Should I Hire A Drain Cleaning Service? | New Orleans, LA
Taking care of the plumbing in your New Orleans, LA home is vital, but how far do you have to go? While a lot of homeowners don’t do much in the way of plumbing maintenance, it can help prevent costly problems down the road. Preventative maintenance is especially important when it comes to your drains because drain clogs can quietly build up over the course of several months or years. If you’re thinking about hiring a drain cleaning service or having your drains hydro jetted to clean them out, here’s everything you need to know first.
Preventing Drain Clogs
If you’ve ever lived in the same New Orleans, LA home or apartment for years, you know how easily your drains can become clogged. Drain clogs are an especially big problem for households with children. Lucky for you, you can avoid constantly paying for drain cleaning services with a little preventative maintenance.
The first thing you should do is educate your children (if you have any) about putting things down the drain. You should only flush toilet paper down toilet drains, and solid food should be thrown in the garbage instead of washed down the kitchen sink drain.
You can prevent shower and bathroom sink clogs by installing a strainer to catch hair. These strainers simply sit in your drain to catch any hair and soap scum before it makes it down the drain, which means you’ll need to empty them on occasion.
While drain clogs can still build up over time with preventative maintenance, there are lots of things you can do to prevent drain clogs and avoid paying for drain cleaning services.
Cleaning Your Own Drains
You might be wondering what you can do to clean the drains in your New Orleans, LA, home. There are several stores that sell liquid drain cleaners that are advertised as home drain cleaning solutions. While some liquid drain cleaners can be effective, there are some important things you should know before using a liquid drain cleaner.
The biggest thing to keep in mind with liquid drain cleaners is that they’re not all the same. Drano and other chemical-based liquid drain cleaners work by creating a chemical reaction in your drain line, which helps break up stubborn clogs. The problem is that these drain cleaners can also cause damage to your pipes, the glue that holds them together, and your fixtures.
If you want to avoid frequent drain cleaning service calls by cleaning your own drains, you should use an enzyme-based drain cleaner. These liquid drain cleaners use enzymes to eat away at the organic material that causes clogs, but it doesn’t damage pipes or glue. If you’re going to use a liquid drain cleaner to help prevent clogs, you should talk to a plumber to learn more about these drain cleaners and how to properly use them.
Snaking
When most people think of hiring a drain cleaning service, they think of having their drains snaked. Snaking a drain is a process that involves feeding a coiled cable into a drain line, then using that cable to either pull the clog out or push it further down the drain to unclog it.
If the fixtures in your home are draining slowly, snaking can be a good solution. Snaking a drain allows plumbers to remove smaller clogs without causing any damage to your pipes, but it may not be as effective for more stubborn clogs.
You may also want to consider snaking over hydro jetting if your drain pipes are old. While hydro jetting is generally considered to be safe if it’s done by a licensed plumber, it can cause damage to pipes that are old and in bad condition. Snaking is a little more delicate on older pipes, so it may be a better choice if your home is several decades (or even centuries) old.
It’s important to keep in mind that snaking a drain isn’t as easy as it looks. While you might be tempted to use a snake or auger to clear a clog on your own, it’s best to hire a drain cleaning service to avoid damage to your pipes.
Hydro Jetting
Hydro jetting is an alternative to snaking that involves using high-pressure water to clear clogs out of your drain line. The water pressure used in hydro jetting isn’t high enough to cut or damage your drain pipes, although you should consider snaking as an alternative for old pipes. In general, hydro jetting is an effective drain cleaning method as long as it’s done properly.
Because hydro jetting uses water pressure to clean your drains, it can remove more stubborn clogs than simply snaking your drain line. If you have a major drain clog that you can’t remove with a snake, hydro jetting may be enough to get rid of that clog. Hydro jetting can even break up tree roots in your main sewer line, and those roots can cause sewer line damage that leads to expensive repairs.
Overall, hydro jetting is an effective method of removing clogs, especially if you live in a home with newer plumbing. However, snaking is a solid alternative if that’s the only thing your local drain cleaning service offers.
Hire a Drain Cleaning Service
Taking care of the plumbing in your New Orleans home is crucial, especially if you want to avoid costly plumbing repairs and emergency calls. If you need a drain cleaning service that can help you remove stubborn clogs, bluefrog Home Services of New Orleans can help. bluefrog licensed plumbers know how to get rid of the toughest clogs without damaging your pipes, even if you live in a home with older plumbing. If you need your drains cleaned, call bluefrog Home Services of New Orleans at 504-229-4848 today.