When a drain in your home gets clogged and needs cleaning, what should you do about it?
Clogged drains are an all too common problem in the home. Drains may get clogged or even blocked as a result of neglect and misuse; when your property is a rental this is almost always a tenant-caused malfunction. The problem could also be the outcome of aging pipes or the normal consequence of the proper use of the home’s plumbing.
Man-made causes of drain clogs include:
- Human or pet hair getting into the drain because there is no hair trap in the shower.
- Indiscriminately feeding food waste down the kitchen sink drain and into the garbage disposal.
- Flushing non-flushable items such as diapers, tampons, etc. – down the toilet.
- Toilet paper buildup inside the drain, objects falling into the drain, and washing dirt down the drain, among others.
Drains may also get clogged from natural causes and in the course of the normal process of using the home’s plumbing. Some ways this can happen are:
- Mineral buildup inside the pipes due to hard water from the municipal supply.
- Tree roots that penetrate through the pipes and block them.
- Subtle soil movements that dislocate the pipes and prevent the smooth flow of wastewater.
- The age of the components of the plumbing system.
How to Handle a Clogged Drain
When your drains get clogged, what is the best way to deal with the issue? You have two options for solving the problem. You can head over to the internet and attempt to clean the drain yourself after watching some YouTube videos. Or you can get a professional plumber to look at the problem. The option you choose matters.
While there are lots of home maintenance tasks you can undertake yourself, plumbing is, unfortunately, not one of them. This is because of the vital role and enormous size of a home’s plumbing network. It is also because of how complex and interconnected this system is. The best way to clean out your drains when you have a clog or for routine maintenance is to hire a professional plumber.
Here are the reasons for this recommendation.
Benefits of Hiring a Professional Plumber for Drain Cleaning
Drain cleaning should be part of your maintenance routine
Drains will clog and need cleaning, no matter how carefully you use them. This is simply because drains carry wastewater and wastewater contain sediments. Every time you wash your hands with soap, you wash soap into the drain that can potentially turn into soap scum and block the pipes.
The same applies to food scraps and grease; they will always find a way to get into the drain. Regular cleaning of your drains should be a permanent feature of your program for keeping the plumbing in good condition and avoiding costly repairs. Only a professional plumber can help you do this efficiently.
DIYs deal with the superficial causes
Understanding the cause of a drain clog, the process of its formation, and the different things that play a part in creating the clog is essential for solving the problem. Before they try to clean out a clogged drain, professional plumbers search for the immediate and remote causes of the problem. They do not apply temporary fixes as DIYers often do.
Professional plumbers use tools and services such as a sewer camera inspections to pinpoint the cause of a problem and apply solutions such as hydro jetting that are comprehensive and long- lasting. A non-professional, on the other hand, is only concerned about getting water to start flowing through the drain again.
Prevent bigger problems
Homeowners who take a DIY approach to solve plumbing issues often do it to save money. In their bid to save a dollar, they cause bigger problems that cost them more money down the road. For instance, homeowners may apply store-bought drain cleaners to get rid of clogs. These products actually remove drain clogs, but only because they are so harsh. The long-term effect of pouring these chemicals into the drain is it strips the pipes and makes them more vulnerable to damage.
A disjointed maintenance strategy that does not take the entire drainage system into account will cause problems for you. Professional plumbers don’t just clean drains; they maintain a history of the issues with your plumbing in order to detect a pattern to the problems with the home’s drainage system.
Professional plumbers save you money and time
Solving drainage problems takes a lot of expertise. For owners who want to do it by themselves, the only way to try and get that expertise is to spend hours on the internet. But watching a YouTube video on hydro jetting does not transform an amateur plumber into a professional. Eventually, the homeowner will have to hire a professional plumber to look at the issues with the home’s drainage.
More often than not, the plumber has to solve both the original problem and the additional ones caused by the homeowner. If the owner had called a professional from the get-go, they would have saved themselves a lot of time and money.