Plumbing Services

DIY Drain Cleaning – How to Get Rid of Clogged Drains

Clogged drains are more than a nuisance—they can spread germs, and foul odors and block water flow. A regular cleaning schedule for your kitchen and bathroom drains will keep them functioning correctly. Contact Philadelphia Drain Cleaning for professional assistance.Drain Cleaning

You can also try some DIY methods to clean your drains. But remember, chemical drain cleaners are corrosive and can damage your pipes.

Clogged drains are one of the most common and annoying plumbing mishaps homeowners encounter. They can affect almost every household drain, from the kitchen sink to the bathtub. They often happen at the most inconvenient times and can result in costly after-hours call-out fees. With a little know-how, however, you can keep your drains clear of obstructions without reaching for toxic chemical cleaners.

The most common cause of a clogged sink or tub is soap residue, which builds up and becomes a tangled mess over time. Other culprits include hair, cigarette butts, food scraps and other organic matter. Even small amounts of these items can result in slow drainage or complete blockage. Luckily, a few household items can help you disintegrate and wash away most drain clogs.

First, try flushing the drain with hot water. If this does not work, it is probably time to try a plunger or a wire drain snake. If the problem persists, you may need to remove the pop-up assembly and feed the wire snake into the drain while cranking it. The snake will entangle with the clog and break it up, pushing it down through the pipes.

If the plunger or snake does not work, you may need to call in a professional. This is especially true if the clog involves multiple drains or is located in the sewer line, which can cause flooding, a backup of waste and other issues throughout your home.

If you have a grease clog that just won’t budge, consider using an eco-friendly product like Bio-Clean to dissolve the fat. The natural enzymes in this nontoxic product will eat away at the blockage without damaging your pipes or the environment. You can purchase Bio-Clean at most hardware stores and it comes in a convenient pouch that you just place down the drain. It takes a while for this product to work, but it will eventually get the job done. Once your drains are free of obstructions, it’s a good idea to use it once or twice a week to avoid future problems.

Dirty Drains

Many people are familiar with the foul odors that can be associated with a dirty drain. This unpleasant odor is caused by the build-up of bacteria and other microorganisms that are released when water can’t flow through a blocked drain. These smelly odors can cause serious health issues, including asthma, so it is important to clean your drains regularly.

A clogged drain can also provide an ideal breeding ground for pests, including spiders, ants, and mosquitoes. These pests can carry diseases and parasites that are harmful to humans, including salmonella, E coli, and Campylobacter. In addition, clogged drains can cause water or sewage to back up into your home, which can pose a serious health risk.

Dirty drains can be cleaned with a variety of chemicals, but it is best to use natural cleaning substances when possible. Begin by pouring a half-gallon of boiling water down the drain to loosen any clogs. If this doesn’t work, try using a drain cleaner that contains a strong deodorizer. After the clog is gone, flush your drain with warm water by pouring down 2 to 3 cups of near-boiling water. Repeat this process if necessary.

It is also a good idea to keep pet litter out of your drains, as it can block pipes. If you have a cat, train it to use the litter box, instead of flushing it down the toilet. If you accidentally flush pet waste, call a plumber immediately for drain cleaning to avoid an expensive clog.

Regular drain cleaning can also reduce the amount of dirt and debris that ends up in our oceans. This dirt and debris can clog and damage our sea ecosystems, which is why it is important to clean your drains regularly.

To help keep your drains clean, you should try to use less oil, soap, and grease. You should also use hot water rather than cold water when cooking or washing dishes. Hot water helps to dissolve food scraps more effectively, while cold water will rinse them away. Lastly, be sure to use a strainer when putting food scraps into the garbage disposal. This will help to catch larger pieces and prevent them from getting caught in the drain line.

Clogged Toilets

Clogged toilets are a common household problem that can be frustrating and messy to deal with. Fortunately, most of the time these problems can be resolved with a bit of non-toxic DIY cleaning. Using a plunger to break up the blockage in the drain usually works, especially when plunging is combined with a few other cleaning solutions like dish soap and vinegar or caustic soda. For more serious clogs, the best solution may be to invest in an enzyme drain cleaner or sewer snake.

A common cause of a persistent toilet clog is improper items being flushed down the drain. It is important to remind children and adults what can and cannot be flushed in the toilet, including Q-tips, cotton balls, feminine products, paper towels, and more. Keeping these items out of the toilet can prevent frequent clogs and save on expensive plumbing repairs and replacements.

