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As far as the plumbing system in your Richardson, TX, home goes, things change quite a bit as summer rolls around. With the whole family spending more time at home than ever, there’s a lot more demand on the water and drain lines in your home. This is why it’s important to make sure your drains and your plumbing in general are prepared for what summer has to throw at them. If you want to avoid spending money on a drain cleaning service this summer, here are some tips to help you keep your drains clean with more people using them.
Toilet Drains
One of the most important things to understand if you want to prevent clogged drains is how to make sure your toilet doesn’t get clogged. While there are times a toilet may clog from too much waste or toilet paper being flushed down the drain, toilet clogs can also be more serious and require drain cleaning services.
If you’re currently using wet wipes that are marketed as “flushable,” you should stop using them right away. Even though these wipes are designed to flush, they don’t break down very well in your drain pipes and will eventually cause nasty clogs. Instead, you should only use toilet paper.
There are also a lot of household items that people tend to flush down the toilet, many of which can lead to an expensive service call. Your toilet is not a place to put things like cigarette butts, cotton swabs and makeup products. Flushing things like this isn’t just bad for your drains, it’s bad for the overall health of the water supply.
Bathroom Drains
The other drains in your bathroom are important when it comes to preventing clogs, too. Chances are you have multiple people using the bathroom to take showers, wash their hands and shave every day. As all this activity happens, there tends to be a buildup in the drains that causes clogs over time.
Most clogs in the bathroom sink and showers a result of a mixture of hair and soap that congeals to form a clog. The tough part about this is the fact that it’s so difficult to avoid getting these things in your drain. For a lot of people, the best solution is to try to minimize this buildup and have a drain cleaning service remove the big clogs when they occur.
One of the best ways to make sure you don’t clog your bathroom sink and shower is to install drain catchers that catch the hair and soap mixture before it gets too deep in drain pipes. Keep in mind that you will have to manually empty these drain catchers every once in a while, but that’s a great alternative to having to hire a drain cleaning service regularly.
Kitchen Sink Drain
The kitchen sink in your Richardson, TX, home is also a hot spot for clogs. Since the kitchen sink is the only drain you put food down, it tends to get clogged a little faster than the others. Even if you have a good garbage disposal installed in your kitchen sink, putting too much food down the drain will eventually lead to having to hire a drain cleaning service.
Your best bet when it comes to keeping your kitchen sink drain clear is putting as little food down the drain as you possibly can. Even foods which break down fairly easily can eventually cause a clogged drain in your kitchen. Even worse, there are tons of foods that are known to cause clogs that people put down at their disposal, such as greases, coffee grounds, celery and egg shells.
One easy way to make sure you aren’t putting too much food down your garbage disposal is to install a a sink strainer. This strainer will catch all the wet food you pour in the sink and drain the moisture out, at which point you can simply empty it into the garbage can. While this may be a little gross for some people, it’s a simple way to avoid having to call a drain cleaning service.
A Note About Drain Cleaners
While you should never do anything risky when it comes to cleaning your own drains, you can help keep them clear by using a good drain cleaner when you notice a drain slowing down. However, there are a few important things you need to know about drain cleaners or you could end up paying for much more than a simple drain cleaning service.
Most people use a chemical-based drain cleaner such as Drano. If you ask any good plumber, they’ll tell you that these chemical-based cleaners should never be used in your sink. The chemicals in Drano and other popular drain cleaners can cause your pipes to corrode over time, leaving you with an expensive plumbing repair bill when you simply wanted to unclog a pipe.
The best drain cleaners to use are those that are enzyme based. If you’re simply trying to prevent a clog so you don’t have to call a drain cleaning service, you can pour an enzyme-based cleaner down the drain as often as you need to. Since these drain cleaners don’t cause any damage to your pipes, you don’t have to worry about overusing them or using them in the wrong drain.
Here to Help
Dealing with a clogged drain is the worst, especially if it’s keeping you from using a fixture in your home. If you have a clog that’s too much for a regular drain cleaner to handle, your first move should be to hire a drain cleaning service.
No matter what type of plumbing work you need done on your home, bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North East Dallas is here to help. From drain cleaning to installing fixtures and fixing leaks, there’s nothing we can’t do. Call bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of North East Dallas at (972) 483-2583 to schedule an appointment today.
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