Clogged drains are a fact of life. There’s really no way you can prevent all of them; at some time or another, you’re going to be dealing with a backed-up sink or slow drain. Sometimes you can fix a clog with a plunger or a simple hand-crank drain snake. Other times you’ll need to call on a professional plumber to take care of the issue.
You can’t make your home’s drains 100% clog-free… but you can get pretty close to it. There are some ways to help your drains run freer and avoid those emergency plumbing calls. We’ve listed a few below.
- Arrange for regular drain cleaning: This is the best method to prevent drain clogs—and it will keep your drains in great shape in general. Every year, schedule professional drain cleaners to come to your home and use tools such as hydro-jetters to scour the walls of the drain pipes thoroughly to remove all the debris clinging to the sides. This will make it tough for buildup to start again, and you can expect few troubles from the drains.
- Keep grease, fats, and oils out of the drains: Don’t pour fats, grease, or oils from cooking into the kitchen drains. These substances look harmless in liquid form, but when they cool down they change into waxy and viscous solids that will coat the walls of the drainpipe. This will make it much easier for clogs to start.
- Use drain covers: Simple drain covers on bathroom sinks and shower drain will do an immense amount of good at stopping hair from entering the drains. Hair clogs are one of the most common and obstinate of bathroom clogs, and drain covers will keep them from building up.
- Avoid liquid drain cleaners: Those “drain cleaners” you buy at the stores can actually make drain clogs worse. These cleaners are really a bunch of acidic chemicals that cut through partial clogs, but leave behind most of the debris, ready to start right up again. The acid will also damage the interior of the pipe.
When you want to schedule drain cleaning, call Ken Neyer Plumbing, Inc. We service Cincinnati and Cleves, OH.