Considering how essential water is, it doesn’t come as a surprise to know how the piping system’s been working overtime just to get your water on demand. It’s one of the most overused systems, homeowners are bound to encounter problems along the way. A piping system won’t perform the full extent of its duties if there’s no way for wastewater to leave the household. That’s where drainage comes in.
From the kitchen sink to the bathroom, the drainage is already pre-installed for the homeowner to enjoy it without worrying about hanging water. But regardless of whether or not the drainage has been made for a long time already, you need to see how important it is to schedule regular drainage inspections. Once you’ve made it a habit to inspect the drain, you’ll realize just how easy it is for a drain to clog up.
What Causes Drains To Clog Up?
There are multiple reasons for your drain to be blocked off. Considering how rare it is for a house to only have one drain, it makes more sense to have them encounter problems only exclusive to that area alone.
For example, drains closer to the outdoors typically get clogged up by tree roots or other small debris. Meanwhile, indoor drains often get blockages that result from the homeowner’s waste, such as fallen hair or soap scum. Due to how easy it is to accumulate these blockages, what seems like a small issue at first will only grow into a bigger problem. Once you reach that point, you now have a more time-consuming problem on your hands.
Ways To Unblock Clogged Drains
Considering their importance, clogged drainage systems can easily snowball other problems onto your property. So, it explains why there are so many solutions available for homeowners and business owners alike. After all, everyone includes their preferences in deciding which one they should try.
1. Cleaning Equipment
Since water is used for all areas in society, every building is designed to have a drainage system to direct wastewater toward its designated location. However, drainage systems are bound to be obstructed by anything under the sun because they’re found in all sorts of areas. From trash build-up to debris, as long as they can get carried away by water, they’ll get trapped in the pipes one way or another.
Check this out to see how drainage cleaning services are fully equipped to handle heavy-duty problems such as large obstructions. Despite how intimidating they are at first glance, unclogging drainage systems will turn out to be a simple job with machines designed to do the job, be it for households or industrial settings.
Some of these machines are the following:
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Pipe Inspection Equipment
Before plumbers dive right into using their equipment immediately, they first need to get the big picture. In this case, that sentiment is quite literal, considering their set-up consists of a video camera attached to a cable. With careful maneuvering, the experts will guide the camera through the drain system to check out certain parts they can’t reach. After they’re finished, only then can they decide what strategy to take or which tool they should use.
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Hydro-Jet
A hydro-jet is heavy-duty cleaning equipment that uses high-pressure water and a special nozzle to clear out any tough blockage. Hydro-jet relies purely on water, albeit with high pressure to flush out anything clogging up the pipes, even tree roots. On top of that, the special nozzle is designed so the expert can adjust its strength. This way, anything from sludge to calcified deposits can easily be removed.
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Cable Cleaning
Cable cleaning utilizes rapidly spinning blades connected at the ends of a cable to slice through obstructions. They can also scrape off any build-up across the pipes to thoroughly clean them. Although it depends on the cables’ length, the cable cleaning equipment might be too difficult to move around since they’re stored inside. So, the longer they are, the heavier the equipment is.
2. Chemicals
Many homeowners believe that chemical drain cleaners are the best solution for clogged drains. After all, the materials that typically get stuck inside those pipes can get melted by hydrochloric acid or other strong chemicals.
Unlike the preparation needed for other methods, you just have to pour a certain amount of drain cleaner into the clogged drain, leave it according to the time instructed, and flush it out with cold water. Therefore, those drain flies that keep bothering you will soon disappear in the blink of an eye.
Experts consider this solution ill-advised. Although chemical drain cleaners are advertised for melting through a clog, they typically do the job half-done. Therefore, a portion is still left behind. Having corrosive chemicals like acid can damage the drainpipes making them irreparable. Due to their high toxicity, chemicals also leave behind fumes that can pollute landfills later.
3. Traditional Methods
Homeowners tend to handle things using their grit and craftiness. Fortunately, there’s a range of tools available that can easily help you with your clogged drain.
Plungers are your typical go-to solution. However, it can only work on blockages closer to the drain. If they’re anywhere deeper, there’s a drain snake you can use that goes farther down the pipe with its long, thin cable, and then use the hand crank to dislodge it. If what’s clogging your pipe is hair, hair snakes are simple plastic tools that can hook up clumps of knotted hair.
Takeaway
There are bound to be lots of things that get carried away with the wastewater. Whether they’re instantaneous or eventual, these materials will be a problem either way since they can damage the drainage system the longer they’re clogged up. Luckily, there are numerous types of drain unblockers you can use to deal with this problem.
