One slow drain is usually local. Several at once usually isn't — here's what that pattern means.
If your kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and tub are all draining slowly around the same time, the blockage usually isn't in any one of those individual lines — it's downstream, in the main line all of them feed into.
Water backing up or gurgling in the tub when you run the washing machine, or in the toilet when you run the sink, is a classic sign of a main line restriction pushing air and water back through the system.
A sewage smell near a floor drain, or water backing up out of the lowest drain in the house, means the main line is restricted badly enough that wastewater has nowhere else to go — this one shouldn't wait.
Snaking one sink won't clear a main line problem, because the blockage isn't in that branch — it's further down where all the branches meet. Clearing the main line usually needs equipment sized for the larger pipe.
Seeing more than one drain act up at once? Call (888) 616-9423.