Posted by William Heinselman on
When it comes to proper home drain care maintenance, there’s little more important to your Sacramento drain care than understanding; understanding how your home plumbing systems work, and how DIY tools and techniques can help you keep your drain pipes running at their full potential, and limit the possible buildup of chemicals and clogging debris.
Too often, homeowners compromise their own plumbing systems with poor care behaviors and counter-productive drain cleaning products, such as commercial, chemical cleaners, which can actually deteriorate your drains and cause further damages.
In this article, we’ll identify 5 little-known facts about proper drain cleaning and care, and help you find simple ways to improve your home drain performance right away.
1.) Chemical Products Can Actually Harm Your Pipes
One of the leading misconceptions on Sacramento drain cleaning concerns how commercial cleaning products actually affect home drain pipes. When used to clean drains, the chemicals in these products react with one another and foam up to break away at clogged materials.
However, it’s these same reactions that can actually damage your drains to points beyond those that DIY repair methods can fix. When this occurs, extensive professional renovations are often required, creating huge financial strain on homeowners that are otherwise avoidable with proper plumbing care.
Instead of these chemical products, try using a baking soda and vinegar mixture to clear your drains. Allow the mixture to sit for 5-10 minutes, and then simply flush with hot water. These two agents react in a safer way than the chemicals in commercial cleaners, and can deliver the same, if not better, cleaning results.
2.) Keeping a Regular Maintenance Schedule Can Do Wonders
Another little known step homeowners in the Sacramento area can take to ensure the life and performance of their drains is adhering to a regular, consistent plumbing inspection schedule. This helps homeowners keep track of performance-hindering conditions in their plumbing and take action when clogs, corrosion and other drain issues eventually do occur.
Our experts here at Express Sewer & Drain recommend personally inspecting your drain pipes at least once per month. By using drain cleaning and inspection tools (available at your local home improvement store), you can preventatively catch any clogging or other issues early on, and limit their eventual extent. By catching adverse plumbing conditions early on, you can take action sooner, limiting corrosion and long-term damage to your home’s drain systems.
Beyond self-inspections, we recommend having professional plumbing inspections completed at least once annually, as these specialists can detect problems in your pipes with a more narrowed, specially trained eye. Regular inspections make drain repairs practical under any budget, as catching issues early on limits their harm to your pipes and can keep your drain repair budget manageable.
3.) Your Garbage Disposal Isn’t a “Garbage”
This is a fact that may come as more of a surprise than the above misconception on chemical cleaners… despite the name, your home’s garbage disposal unit isn’t truly “garbage” disposal. Simply put, it cannot process everything you are likely attempting to process through it.
The list of things conventional garbage dispiosals cannot process range from the obvious (paper products, packaging, plastics) to the not-so obvious (cooking oils, starchy products, rice and noodles, fibrous food product skins and animal cartilage). This catches many homeowners off guard, as they feel any food product can and should be disposed of via their home garbage disposal.
The truth is that these products can severely damage the disposal’s blades, and form tough, stubborn clogs deep within your home’s drain pipes. To avoid these frustrating problems, it’s best to be wary of what exactly you’re throwing down your disposal. Sure, disposing of grease and cooking fat can be a hassle… but more-so can full, expensive drain repairs.
4.) Professional Help Can be Instrumental
The secret weapon many homeowners in the Sacramento area have turned to in their time of crucial plumbing need is outside, expert opinion and aid. While DIY drain repair efforts and professional-grade drain cleaning tools can often ease clogging woes and plumbing performance issues in a pinch, long-term solutions are best provided by experienced specialists in your area, who come equipped with a trained eye for pipe damage and an arsenal of quality plumbing solutions.
Drain repairs and professional-quality cleaning are made surprising simple with the right tools, knowledge and expert guidance on hand. If you find yourself in over your head with extensive home plumbing renovations, don’t press on and potentially damage your pipes further; contact an expert, such as the trained professionals at Express Sewer & Drain, for all your plumbing needs.
Topics: Commercial Plumbing, Home Plumbing, Drain Cleaning and Repair
