Photo By Sunward Art at Shutterstock
Owning a home means taking proper care of it, and for first-time homeowners, that means figuring out how to take care of your drains and pipes to prevent costly repair bills. When you become a homeowner, you become responsible for all of the maintenance and repairs on your property, so it’s important for you to take care of it so that you can prevent serious issues with your plumbing.
One of the best ways to do that is by making sure that your drains and pipes flow freely and don’t run into obstruction, whether that’s by calling for help from a drain cleaning service or doing your best to prevent clogs from ever forming in the first place.
Unfortunately, clogs are almost certainly going to happen at some point while you own your home, and the best you can do is make sure that you’re following best practices to limit your risk of a clog. Learn how you can minimize the amount of times you need to get help from a professional service here!
Do: Throw Grease and Fat in the Trash
If you’ve heard the old advice about storing fat in a can or sealed container and then throwing it away, don’t dismiss it as a relic of the past. It’s actually a very useful tip, because grease is not meant to go down either your pipes or your garbage disposal. Grease and fat are considered non-polar compounds, which means that they will not dissolve in water.
Now let’s consider your pipes. They’re constantly filled with rushing water, which dissolves most of what goes down your pipes along with it. When something doesn’t dissolve, however, it eventually gets stuck and causes a blockage. The more grease that goes down your pipes, the greater the chances are of a clog eventually happening. Whether it’s a buildup of grease or grease attracting other things that come down your pipes, putting grease down your drains will require a drain cleaning service to sort out.
Don’t: Use Drano to Clean Your Drains
You might be surprised to learn that not only is Drano not a good replacement for a reliable service, but it can actually make your problems worse.
Why? Drano is a highly caustic compound that can cause serious damage to your eyes, skin and other body parts. In fact, some plumbers won’t even take a call from a house that’s used Drano until 24 hours have passed, because if it’s been poured into standing water, the fumes from the resulting biohazard can make the job completely unsafe for a plumber to properly perform. Drano might not cause damage to your pipes, but it certainly will cause damage to your lungs, and that’s not a risk worth taking for either you or your plumber.
The only thing you should ever use to try to clear a clog yourself is a drain snake, because you can put that down your pipes safely without making more work for a drain cleaning service. If you can get a clog free with just a drain snake, congratulations. If you can’t, it’s time to call in the experts to your Richardson, TX home before you cause a problem that makes their job harder.
Do: Be Careful About What You Flush
Your toilet is one of the biggest causes of problems with your pipes and one of the biggest reasons that Texas homeowners need to call for a drain cleaning service. That’s because many homeowners use the toilet to flush items that have no business going down. Many plumbers have a horror story about flushable wipes (which are in no way flushable), coffee grounds, feminine products, dental floss, cotton swabs and even diapers being flushed down the toilet and causing no end of problems.
If you treat your toilet as a garbage disposal, you’re going to end up needing a drain cleaning service to visit far more often than either you or your wallet would like. The only things that should ever go down your toilet are human body waste and toilet paper, both of which will break down easily when flushed. Otherwise, do the safe thing and throw trash in the garbage can.
Don’t: Run Your Garbage Disposal Without Cold Water
When used properly, your garbage disposal can be a handy tool that keeps your pipes flowing and keeps you from having to call for a drain cleaning service to visit your Richardson, TX home. That means making sure to have cold water running whenever you switch on the disposal and try to break down food particles.
Why cold water? Simple: cold water takes longer for food particles to absorb, so if you put pasta or rice down the disposal, it’ll get chopped before it can expand. Plus, water is necessary to keep the parts of your garbage disposal lubricated and keep food particles moving through your pipes. You should never run your disposal without water, as doing so can cause damage to your disposal and render it useless.
Do: Find a Drain Cleaning Service You Can Trust
Sometimes, you’re going to do everything right, follow all best practices and take care of your pipes, but you’re still going to run into problems with your plumbing and drains. The best thing you can do to prevent these issues is to make sure that you’ve got an expert you can call to come to your home and eliminate problems with your drains. That means finding a quality drain cleaning service and making sure that they do first-rate work.
At bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of Northeast Dallas, we pride ourselves on providing the best possible fix for your drains and pipes in the most efficient manner possible. When there’s an issue that requires the help of a drain cleaning service, we’re just a phone call away. Contact us when the drains get clogged. We’ll help clear things out and get the pipes flowing again!
Free Diagnostic - With Paid Repair
