Take Care Of Clogged Drains: Tips For The DIY Homeowner
Like it or not, plumbing repairs are expensive, and they only get more expensive the longer you wait to have the work done. Though there are a lot of things that you will need a professional plumber to handle for you, there are just as many that you can do on your own. If you take care of the work yourself, and you do it properly, you will save hundreds of dollars and feel a sense of accomplishment in a job well done. A clogged drain is the kind of problem that you can take care of on your own, and here are some tips to do it correctly.
Stay Away From Chemicals
Your first reaction might be to do what the commercials on television tell you to do and buy one of the drain cleaning chemicals. There are plenty of cases where these chemicals do the job the first time, but the repeated use of chemicals in your system will only cause you serious problems in the long run. Chemicals are expensive, and they cause damage to the pipes on repeated use, so try to avoid them if you can.
Invest In An Auger
There are few tools more used and more powerful in a plumber’s truck than the simple auger, or “snake” that they use to clean drains. This flexible pipe goes deep into the drain and physically breaks up any blockages and reopens the drain for renewed use. You can easily get a cheap auger at a home improvement store, and this is one of the best investments you can make for your home. A good auger can go very deep in the drain, and if you know where to find the access port to the sewer line in your yard, you can take care of blockages all the way to the street.
Use A Strainer
Finally, when you have dealt with the current issues in your drain pipes it is time to address the reason why you had the problem in the first place. Most of the time the clog will be caused because of hair or soap that has fallen into the pipe through the sink or shower. For this reason a cheap strainer on your shower drain can save you thousands of dollars in service calls over several years. The strainer will keep the biggest pieces of hair out of the drain, drastically reducing your need to call a Fairfax VA plumber.
The right tools and the right care for your pipes will make your plumbing costs go down considerably in the long-term. There will still be problems that a plumber will need to solve, but at least you can avoid some of the plumbing maintenance costs for your home.
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