Why You Shouldn’t DIY Drain Cleaning | Harvey, LA
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We’ve all been there when a problem arises with something in our home. You know something’s wrong, but you don’t want to pay to have an expert come out to your home and take care of the problem. After all, you’ve got knowledge, tools and a weekend to burn. Surely, drain cleaning can’t be too difficult for you to do on your own, right?
Wrong. Very wrong.
The truth is that there’s a lot that can go awry if you try to clean your drain yourself, and what usually ends up happening is that you cause more damage to your pipes than existed in the first place. The reality is that there’s a lot that exists in your pipes that you don’t know about, and when it comes to plumbing and drain cleaning, one mistake can lead to a lot of damage. Here’s why you shouldn’t try to do it on your own!
Lack of Experience
There are two reasons why experience can really cost you when it comes to drain cleaning. The first is rather obvious: what you don’t know can really hurt you. Unless you’ve been specifically trained as a plumber, you likely don’t know how to get pipes to fit exactly the way they should, which can lead to leaks after you’ve found the cause of your drain’s issues.
Unfortunately, when it comes to plumbing, there is no such thing as a small leak. When you consider that a faucet that drips every second will waste five gallons of water in a month, it’s pretty easy to imagine the damage that a leaky pipe can do inside your walls. If your plumbing work causes water damage, you’re going to have to call someone in for restoration, and that’s going to result in a much higher bill than drain cleaning ever would have cost you.
Even if everything does go the way it should and you don’t have any problems with your plumbing work, there’s another danger here. If you plan to sell your Harvey, LA home someday, your plumbing work might seriously backfire on you when a potential buyer comes in to inspect your home. If their inspector finds that your work wasn’t up to code, you can expect their interest — and their offer — to plummet, which can cost you thousands of dollars.
It’s hard to consider 20 years down the road when you have a problem that needs your attention today, but when you consider that pipes last for decades, it’s a concern you can’t afford to ignore.
Toxic Drain Cleaners
So you’ve got standing water in your home? No problem, you think. I’ll just pour some Drano into it and it’ll take care of the clog and get things flowing again! That should take care of the drain, and you won’t even need to call for drain cleaning help, right?
Think again. In this hypothetical, you’d have just turned your sink or bathtub into a biohazard. That’s because Drano is actually a highly toxic and corrosive chemical that can cause serious damage to both your pipes and to anyone who enters your bathroom. The chemicals that make up Drano and other chemical cleaners can mix with the water and create a toxic environment that’s no longer safe for you or others to even be around.
But skin burns and lung irritation aren’t the only problems that come with Drano. In some cases, it’s ineffective in drain cleaning and can actually make the problem worse. For example, if you’ve got a large hair clog blocking the drain in your home, Drano can cause it to solidify and make it very difficult to remove.
But let’s say it dissolves the clog. You’re out of the woods, right? Not quite. Drano can also cause the glue that holds PVC pipes together to dissolve, leading to leaks, poor fit and other problems. Drano might be cheap at the store, but it’s a lot safer and easier to just call in an expert in cleaning rather than worry about what it can do to your pipes.
Multiple Issues Persist
If you’ve never attempted a plumbing project before, you might be surprised to know that it can be like the world’s worst game of Whack-a-Mole when you’re trying to find the solution. It often happens that when you get deep into the pipes and start the drain cleaning process, you discover that your solution hasn’t completely fixed the problem. For example, you might discover a blockage in one pipe that’s causing your drain to flow slowly, but when it’s cleared, water only starts flowing a little faster and doesn’t get all the way back up to speed.
Most homeowners don’t know about trying to solve a plumbing problem in two different areas of their Harvey, LA home, and finding the issue is no easy task. Unfortunately, the trial and error that comes with finding the source of the blockage isn’t something that most homeowners have the patience for, nor is it something that they can competently perform. When something goes wrong at this step, though, the problem doesn’t get solved — which invariably leads to more problems down the road with your plumbing.
Plumbing and drain cleaning might seem to be a simple task, but the reality is that there’s a lot that goes on in the pipes that most homeowners never think about. Even if you can find a blockage and clear it away, knowing how to properly tighten pipes and which gaskets to install isn’t something that you can pick up simply by watching a video on the internet. It takes time and knowledge, and that’s the advantage that comes with using a professional service.
If you’re in need of drain cleaning, it’s time to call for help from bluefrog Plumbing + Drain of New Orleans. We know how to find the blockages at your home and properly fix them to avoid serious damage inside your pipes!
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