Do you not hate it when the water does not go down the drain in the kitchen sink or the bathtub? Or worse yet, you walk in the bathroom and there is standing sewage water in the tub. Clogged drains can be such an overwhelming nuisance. Who has time for that? Nobody likes the inconvenience or has time for clogged drains.

Some of the causes of blocked drains that can block and damage your drains are:

• Tree, shrub or plant roots

• Grease

• Dirt going down the drain

• Excess toilet paper getting stuck in the pipes

• Soap scum

• Excess minerals in the water

• Hair wades up as it goes down the pipe and finds grease and soap scum or other sticky substances

Preventative Measures to Reduce Clogged Drains

While you cannot stop your family’s hair, too much toilet paper, soap scum from going down and clogging your drains. Here are some practical tips for maintenance you can do yourself, to prevent clogged drains in your home:

• About once a week after doing the dishes, let the hot water run for a while. The turn off the water, put about ¼ cup baking soda down the drain and then slowly poor about ½-¾ cup vinegar. Just let it sit about 30 minutes, then flush the drain with hot water for a few minutes. The bubbling baking soda and vinegar can help keep things moving down those drains.

• Caustic Soda is a powerful drain cleaner About once a month or if you think your drain is running a little slow. Get yourself some Caustic soda. It just takes a small amount to do a big job. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s directions on the container. Please note: Caustic Soda cannot be used in your toilet.

• If you have lots of trees, shrubs or plants near your home’s clean out valve or around the underground drain pipes. It might be a good idea to keep their roots clipped back. Using root preventer chemicals in your drain clean out, located outside your home is a good way to prevent the unwanted roots from entering and clogging your drains. Some Root Preventer products will also kill the roots currently built up in the drain pipes. Then you will just find a way to flush them out of there.

• Put stainless steel screens over your drains if you do not have stoppers to prevent hair and bigger objects from going down the drain.

• If you have small children, it is best to keep the toilet seat lid closed. Many times children unknowingly flush the most unexpected things down the toilet. Often times parents do not find out until the toilet is clogged and will not flush.

Sometimes even with a prevention plan in place, you still might end up with standing water in the tub, sewage in the yard, slow-moving drains or standing water in your sink.

Clogged Drain Fix Without Digging the Yard Up

Especially in an older home, you have years of build-up that is just sitting in the pipes, or even the roots of plants and trees might have already penetrated the pipes. Over time the plastic weakens with temperature and ground changes.

Also, with age, the plastic begins to crack and break. There are companies that can fix your cracked drain pipes without the huge expense of taking out all the plastic pipe and replacing it. It is good to call a reputable company to diagnose the cause of your drain problem is the do-it-yourself fixes are not working.

Pipe relining to unclog your drains is really an amazing process. Once you find a reputable company, they come out to locate the damaged drain pipe, clean out the blockage, insert resin in the existing pipe, put pressure on the resin so it conforms to the wall of the pipe, and cover back up the drain pipe.

Once that repair is done, it should be good for about 50 years, if the company uses a good quality resin. As an added bonus, relining the pipe to unclog your drain is about 50% cheaper than digging up your yard and replacing the drain pipe. This is really a much easier and cheaper answer to unclogging your drain.

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Clare Louise