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Having a clogged drain is a big pain. One minute you are happily taking a bath and the next, your bathwater refuses to go down the drain. One minute you are finishing a sink full of dishes and the next, your dirty dishwater will not budge.

Your first instinct may be to run right out and buy the first drain cleaner you can find. Think again. There are other ways you can rid your drain of a clog. You can try a natural DIY drain cleaner.

Baking soda and cider vinegar – this mixture of one cup of baking soda and one cup of cider vinegar will create a foaming action that is great for cleaning drains. Add the mixture to the clogged drain and follow with plenty of hot water. You can utilize this mixture for regular maintenance of your drains to keep the water flowing. Read more

The dishes are done. You pull the plug. And the water doesn’t go down.

Then the fun begins.

This is a sign that there is some sort of blockage in your plumbing. It could be merely a minor problem – something solved by a quick use of a plunger. Or it could be something more.

The following four reasons may be the most common reason why your sink is draining slowly. Read more

With tighter times, people are taking a closer look at their spending.  They cut back on things they don’t need, and they look for alternate solutions for things they do.

Why call in a professional if there is a product on the market that claims to do the same thing for a fraction of the cost? Walk down the cleaning aisle of your local hardware or discount store and you’ll find a variety of products that make huge claims.   With such an affordable “Do-It-Yourself” solution available, why should we fork over the money to pay a professional for drain cleaning?

Drain Cleaners don’t always work – While it is true there are several excellent clog clearing chemicals available at your local store, these may not be the best choice for that clog gone awry.  If your clog is too big, the chemicals may not be enough to clear it.  While the chemicals may seem to fix the problem, they might just be delaying and causing a more difficult problem that will surface at a later date. Read more

Imagine traveling down the pipes of your home, and seeing exactly what they look like before you run into a problem. You wouldn’t have to guess where a problem was, or wait for the inevitable problem to occur. You would know instantly, and be able to fix it at the root cause.

That’s the benefit today’s plumber can offer you.

When you have a plumbing problem, it can be difficult to determine exactly where the problem is located. You may have a backed up sink. But the sink isn’t the issue. It may be the pipe just pass the drain, or it may be a larger problem located in the main outside of your home. How do you tell? Read more

When you walk into your kitchen and smell an odor that resembles sewage, do not panic. The smell does not necessarily mean that you have a busted pipe that is leaking sewage in or under your home. The odor could be coming from your drain. Sometimes drains can start to allow sewer gas to leak back into your home. Fortunately, it is usually not a difficult task to stop the smelly odors and get your home back to its regular, fresh scent.

The first step to restoring the “good” smells is to determine which drain is the bad guy. You can do this by simply plugging/blocking one drain, wait a few minutes, remove the plug, and take a whiff. If it knocks you over, you have found the culprit. If not, move on to another drain. Once you know which drain is the stinker, you can get started on eliminating the problem. Read more

When you run the water in your kitchen sink, it can be quite discouraging to notice that the water is not draining. You naturally expect that your plumbing will stay clog-free and drain without fail each and every time you use it.

If you have a clogged drain, there are various ways you can attempt to fix the problem. You can try a plunger or a drain snake to physically break through the clog. If these do not work, your next step is to try a drain cleaner.

Drain cleaners come in liquid, gel and powder forms. Oxidizing cleaners are composed of chemicals that work to oxidize the clogs. These cleaners weigh more than water, so they can slide right down to the source of the clog, releasing gas and heat to attempt to dissolve the clog. Caustic cleaners work to dissolve clogs by causing a chemical reaction. These cleaners are also heavier than water, so they, too, can reach the clog with ease. Read more

There is nothing quite as dismal as draining your bathtub, only to see that the water is not going anywhere. A clogged bathtub drain can be a messy hassle that might end up costing you hundreds of dollars in plumber expenses. Before you call in a plumber just to get the water flowing again, try the following process to unclog your bathtub drain.

1. Check the drain for a visible clog. It is common for a bathtub drain to get clogged with hair and soap scum right where the drain sits. Remove the drain stopper (if your tub has one) and check for a visible hair clog.

2. Use a plunger. If you cannot see the clog, it may be further down the drain. Using a plunger might force the clog to move along.

Read more

One of the most indispensable items in today’s kitchen is the garbage disposal. While its attached underneath your kitchen sink, and quietly sits away from public view, it is the one appliance that keeps your kitchen in full working condition.

