Fixing Slow Drains
Do you have slow drains? Does your toilet flush good in the morning but slow in the evening? Or just your bathroom sink does not drain very fast.
Solutions to drain problems often vary; a bathroom sink or tub is normally an easy fix. Some old tubs will have to be re-piped. You will have to remove the old lead drum trap and replace with a p-trap, but a house built after 1974 should have a PVC p-trap. Most bathroom sinks the clog will come out pretty quick.
Drainage Slows Throughout the Day
If your drains work well when you get up, and get slower during the day, you have a partial clog in you main. The clog could be far from the house and drains during the night, when you are not using any water. This could be a root, belly, or break in your sewer main. I would highly recommend a licensed plumbing company for this repair. If you don’t know one, Fix It All-Plumbing would love to help you with this repair.
Snaking Your Drains
As a licensed plumber I would never use over the counter drain cleaners. Most are just an acid. This can ruin the finish on your sink or tub drain, and will not work on a toilet stoppage. You do not want to get this on your skin as it will burn you. If you have metal pipes it can cause corrosion with extended use. It will not harm your pipes if you use it once, but it will not fix your problem 100%. The best way to break a clog is with a cable (snake). You could do it yourself but be careful, you can hurt yourself or your pipes if done incorrectly. I’ve been to many homes where people have attempted to fix their drains with a $20 snake from Home Depot only to give up and call me. The cheapest snake on my truck is about $450.00 and I only mention this to show that it takes the right tool to get the job done right (and that $20 snake isn’t it). Beyond the tool, there are skills to snaking a drain properly and ensuring you remove the entire clog. If you leave part of the clog behind you are ultimately setting yourself up for future blockages.
Proper Snaking of your drainage pipes can save your pipes from clogging again and catch potential hazards such as tree roots or collapses
I left the hardest for last. Kitchen sinks and washing machines can be the hardest drains in the house to get open. Every drain in your house goes to your toilet, the biggest drain. In most homes these two things are on the opposite end of the house. If it is not done with perfect fall, or hung properly it can give you problems later. If you have cast iron drains sludge will start to build up. If you think about it, the average drain has had at least 30 years of stuff going down it and eventually they will fail.
If a kitchen sink on the disposal side only backs up it’s usually an
easy fix. I don’t want you to think if your kitchen or washer is stopped up, it takes a total repipe. It could be a fairly easy fix though experience tells me that there could be multiple issues with these drain types.
Here at Fix It All-Plumbing we would be happy to help you if you’re ever in need of a drain or plumbing repair.