Your drains are constantly working to eliminate waste water and carry bacteria away from your home. You shower, wash dishes, and brush your teeth without considering if your drains will fail. In most instances, your drains work as they should – until they don’t.
Not all the material that enters your drain will simply wash away. In some instances, the solid matter will build up and clog your drains. If this happens, you may experience a system backup. A backup is more than your drains draining slowly. In fact, a backup is when your drains aren’t draining at all but sending water back up your drains. Backups can introduce bacteria into your home, so it’s critical to remedy the problem as soon as possible.
One way to avoid costly drain clogs and ensure your drains consistently work is to get your drains cleaned once a year.
Cleaner Drains = Cleaner Home
You clean your home daily, right? You clean your floors weekly, right?
Why don’t you clean your drains annually?
Waste and other sludge that enters your pipes through your drains get flushed out of your systems like other waste. However, in most instances, remnants are left in the crevices of your drains and pipes.
Over time, this material emits a foul smell that can affect your home. When allowed to persist, guests may assume your home isn’t as clean as it looks, simply due to the smell that tickles their noses once they enter your home.
To ensure your home is fresh and clean, get your drains cleaned! And if you’re currently dealing with funky-smelling drains, check our top tips for getting rid of drain odors.
Improve Your Water Quality
If you are like most people, you are concerned about your health. You may work out a few times a week and eat healthily, but why aren’t you ensuring that the water in your home is safe for you and your family?
Hard water, water that contains minerals like magnesium and calcium carbonates, flows through many homes. Current research demonstrates a link between hard water and cardiovascular disease, reproductive failure, and other health problems.
Fortunately, cleaning your drains can improve the quality of water in your home and help you improve your health.
Prevent Drain Blockages
Blockage prevention would take the cake if we could only discuss a single benefit of routine drain cleaning and camera drain inspections. Even the most minor drain clog can grow into a severe blockage over time, and unfortunately, you’ll be unaware it’s happening until the damage is already done.
Fortunately, routine drain cleaning effectively removes all manner of buildup from within your home’s pipes, which significantly lessens your chances of experiencing severe drain clogs. For the best protection against drain blockages, opt for a drain camera inspection and maintenance cleaning every two years.
And if you observe sluggish water drainage in the interim, contact your professional drain cleaning company as soon as possible.
If you feel like you deal with drain clogs more often than is normal, you’ve probably got some poor drain maintenance habits you need to break. To learn what those habits might be and how you can fix them, check out our tips on preventing bathroom drain clogs and the simple thing you can do to prevent drain clogs throughout your home.
Eliminate Odors
Your drains handle plenty of nasty stuff on a daily basis, and as a result, they can develop some pretty offputting odors that are hard to tackle on your own. Plus, mold, mildew, and other microscopic nasties love to hang out in dark, moist locations, which means your drains are hotspots for these foul-smelling growths.
Professional drain cleaning eliminates mold and other bacterial growths from within your drains while simultaneously eliminating odorous residue from the interior of your pipes. If you’re dealing with relentless drain odors that don’t respond to proven treatments, drain water jetting could be the perfect solution.
Check out our water jetting information page for more details on the process.
Increase Drain Efficiency
How gross is it when a pool of dirty water accumulates around your feet in the shower? Or when your toothpaste spittle doesn't wash down your sink drain?
Drainage issues develop over time as particles and residue accumulate within your pipes, and if you ignore the issue, it’ll only become more severe. As soon as you observe poor water flow in any of your household drains, contact a professional drain cleaning company. You can try tackling the problem on your own with a plunger, but as with most do-it-yourself remedies, that’s likely a (very) temporary solution.
One thing to note: Whatever you do, don’t use chemical drain cleaners to fix a slow drain! Harsh cleaners slowly eat away at your pipes and weaken their seals, so avoid big-name drain-cleaning products at all costs.
Reduce the Risk of Pipe Leaks & Water Damage
You never know what might be lurking in your pipes, and depending on what flows down your drains, some of that pipe residue might be corrosive. If you neglect regular drain cleaning, corrosive residue can slowly deteriorate your pipes, weakening them over time.
Eventually, when a drain clog forms (rest assured, it’ll happen), backed-up water within the pipe can create significant pressure, and under pressure, water will follow the path of least resistance. If your pipes or seals are weak, that low-resistance path might very well be outward, meaning your pipe could spring a leak (or even burst) and cause extensive water damage.
However, when you stick to a biennial drain cleaning schedule, the corrosive residue has little time to accumulate. And, if it does develop, a camera drain inspection can reveal the state of the interior of your pipes.
