a third call by late June. Both point to the same pattern: a job that looked done on the first try sometimes wasn't. One more thing worth checking directly with the company: Massachusetts's registry lists its plumbing license, held under Rapid Flow Sewer & Drain Cleaning Inc., as expired. For a same-day or after-hours drain, sewer, or septic emergency in the Boston area, this is a company with a long, well-documented history of showing up fast and walking customers through the fix. Before signing anything, it's worth asking about the current status of the plumbing license and getting clear terms on what happens if the first visit doesn't fully solve the problem.