A garbage disposal works by chewing up food scraps and waste, and feeds them down the drain and out to the sewer system via a heavy flow of water. A shredder breaks up each piece into smaller, more manageable pieces. Then a rotating impeller plate breaks down the food particles, forcing them through tiny holes, and down into the drainage system.

A good garbage disposal will last anywhere from 8 to 12 years, depending on use and care techniques. While simple problems are usually fairly easy to fix, larger, more complex problems usually result in replacement of the entire unit. Some simple tips to keep your garbage disposal in top shape are:

Read more

Want a simple way to go green? Start by looking at what’s really in your drain cleaner.

When you experience a clog in your bathroom or kitchen sink, it’s easy to reach into the cabinet for a trusted bottle of drain cleaner. Or head to the store and select one from many on the shelves. Because we’ve been using them for years, we tend not to think beyond selecting our favorite brand.  All of the major brands market them for their effectiveness, yet most don’t think about the dangers of the products. To truly go green, you have to reach beyond the warnings, and look for things that are safe from beginning to end. If they are effective at removing the clog, yet can severely affect our water supply, is it truly worth using this product over and over again? Or is there a better way? Here are some things you may not know about drain cleaners.

Sodium hydroxide is the main chemical found in drain cleaners. Although sodium hydroxide does the job well, it has a number of problems as well. It is corrosive and can lead to extensive damage within drains and pipes. And even more deadly is the effect it can have on the surrounding environment, people included.

The most obvious danger comes from swallowing drain cleaners. It can burn one’s throat, poison a body, and possibly be fatal. Even the fumes from the simple act of pouring drain cleaner can harm the respiratory system and lead to poisoning. These fumes can also escape into the atmosphere and can help slowly infect surrounding oxygen in a house and even build up enough to impact our outdoor pollution levels as well.

Contact to the eyes and skin can cause burns and can lead to blindness. While grown men and women should be well aware of these dangers, without simple precautions in place, they can easily spill or even take in the fumes as they are working with it. Worse, drain cleaners left unattended under a cabinet, or in a basement or garage can lead to poisoning or even death to a young child or pet that comes across the bottle and is unaware of the dangers.

If you’ve begun limiting the number of poisons and chemicals you bring into your home, continue by looking for green drain cleaning options. Simple approaches such as baking soda can remove simple clogs, while a plumbers snake may be needed for more stubborn problems. Pressurized gas and pressurized air have also been found to work the same way, and both also do not have the adverse affects found in drain cleaners.

For even more tips, check with your local green plumber, and find a solution that works best for you.

Whether its early morning before work, or in the final preparations before a dinner party, finding a blocked drain can be more than a minor inconvenience. It can be hours of work determining where the problem lies, and finding the right tools to handle the situation.

The most logical starting point is trying powders, clog removers and a number of home made remedies. If you are trying to avoid harsh chemicals in and around your home, you may even experiment with Green Approaches To Drain Cleaning.

But what do you do when that simply doesn’t solve the problem? Or if it becomes worse than just a drain that is clogged – it actually backs up and begins flooding your basement or crawl space as well?

The drain system is typically a single stack system where waste water and the soil pipe both connect to a common drain leading away from the property to the sewer line.  The clog can be a simple block just a few inches from your sink, or can be several feet away, somewhere within the pipe between your drain and the sewer. Drain cleaners may affect a simple clog a few inches from the drain; but will do no good if the clog is further down the pipe.

Professional plumbers go beyond solving the issue, and go straight to the source of the problem. They have the diagnostic tools to identify the location of the block and the knowledge to eliminate the problem.

If the block is located deep within the line, a plumber can access sophisticated closed circuit systems to pinpoint the block, knowing right where to go to clear away the problem.

Older homes offer a lot of charm, but also many challenges in navigating construction details that date back to the pre-World War II era.  With older homes come older trees with elaborate root systems.  Or pipes and water systems that simply weren’t designed to meet today’s codes. It may take special tools and knowledge to know when to fix something, and when to replace it to avoid future problems.

Blocks in the trap can be very difficult to get to and may cause the drain line to become backed up.  The trap is the point in the line where two or more pipes join and connect to a larger central line.  Often a foul odor is the first indicator that the drain may be plugged.  And it can quickly escalate into a much larger problem requiring the removal of walls, floors, or ceilings.

Unless you have experience in this area, call someone who does. Call your local plumber today.

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