Your drain cleaning professional can alert you to weak areas in the pipe, so you can request repairs before disaster strikes.
Save Money With Proactive Maintenance
When disaster strikes, would you rather spend a little cash for routine maintenance or fork over a week’s wages?
Being proactive about your drain maintenance can save you from unexpected repair expenses associated with:
- Pipe corrosion
- Severe drain blockages
- Tree root infiltration
- Burst pipes
- Water contamination
Because a professional drain cleaning company can detect and alleviate minor problems before they become glaring issues, if you’re not currently taking advantage of the service, now is the time to start.
Maintain Normal Water Flow
Even if your drains don’t develop outright clogs, they can still slow down over time due to mineral and waste buildup along the interior of the pipes. Routine, professional drain cleaning will help prevent that buildup from becoming excessive, so you won’t have to deal with slow water drainage from your tub, shower, sinks, and even your toilet.
How often should you schedule drain cleaning for best results?
Ideally, you should have your drains professionally cleaned once per year (or every two years if you're a small household). If your household has several people or you use your drains more often than the average household for any reason, more frequent appointments may be necessary.
When you schedule service, you can ask your drain cleaning specialist to give you a service timeline. They’ll be able to take a look inside your pipes via a camera drain inspection to determine how much buildup your pipes have and then make routine service recommendations from there.
Extend Your Drain’s Lifespan
Like most functional components of any home, properly maintained drains simply last longer than their poorly maintained counterparts.
When you have a professional drain cleaning specialist service your pipes regularly, he’ll be able to view the interior of the drain system via camera inspection. That inspection can alert you to any budding damage or deterioration (like corrosion within the pipes) that needs to be addressed. He’ll also perform the safest type of drain cleaning for your plumbing system to ensure it remains in good condition.
Professional water jetting (also called hydro jetting) is safe for most types of pipes, aside from seriously aged drains that are in questionable condition, and thoroughly cleans the interior of even the dirtiest pipes.
Regularly performing this service can help your pipes last as long as possible since they won’t be accumulating clog-causing grime that can lead to excessive and potentially damaging pressure buildup.
Minimize Pipe Noise
If your plumbing system seems to be a bit noisier than you think is normal, dirty drains might be a culprit. While some plumbing systems make noise due to water hammer issues that must be addressed by a plumber, others make noise because buildup creates excessive pressure that affects normal water flow.
If that’s the case with your pipes, having buildup removed on a regular basis can help reduce or even eliminate annoying plumbing noises.
Always Hire an Expert for Professional Drain Cleaning
When was the last time you had your household drains professionally cleaned? Can’t remember? Perhaps never?
If you’re sheepishly nodding your head, know this: Routine drain cleaning is essential for the health of your plumbing system, and if you neglect it, it can cost you big time.
At Drain Blaster Bill’s Sewer & Drain Cleaning, we’re dedicated to helping you take great care of your drains, so we’re adamant about proactive maintenance. And that’s where professional water jetting (also known as hydro jetting) can be a huge help.
What on earth is water jetting? It’s a highly effective drain-cleaning procedure that involves placing a flexible hose into a drain opening and pumping water into the pipe. This cleaning procedure uses high-powered pumps to flush clogged and generally dirty plumbing pipes with a high-pressure jet of water that effectively scrubs the interior of the pipe clean.
The water moves through the pipe with enough pressure to break through even the stubbornest of clogs (water jetting can bust through just about anything – even tree roots!), so it’ll leave your drains clean, clear, and considerably more functional than before.
Even if your home has an older plumbing system, water jetting can eliminate any clogs it may have since it’s safe for virtually all plumbing systems. However, pipes with leaks and/or considerable wear and tear may not be eligible for this service.
For a more in-depth breakdown of how water jetting works and why professional drain cleaning service is crucial for thoroughly eliminating drain clogs, see our blog on water jetting vs. other drain cleaning methods.
Schedule Routine Drain Cleaning in the Twin Cities
If your drains are due for a routine cleaning, our Drain Blaster Bill’s Sewer & Drain Cleaning team is here to serve you. We specialize in a variety of pipe inspection and drain cleaning techniques and take pride in delivering prompt, professional, efficient, and courteous service. No matter which household drains you need to tackle, we have the equipment and experience to do the job.
To learn more about our drain cleaning services or to schedule your appointment, call our Minneapolis team at 763-913-8719 or send us a message with any questions or concerns.
If you’re ready to get started, you can also request a free service estimate online.