If you heard someone say they have a plumbing problem, what’s the first thing you would think of? If you’re like many homeowners, you probably think of clogged or slow moving drains. Almost every homeowner has run into this problem at some time or another. The best thing you can do when this happens is invest in professional drain cleaning service from an experienced team of plumbers (don’t use store-bought liquid drain cleaners—these are corrosive, and only temporarily solve the problem).
Another way to relieve clogged drains is to prevent them from happening to begin with. This requires you to know the most common cause of drain clogs, so you can avoid these scenarios:
FOG in the Kitchen Sink
FOG stands for “fats, oils, and grease.” These are three cooking liquids, but they’re not always liquid—they’re only in liquid form when they’re hot. Therefore, it makes sense to pour them down the drain, right?
The problem with this is that they cool as they’re trickling down your kitchen sink pipes, and they harden and congeal. Do this enough times and you can have a serious kitchen sink backup on your hands. The best thing you can do to avoid this is to ensure you’re pouring all FOG from cooking into a separate container and throwing it away in the trash.
Hair in the Bathroom
Hair is one of the biggest enemies to bathtub, shower, and sink drains in the bathroom. Hair might seem harmless enough, but it can easily get caught in the p-trap of your sink and drain of your bathtub. This traps more hair until a snarl forms a blockage in your plumbing. Fortunately, there’s a really easy solution for this—you can purchase drain covers and drain strainers that fit over the drain and prevent hair from going down it.
Soap Scum Buildup
This is an issue for both bathroom and kitchen plumbing sinks and fixtures. Soap scum presents a serious risk of clogs, and can also create an acidic reaction to the pipe material and damage it. Hard water makes the buildup of soap scum worse, which we’ll get to below, but to mitigate the buildup of soap scum, drain covers again are a good idea.
Hard Water Minerals
The minerals in hard water—calcium and magnesium—are harmless to people and pets, but they can create a calcite buildup in the inside of your drainpipes. This buildup can close off the volume of your drainpipe and eventually lead to serious clogs. The best thing you can do to prevent any sort of hard water problem is to have a whole-house water softener installed.
To prevent problems with your plumbing system in general, it’s a good idea to invest in plumbing maintenance at least once a year. This allows our professionals to fully inspect your system, checking for issues that can turn into much bigger problems later on and ensuring that your plumbing is operating as efficiently as possible.
At Dalton Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, Electric and Fireplaces, Inc., your comfort is our promise! To set up an appointment, give us a call at the number above, email customerservice@daltonphc.com or schedule an appointment online.