What To Know About Drain Cleaning | San Antonio, TX
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Drains can clog at any time with or without warning, meaning that you may have crud backing up your sinks or other drains and a call for a drain cleaning service would be in order. Many things can clog up your drains and some of the items that do so may come as a shock to you as you probably didn’t think about where some of that gunk came from. Remember that not all items will be in every drain clog, but all drain clogs can be fixed in one way or another. Be sure when you call for drain cleaning you do it quickly, you don’t want to be known as the house with a bad smell.
Causes from Outside the Pipes
This is the one that people don’t usually think about, items from the outside coming in. Calling for drain cleaning and wondering why they aren’t just shoving the crud down into the sewer system or at a septic tank may confuse those who aren’t familiar with the process as a whole. Items that are outside of your pipes or outside the control of your disposing are the most difficult to deal with. These are both items from outside the house and items you aren’t shoving down the drains.
The first one you’d likely see in the area are tree roots. As pipes age and trees grow they have this way where they find each other especially if a drainage pipe has a small leak or at a connection. Over time the root will grow into the pipe slowing the flow of the disposing products and could cause it to back up into your home. This is where a service would likely bore out the root from the pipe but may recommend full replacement so you don’t have to call them every couple of years for service. The other major item causing drains to clog are what we’ll call “natural” causes. If you are on a septic system and your septic tank is over capacity it can back up. If you are on a San Antonio, TX sewer system and the sewer is backed up from things like flash floods or excess debris in the drains then it can back up into your house.
As for things the people you call for drain cleaning will look for is if your pipes are not set up correctly or are failing. Interestingly enough even if a pipe leaks it can cause a blockage as the oxygen can change the pressure and cause the flow to slow. If your pipes are on a slant where there is no more downhill travel it is possible that your waste could back up into your home. Another example is as your pipes age there is usually a scale of minerals and sediment that comes through your home. If that scale hardens or covers too much of the pipe your flow rate will drop substantially causing backups. If your pipes are older or have been in contact with a few chemical compounds your pipes could actually be disintegrating too, causing more problems with your drainage. Finally a drain cleaning service may determine that your drain pipes are undersized for the usage they are receiving and may recommend replacement.
Items You Put Down the Drain
Now we get to the part where the drain cleaning service you call will ask what was put in the pipes and why it shouldn’t be. Thankfully we’ll have some major tips for you to prevent that from happening. Starting in the kitchen with food waste you have to be careful. Even with a garbage disposal food waste from fruits and vegetables has a tendency to stick to the sides of the pipes as they are fibrous organic matter. Grains like pasta, rice, and breads are even worse as these foods generally swell up as they come in contact with moisture, meaning even less space for stuff to go down the drains. If you are a coffee drinker you will want to reconsider ever dumping grounds down the sink and they are abrasive to the pipes and cause damage while also being able to stick together. The final food product is actually a by-product and that is fats, greases, and oils. These three liquid and viscous materials may seem fine but not only to oil and water not mix above the sink level down below as the fats cool they will solidify and stick to the pipes themselves and that is a difficult task for most drain cleaners to work with.
When we move out of the kitchen we get to the problem that most people associate with minor clogs, hair. Yes, hair will eventually break down but not before it sits in your pipes for a long amount of time. While it will be impossible to keep all body hair from reaching the drains, having a drain catch may be a suggestion you get when you call for drain cleaning service. Down to the toilet remember that the only things that will truly break down in the sewers is toilet paper. Hygiene products and flushable wipes do not break down the same and should not be used in your toilet. Same goes for any cats you may have. Never flush litter down the drains as it also expands and clumps together when it comes in contact with water, and it can become hard as a rock. The last one we’ll mention is chemical dumping. This is not only illegal in most areas if the wrong kinds of chemicals react with each other they can utterly destroy a sewage system and drain cleaning will be the least of your worries.
When you’re ready to call for drain cleaning in San Antonio, TX give the experts at bluefrog Plumbing + Drain a call, they can get whatever is stuck in the pipes taken care of at any time of day with their twenty four hour service. They are located right in San Antonio for a quick response time whenever you require it.
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