Clogged Drains

Clogged Drains,

There are many reasons a drain could clog up, often in bathroom sinks it is just hair, soap scum, skin cells build up over time that get caught in the trap, the same can happen in your shower.

Kitchen sinks: as much as we try to be conscious about what we put down our kitchen sinks, it is inevitable that grease and small food particles will get into your drain lines from the kitchen sink.

Toilets: A clogged toilet can be an array of many things such as excessive toilet paper, the Cistern tank not flushing correctly, children’s toys, sanitary items, dislodged pipes due to ground movement from incorrect installation when the building was built and tree roots that have entered the sewer line further down causing clogging of the pipes and often the whole house system stops up.

Now that we have covered the basics on what may clog up a drainpipe, there are some things that you can do to prevent some types of pipes from clogging.

Bathroom Sinks: there a many drain cleaning products out on the Market that have little to no effect on cleaning your drains out. You can try by having a beehive strainer across your bathroom drain to prevent any small particles from entering the drain, a plunger on hand will often release small debris and then rinse it with hot water to flush away into the sewer system. If you’re the handy type, then you could try to pull the P-Trap off under the sink and clean it out by hand. If you have tried all these handy tips and had no luck, there are some cheap options of hand snakes in which you could purchase from Lowes. Many of our clients go through these methods only to have to call us as the problem is further down the line and we have the specialized plumbing equipment to get you fast reliable results.

Kitchen sinks: As we said earlier, no matter how careful we are out drains under the sink and underground can get food build stuck to the walls of the inside of kitchen pipes and eventually a clog happens. Sometimes it is just because of the water not being hot enough to wash away the grease so be mindful to rinse out your pipes with straight hot water from the faucet from time to time. Putting too much food into the garbage disposal and not flushing enough water through the system while the food is macerated by the disposal unit can end up in a clog. If you do get a clog in your kitchen sink there are a few things that you can do to clear it. Shelf items sold at your hardware store do not work well in clearing clogged kitchen sinks and in fact they can make the clog worse. Like the bathroom sink instructions, you can try to remove the kitchen p-trap, make sure you have a bucket underneath the trap while removing to prevent food particles and water from damaging your cabinet, when you do remove the P-trap be sure to plug the drain at the wall or floor to prevent sewer gases from entering the building or dwelling. Clean the P-trap and rinse out with Hot water and then put the trap back together and connect to the drain. If this does not help you can try buying a cheap hand snake from Lowes or Home Depot.

Toilets: The best way to try to prevent your toilet from clogging up is preventative measures. As described earlier common causes for toilets clogging up are too much toilet paper, cheaper brands of toilet paper often do not break down as easily as better shelf brands, Childrens toys often get put into the toilet and end up clogging near the base of the toilet at the water closet connector, at worse they enter the main sewer. This can also happen with the toilet bowl fresheners that hang over the side of the rim of the toilet. Paper towels, baby wipes and women’s sanitary items are also common causes of toilets to clog up, if you can use preventative measures by not allowing the various items above to enter the toilet you could easily prevent a toilet clog. Another common cause is something where you may have cause to call in a plumber and that is the dreaded tree roots, tree roots can get through sewer cleanouts, cracks in the underground sewer pipe or other various ways. After, we have come and unclogged your drains we can assess to see if there is any further damage created by putting our sewer camera down, if there is a problem with the sewer pipe, we can mark the area out for repair by using our camera and pipe locator to prevent excessive digging and undue labor.