The Importance Of Professional Drain Cleaning | Richardson, TX
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Plumbing and drain cleaning may not be the most glamorous part of homeownership, but if neglected, the results can be decidedly unglamorous. Regular drain cleaning, preventative maintenance of your home’s plumbing from the water main to the faucet, and awareness of how to care for plumbing so that you reduce messy plumbing emergencies is an essential part of keeping your home running smoothly. At bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North Dallas, we serve homeowners just like you in Richardson, TX, with both preventative care packages, inspections, and drain cleaning.
We’ve put together a resource about drains, maintenance, and cleaning to help our clients. But, when you need a fast, professional fix, trust the experts at bluefrog Plumbing + Drain.
What Drains Are My Responsibility?
Richardson homeowners (and renters, too!) have the responsibility of all the piping and plumbing from the point that their individual home’s pipes split off from the city water main, all the way through their home, and then the sewer drainage pipes to the point where the drainage pipes meet the wastewater pies form the city.
This includes the drains, if any, in your lawn plus the drains in your house. Unfortunately, sometimes these drains can become clogged, causing leaks in the wall, or even in the exterior pipes. Professional cleaning can help reduce plumbing problems and clogged drains, however.
The importance of Regular Drain Cleaning
Regular drain cleaning can help remove smaller clogs before they become larger problems. Drain clogs can put pressure on pipes, causing weak seam joinings to leak, or even causing a pipe to burst. Plus, clogged drains are just generally unpleasant. No one likes showering in standing water in a tub, or the smell of a backed-up kitchen drain.
Regular cleaning of your drain also ensures that the pipes are in good working order and can help extend the life of your plumbing, appliances, and faucets.
Why Can’t I Clear Clogs Myself?
While some clogs can be cleared with a plunger or using a snaking tool to remove hair clogs, many other types of clogs, especially those deep within your home’s pipes, require professional extraction and hydro-jetting. The drain chemicals that are intended to dissolve clogs without a professional plumber can actually damage your home’s pipes, especially with repeated use. The harsh chemicals that dissolve hair, soap scum, and food debris can also wear away at the material of your pipes, especially in older homes. So leave the chemicals on the shelf!
How Does Professional Drain Cleaning Work?
If you’ve never had professional drain cleaning, you probably wonder how the process works. Don’t worry – we’ve got the answers for you!
Inspecting your home
The blue frog teams start with a thorough inspection of your home’s drains and pipes, including the exterior and the parts where your house joins into the city piping system. Part of what we look for are any natural obstructions such as trees with extensive root systems. We also ask you questions about the age of your home, the kinds of drain cleaning you’ve had before, the material of your pipes, and your general use of each type of drain. This can help us get a better idea of the clogs you experience and what kind of extraction process we’ll use.
Examining the pipes
Once we’ve gotten a good overview of your house, we then conduct a camera inspection of all the pipes in your home, using a tiny camera treated on a filament. This helps us spot where the clogs are and their composition. Plus, we’ll also look at the pipes themselves, looking for thinning spots or loose joinings.
Removing the clogs
Once we find the problem areas, it’s time to clean them! We’ll determine where we plan to extract the debris from the drains, and then make sure that we put a layer of protective plastic and drape around the area to protect your home. We then manually remove the clogs and use a process called hydro-jetting to remove smaller pieces of matter that the manual extraction misses. This keeps the water flowing smoothly through your pipes. Finally, we test each drain, making sure that the clogs are completely removed.
Tips To Keep Your Drains Clog-Free
While the bluefrog team is qualified to remove clogs big and small, it’s always better to reduce the chances of clogs occurring. There are several common culprits in your house and habits that many people have that they should change.
In the bathroom
There are only three things that should be flushed down the toilet – the “three P’s” – to eliminate overflowing toilets and clogged sewer drains. Feminine hygiene products, condoms, and even so-called “flushable” personal wipes should all be thrown away in the trash can, not flushed down the toilet.
You can prevent hair clogs in the shower and tub by installing a screen over the drain to catch stray hairs. Make sure to clean it out every few weeks. While this won’t eliminate all the hard clogs, it can substantially reduce them.
In the kitchen
Even if your home has a garbage disposal, it’s not intended to replace the trash can itself. The teeth on garbage disposals are small and only intended to break up small amounts of food that accidentally go into the drain. Make sure to scrape your dishes carefully before washing them, and don’t put things like coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, and eggshells – all commonly done – in the drain. Finally, cooking grease is also a no-no. Even though it goes into the drain as a liquid, when it cools, it solidifies and acts as a “catch-all” for debris, forming a large clog.
Schedule Your Drain Cleaning Service Today!
At bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North Dallas, we understand how to help homeowners just like you take care of their plumbing and drains. We offer fast, friendly service and care for your home as if it was our own. We’re locally owned and operated and we enjoy taking care of our friends and neighbors in Richardson, TX. Give us a call or visit our website for the bluefrog Plumbing + Drain near you!