When a clog in the toilet drain becomes a serious issue, a sewer snake or auger might be needed to clear the obstruction. If you decide to try clearing the clog yourself, first shut off water supply to the toilet (turn the valve on the bottom left side of the toilet tank). Next, use a plunger to create a seal over the drain opening, and then push down and up forcefully while maintaining the seal. Repeat this process a few times to dislodge the clog.

If plunging doesn’t work, a mixture of hot water and soap can help lubricate the drain and dissolve any remaining debris. Add a half cup of liquid soap to the toilet and allow it to sit for 10 minutes, then flush. You can also fill a bucket with hot bath water (boiling water could crack porcelain toilets), and pour it into the toilet drain to help loosen and dislodge any lingering clogs.

If a clog is still present, you can buy or rent an enzyme drain cleaner from most grocery, hardware, and “big box” stores. These cleaners contain bacteria that break down and eat away at the waste material in your pipes, rather than the harsh chemicals found in many commercial chemical drain cleaners. However, this option can take a while to work, and it is important to read the instructions carefully before using it.

Clogged Sinks

There’s nothing quite like a clogged sink to put a damper on your everyday life. Whether you’re cooking dinner or taking a shower, it’s inconvenient and unsanitary to be left standing ankle-deep in water. So when your kitchen or bathroom drain starts to run slower than usual, it may be time for a little DIY drain cleaning. We talked to two plumbing experts—plumber Alan Soukup, owner of Bluefrog Plumbing and Drain of North Dallas, Texas, and Alicia Sokolowski, president and co-CEO of AspenClean, of Chicago, Illinois—to learn what the most common causes of clogged sinks are, as well as how to clear them on your own without the help of a plumber.

Food particles, grease, coffee grounds, hair and other debris can all end up stuck in your drains. They can also cause a complete blockage of the pipe, especially if they become lodged in your P- or J-trap (the curved pipe under your sink). To avoid these problems, be sure to keep small objects out of the drain and dispose of them properly.

If your clogged sink is caused by soap scum or grime, you can use hot water to clean the pipes and unclog your sink. However, be cautious: If your pipes are not rated for 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the boiling water could melt or deform the pipes and lead to leaks.

To try this method, first remove the stopper and any standing water from the drain. Then, fill the sink halfway with hot water, then slowly pour the rest down the drain, waiting a few seconds between each pour. Repeat as needed to dislodge the clog. If your clog is particularly stubborn, you can try using a plunger or wet/dry vacuum to loosen it. If you’re unable to break up the clog with either of these tools, you can try using a drain snake or auger, which are devices that run a metal cable through your pipe. Just be careful, as these can cause serious chemical and thermal burns if you don’t use them properly. Before you begin, ensure that the pipe is rated for the force of the tool and have eye protection and rubber gloves on hand.

Plumbing Services

Trenchless Sewer Line Repair

Your sewer line takes wastewater from your home to your septic tank or to the city sewer system. Occasionally, this important plumbing line can become damaged or need repairs.Trenchless Sewer

Trenchless technology allows plumbers to repair your sewer line without digging trenches. This is much faster and less disruptive to your home.

Your sewer line isn’t the most glamorous part of your home, but it’s one of the most important. That’s why if you’re having trouble with yours, you should take it seriously and consider getting it repaired as soon as possible. Luckily, your options for doing so aren’t limited to excavation and costly repairs. Instead, you can use a trenchless process called pipe bursting that allows the experts at Sewer Pros to repair your sewer line quickly and efficiently with minimal invasiveness.

How Trenchless Pipe Bursting Works

With this process, an HDPE pipe is pulled through a damaged or old sewer line while “bursting” the existing pipe apart. This enables the new line to be laid in its place while simultaneously removing the old one. A cone-shaped “bursting head” is fed into the existing pipe, and once it’s pulled through, it fractures the old line. The resulting gap in the ground is filled with the new pipe.

In addition to being a faster and more reliable repair method, pipe bursting is also much cheaper than conventional excavation. That’s because it saves on labor costs. Plus, it also saves on the cost of repairing or replacing surrounding landscaping, which can be quite expensive.

Another way that pipe bursting saves money is by eliminating the need to haul away debris. This is because conventional sewer line repair requires a lot of digging, which leaves behind a huge mess. However, trenchless methods leave no trace of their work behind, which means that you can get back to your normal life more quickly.

Lastly, pipe bursting is more environmentally friendly than traditional excavation. That’s because the process causes less damage to the environment, which in turn prevents toxic substances from entering the water supply or other parts of your property.

If your sewer line is damaged, you should contact a trenchless sewer service as soon as possible to schedule a repair. That’s because a faulty line can lead to serious problems in your home, including slow draining, sewage backups, and even structural damage. With pipe bursting, you can have your problem fixed quickly and with minimal disruption to your home life.

