Plumbing emergencies tend to come at the worst time. That’s because there’s no good time to have sewage backing up into your backyard. Fortunately, most plumbing emergencies do not begin as emergencies. First, they’re small annoyances that compound and get worse. For example, you might have one clogged sink that you don’t think about too much. Before long, you might have a clogged sewer drain and a very messy situation. Your best option is to clear and clean your drains regularly. You should have professional plumbers do this.

Don’t Do It Yourself

 There are dozens of different products that purport to allow you to clean your own drains. You should avoid these for a few reasons. Chemical drain cleaners are made from harsh chemicals that are designed to dissolve hair, toilet paper, and other clogging materials. Those chemicals can score your pipes. That means they can leave tiny dents and scratches in your pipes. Those dents and scratches work just like rough-sanding a piece of wood. They make the pipes more likely to grab material as it flows through the drain. That could make your next clog even worse.

Furthermore, those materials can eat away at plastic and rubber. Some drains have PVC pipes or rubber grommets. If those are degraded, they’ll eventually fail. Lastly, a professional will be able to better assess the overall health of your pipes.

How They Do It

 Professionals clean your drains in a few ways. An auger is a flexible tool that snakes into your drain. It grabs clogs and pulls them out. That’s an effective way to clear a solid clog. Augers also scrape the sides of your pipes to clear away debris. Also, professionals might hydro-jet your pipes. That means they’ll blow highly pressurized water through the pipes to force clogs and debris through the drains and into the sewer. Several types of drain systems actually have a blowout valve. So, the experts can open the blowout valve and literally blow debris out of your pipes.

 Lastly, the plumbers might use cameras that snake into the drains. That allows them to actually look at the condition of your pipes. They’ll be able to see where pipes might be corroded, where debris might build up and anything else that needs attention. If they’re able to see those things, they can then address them before they become big problems.

Signs You Need a Drain Cleaning

 If you have only one clogged drain, you actually might be able to clear that yourself. For example, a ball of hair in your shower drain can be pulled out with a store-bought drain snake. However, if you have frequent clogs or if that doesn’t completely clear the drain, you’ve likely got a bigger issue. You need a professional for that.

If you have multiple clogged drains, that could be a sign that the clog is farther down in the pipes. You’ll need a professional to get deeper into the system and clear out the drains. Lastly, if you’ve got smelly drains, you’ll need a professional. That could be a sign that sewage is already backing up in the pipes. You could be a few days away from a plumbing emergency.

Contact an Experienced Drain Cleaning Company in Boise

The best way to avoid an emergency is to call a Boise drain cleaning service at the first sign of trouble and then having them clean your drains on a regular basis.

Plumbing problems can strike seemingly out of nowhere. That’s not the case, though. Plumbing problems are often the result of human error. There are some cases in which the pipes are old or faulty; however, the vast majority of cases involve someone doing something they shouldn’t. The most common problem is clogging, and the most common culprit is something going down a drain that shouldn’t. There are a few things you shouldn’t ever flush if you want to avoid plumbing problems.

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