Drain Cleaning: 8 Out Of 10 Homeowners Make These Mistakes (But You Don’t Have To) | Carrollton, TX
Photo By airdone at istock
Did you know that the average homeowner spends more money on drain cleaning than on lawn care? If you’re a homeowner in Carrollton, TX, then that means that it’s essential to take good care of your home’s drains. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize just how critical taking good care of their home’s drains is until they find themselves in a situation where their drain is clogged.
If you want to live in a home with properly maintained drains, you must understand the most common drain cleaning mistakes and how to avoid them. By learning what NOT to do when it comes to keeping your home’s drains, you can ensure yourself of having correctly working drains.
1. Over-using Drain Cleaners
Don’t flush your toilet or pour bleach down the drain whenever you need to unclog a slow drain. It is an unnecessary expense and can damage your pipes so much that they will require costly repairs.
Do not use harsh chemicals such as Drano, caustic soda, chlorine bleaches and other lye products that may corrode metal and eat away at the pipe joints. Instead, try natural remedies like baking soda and vinegar or boiling water poured slowly down the plughole to clear the obstruction.
2. Not Having Regular Inspections
Whether it’s once a year or twice a year (or more often if you have specific problems such as frequent blockages), make sure you hire a professional service to inspect and unclog your drains. Drain cleaning by a professional is crucial to maintaining the health of your plumbing system.
3. Not Knowing Where the Main Drain Stack Is
Essentially, this is the plumbing equivalent of not knowing which way leads home. You will want to know where the main drain stack that runs between your house and city sewer system is before you do anything that may result in drain problems such as disconnecting pipes under sinks or removing toilets.
4. Creating “Floating” Wastes
This one is relatively simple and involves things like flushing tissues (ahem!) other inappropriate objects down the toilet and putting crunchy things like chicken skin and leftover rice down garbage disposals instead of using a bin as intended!
Your drain cleaning woes will never come to an end if you keep chucking everything down the drain without any thought to what’s going on beneath the sink.
5. Putting Hard-To-Flush Items Down Garbage Disposals
Avoid putting eggshells, grease-soaked paper, coffee grounds and other items down your garbage disposal that will get stuck in the blades. If you’ve already made mistakes about putting these items through your garbage disposal, ensure you get a drain cleaning done by an expert.
6. Flushing Inappropriate Objects
These include tampons, condoms, cotton swabs, or other products designed to be worn inside the body. Do not ever flush any of these items down your toilet. It can cause blockages within minutes. Suppose you eventually need to unclog a drain due to one of these incidents (as is often reported on TV). In that case, it could cost thousands of dollars to repair because you’ll have to call a plumber who specializes in drain cleaning and unclogging drains containing such materials!
7. Not Knowing How Sediment Builds up Over Time
Sediment builds up in the trap and further down in your drain pipe, which can cause blockages. Periodic inspection and drain cleaning by a professional will show you where sediment has built up so that you can unclog these areas to prevent problems.
8. Failing to Clean the Trap Regularly
Sediment and other substances build up in this area over time and affect its ability to hold water, allowing sewer gases to go back into your household plumbing system through sinkholes. Regularly cleaning the trap with a solution of baking soda and vinegar will help remove any stubborn buildup that causes odors or slow drains.
How To Unblock Drains (The Right Way)
There are several ways you can try your hand at drain cleaning, but you mustn’t use harsh chemicals (like Drano, lye products or bleach) because they can corrode metal. When you use professionals the first time around, they have the equipment and training to unclog your drains properly. Here is what they can do for you:
Snaking: This is the process of using a long metal tube with a smooth inside to push and pull through your drain to break up any blockages.
Jetting: Similar to snaking, high-pressure liquid (usually water) is forced through the drain at 90psi to remove blockages.
Excavation: Involves excavating surrounding areas and even digging down into subterranean areas, usually by hand but increasingly by machine or other heavy equipment if required. It can involve removing obstructions such as tree roots that have grown into sewer pipes and replacing old sewer lines.
Inspecting Your Drains Before Buying a House
To avoid any nasty surprises with the plumbing at your new place in Carrollton, TX, have a plumber come out and inspect all drains before you sign on the dotted line. They will check for missing traps, collapsed sewer pipes and other issues that might cause clogs or backups.
Even if you do not notice anything amiss yourself during an initial inspection, have drains checked before signing on the dotted line. Problems are often so deep in the ground that they are not visible to homeowners.
It is also vital to have drains inspected after buying a home if there was already a drain problem when you purchased it. If an issue puts you off with an old property, it usually means that the problem was big enough to require professional assistance.
Need Drain Cleaning Assistance? We’re Here to Help
No matter how badly your drain is clogged, it would help if you always got an expert to unblock it successfully. The best way to do this is by reaching out to us to make any necessary renovations (such as plumbing or sewer). We at bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North Dallas – Carrollton, TX, are the experts you need when it comes to cleaning drains and other plumbing services.
We will be able to quickly inspect your drain using equipment you can’t see through, such as cameras. We’ll then approach the job with the most negligible impact on your home so that you get results without making a mess or disrupting your daily life. We also offer free estimates for many jobs, so if you need our help, give us a call at 469-573-2535.
Priority Service