Pipe Lining

Using either epoxy pipe lining or pipe bursting techniques, we can repair your damaged sewer lines without the need for excavation. Unlike traditional methods that result in yard destruction and landscaping damage, trenchless methods minimize environmental impact, saving you the cost and stress of repairs and replacements.

In this method, we use a flexible tube filled with resin to coat the inside of your existing pipes. After the lining is in place, we inflate it and let it harden in place, creating a new pipe inside your old one that looks exactly like your original pipe but has the strength to resist blockages and breakage for decades.

The lining process usually takes one or two days to complete. While it’s important to note that the lining can’t fix everything, including serious problems like sagging, bellying, or misaligned pipes, it is effective for fixing small leaks and cracks and for rehabilitating aging pipes.

If the problem with your sewer line is larger than a few cracks and leaks, you’ll likely need to replace it altogether. This is when a trenchless approach becomes extremely useful.

For large gaps or cracked pipes, we can use slip lining or pull-in-place liners. This is a similar technique to CIPP lining, but the rubber bladder in the felt liner can be expanded to fit over the existing sewer pipe. Once the liner is in place, it can be cured with steam or hot water and will adhere to the host pipe. This method does decrease the pipe size by a slight amount, but this shouldn’t affect the ability to transport waste to the city sewer line.

As with CIPP lining, there is a brief period of limited water and sewer use while the liner cures. Additionally, you might be able to smell a plastic or glue-like odor while the work is being performed, but this odor should dissipate as soon as the lining process is finished.

Sewer Camera Inspection

A sewer camera inspection is an invaluable tool for plumbers to see what is going on inside your pipes. It can help them decide whether a trenchless method is suitable for your needs and can also save you money on unnecessary repairs. It also helps them find the exact spot of the issue so that they can use it to inform the rest of their work.

A plumber will insert a flexible cable with a camera on the end of it into your pipe. This camera will then send back a live video to an HDTV monitor that allows the plumber to examine your pipe in real time. This can reveal a lot of information about the condition of your pipe, such as if it has a crack, break, or blockage. The plumber can then choose a course of action for fixing the problem.

A sewer line camera inspection is a quick, inexpensive, and non-invasive way for a professional to find the source of your problem. It can also help prevent any unforeseen issues down the road, such as sediment buildup that you might not have noticed.

The camera will travel all the way through your pipe until it reaches a point of blockage or damage. It can then stop, and the plumber will mark it with a spray of paint or by using a transmitter on the end of the camera to signal a receiver above ground. The plumber can then go up to the surface and sweep a locating device until they find the signal from the camera. This will help them locate the specific area of the pipe that is blocked so that they can dig a trench here for the traditional repair method.

Sewer cameras can also help find a “pipe belly.” A “pipe belly” is when a section of your pipe dips or sinks down in the middle, forming what looks like a bell shape. These areas collect waste over time and can lead to repeated blockages. A sewer camera can find these areas and the location of the clog or break so that a plumbing company can determine if it is a good candidate for a trenchless repair.

Call us today.

If you have a broken sewer line, the best choice is to contact a professional. The traditional method involves extensive trenching, which can damage the surrounding area. This could include the destruction of lawns, trees, gardens, driveways, sidewalks, and other property. Fortunately, there is another option: trenchless sewer line repair. This is the most environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to fix your sewer lines.

Trenchless repairs are the most eco-friendly method of repairing or replacing sewer lines. This is because it does not require digging up the entire yard. This also means that less gas, electricity, and water are used during the repair process. Additionally, it reduces the chance of accidentally damaging other pipes on your property during the excavation process.

This method uses a pipe material called epoxy to create a new line within the old one. The installers feed the line into the damaged pipe and then insert an inflatable bladder. Once it has cured, the crew will remove the bladder and leave behind a new pipe that is fully sealed and has a long life expectancy.

The biggest benefit of this method is that it is much more cost-effective than the traditional one. It can save you thousands of dollars in labor and restoration costs, which is a major benefit considering that it only takes a day to complete the work!

Additionally, this is a much safer method for your home and garden. It eliminates the risk of losing property, which can happen when workers dig up your yard. It also minimizes the risk of sewage backflow, which can occur when a hole is made in your sewer line.

Trenchless plumbing is also a much quicker and more efficient solution for sewer repairs. The traditional method can take weeks to complete due to the massive amount of work that is required. This can disrupt your daily routine and cause a lot of inconvenience for you and your family.

If you are interested in installing a trenchless sewer in your home, contact us today. Our licensed technicians will walk you through the benefits and determine which method is best for your situation.