Drain Cleaning | Plumbing Arlington

Clogged drains are a frustrating problem. Professional drain cleaning services can prevent backups, floods, and debris build up. You don’t have to let a stubborn clog take up your valuable time, contact the plumbing experts at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing for resolution of clogs with our professional drain cleaning in your plumbing in Arlington.

While there are a large number of causes for clogged drains, the most common include:  

• Food Debris 
• Hair 
• Grease, oil and fat 

• Soap Scum

Preventing a Clog 

Toilets, kitchen and bathroom sinks, bathtubs, and showers are the most common places for a clogged drain. Observation of the following tips will assist to prevent a clogged drain and/or sewer pipe. 

1. Never pour grease, fat, or oil down your kitchen drain. Grease, fat, and other oils can adhere to your pipes. Other debris sticks to the grease and creates a stubborn kitchen drain clog. Instead, placed cooled grease, fat and oils in a sealed container and into the garbage. Even if it makes it all the way to the sewers, grease can damage the environment by combining with soap-like chemicals, blocking pipes, and causing sewer overflows.

The proper way to handle greasy cooking utensils is pour the cooled grease into a sealed container, and wipe up as much of the residue in the pan as possible with paper towels before washing. 

When grease washes down the drain, it will solidify in the pipe where it develops into a blockage over time. Even when the grease makes its way through your drain and sewer pipe, it can cause huge problems in the city’s sewer lines with massive blockages.

2. Install strainers on all drains to prevent the passage of drain clogging materials. Hair is a common cause of drain clogs in showers and bathtubs, forming a tough matrix in your home’s plumbing in Arlington. Installing a strainer on drains and routine cleaning will stop hair clogs. 

Be cautious of what goes down the drains. Products such as paint, glue, and wax should never go down any drain. These items will harden, creating a blockage. In addition, paint thinners and other chemicals should be disposed of properly, and not down a drain.

3. The only thing that should be flushed down the toilet (besides the obvious) is toilet paper. Facial tissues, paper towels, dinner napkins, cat litter of any kind, medications including pills and capsules, sanitary products, cotton balls, cotton swabs, personal or baby wipes (including those that claim to be flushable) and diapers will create serious blockages in your home’s plumbing in Arlington.

When using the garbage disposal, remember to run cold water. When your task is complete with the disposal, allow the water to run at least 20 seconds after to thoroughly flush the drain pipe and help prevent clogs in your plumbing in Arlington.

4. Unless you have a garbage disposal, do not dispose of food down the kitchen drain. Food will accumulate over time and clog drains. Furthermore, this practice will result in smelly drains due to the bacteria from decomposition. Remember, there are limits on the disposal. Cut up large pieces of foods and feed in one at a time with the disposal (and cold water) running. There are a large number of items, including foods that should never be placed in a disposal, refer to your owner’s manual for a complete listing. Your best option is to place large amounts of food in the trash or compost. 

Some of the common trouble makers for disposals and drains include; coffee grounds, egg shells, pits, stringy foods such as celery, and corn husks, starchy foods such as pasta, rice, and potato skins. If it isn’t food waste, it absolutely belongs in the garbage and not the disposal. 

Sewer Pipe Clogs

When a clogged system affects all of the drains you likely have a problem with the main sewer line and you will need to contact a plumber in Arlington for the repair of your home’s plumbing in Arlington.

Determining if drainage issues are a sewer pipe blockage, or a clog in a section of the home’s drainage system is as simple as determining if all drains are affected, or only 1 or 3 for example. Poor drainage at the kitchen sink and not elsewhere is confined to the kitchen drain. A bathroom, for example that has poor drainage in all drains is likely to indicate a blockage that area of your home’s waste plumbing in Arlington 

However, if all the drains are draining slowly, or are completely clogged, it is likely there is a blockage in the main sewer line.

Causes of Main Sewer Line Clogs

Clogs in the main sewer line are often from the following common causes:

• Tree roots will invade sewer pipes. Tree roots seek out moisture, and can grow into your main sewer pipe, causing a clog and damage to the pipe. 
• Grease sticks to the pipes, eventually resulting in a clogged sewer line, and may result in back up into your home’s plumbing in Arlington. 
• Pipes can crack and collapse, and the ground can shift creating a swag resulting in a blockage.

Contact a Benjamin Franklin Professional

Sewer pipe problems require a licensed and experienced plumber for solutions. Benjamin Franklin Plumbers have the expertise, training and knowledge to provide plumbing repair, drain cleaning and sewer pipe cleaning, video pipe inspections and much more. Contact our plumbers today for a solution to problems with your plumbing in Arlington.