Quick question: when your drains clog, what do you do? After the cursing and mumbling under your breath, of course. Do you grab the bottle of drain cleaner from under your sink and pour it down the drain? If so, you’re doing it wrong!
There is a right and a wrong way to go about drain cleaning, and the majority of homeowners go about it the wrong way. Why does it matter? Because doing it the wrong way can absolutely destroy your pipes, leading to higher service costs and quite a bit of frustration for you. Let’s go over how you should actually be getting your drains cleaned.
The Problem With Drain Cleaners
If you’ve ever taken a close look at most drain cleaner bottles, you know that they contain some pretty nasty stuff. There’s a reason 80-90% of the bottle is usually plastered with all sorts of warnings in large font. The chemicals in these drain cleaners are extremely toxic and caustic. While they work well for melting through whatever it is that’s clogging up your drains, those materials don’t do your drain pipes themselves any favors. Years of using those kinds of materials to clean out your drains will eventually degrade the drain pipes themselves, causing them to leak and require replacing. This is one of those cases where the solution is worse than the problem.
The Alternative
So, what are you supposed to do about it? Just ignore the issue until every drain in your home is clogged? Of course not! What you should do is make sure that your drains get the professional care they need to keep functioning properly. Professional drain cleaning services don’t make use of caustic chemicals to get the job done, which is just one of the advantages of using them instead.
There are two main methods used for professional drain cleaning. The first is drain snaking, by far the older and more common of the two. Drain snaking involves using a long cord with an auger on the end of it to either drill through the clog in the pipe, or to pull it out. This doesn’t damage the pipe itself, and can reliably deal with most kinds of clogs.
In situations where a drain snake is not sufficient for whatever reason, there’s the second method of professional drain cleaning: hydro jetting. Hydro jetting is kind of like unleashing a small fire hose down your drain pipe. A high-pressure stream of water is fired down the pipe from a small hose, which blasts all waste and detritus buildup out of the system. Hydro jetting is great for getting rid of all kinds of clogs, and is thorough enough that it even prevents future clogs from forming. It also doesn’t cause damage to the pipe itself.
So, if you have a clogged drain in your home, don’t reach for the drain cleaner. Call a professional, and let them resolve the issue while keeping your pipes healthy.
Admiral Plumbing Services, LLC provides a full range of drain cleaning services in Palm Beach, FL. If you need a clogged drain cleaned out, contact us today to schedule an appointment with one of our professional plumbers.
