If you have a slow-moving or clogged drain in your home and require a plumber’s sewer and drain service, My Plumber Heating & Cooling can certainly help. We can also offer you some advice on preventative maintenance, and a few ways to relieve minor clogs.
As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The easiest way to avoid causing permanent damage to your drains is to be careful what you put down them. Pasta, rice, bits of potatoes, and turkey or chicken grease can really stop-up a kitchen sink. Cleaning greasy pots and pans with paper towels or scraping them out carefully into a compost bin, before washing them in the sink, is highly recommended. The combination of baking soda and vinegar, followed by a pot of boiling water, can be an easy way to regularly maintain free-flowing drains. Alternatively, BioClean is an enzyme drain cleaner that digests organic waste found in your plumbing system (like grease, hair, soap scum, food). It will remove the most stubborn clogs and is safe for your home and kids.
Hair is almost always the culprit for slow moving bathroom sink and shower drain. Drain screens are an inexpensive way to make sure that these kinds of small solids stay out of the drains to begin with. If it’s already too late, try squirting a tube of Nair down the drain, and flushing after ten minutes with hot water
If drain clogs are in the trap, a plunger may be the simple answer. Fill the sink with a few inches of water and put a wet rag in the overflow opening to create a seal, this will keep the drain air-free and make the plunging more effective. (Consider having one plunger for toilets and another for sinks.)
A kitchen sink that is having trouble draining because of grease can be treated with a hair dryer or a heating pad. Wrap the pad around the drain trap (or hold the hair dryer in place, if you’re patient) to heat the metal and melt the grease. Follow this up by flushing the sink with hot running water.
Hopefully these quick tips help keep your drains from any serious damage. Should you still have issues after trying these recommendations, don’t hesitate to call My Plumber Heating & Cooling– Same Day Service Guaranteed*!
