Preventative Maintenance Tips for your Home's Drains

Maintaining your drains feeling and looking their finest should go quite a distance towards ensuring the health of your home’s overall plumbing. There are several ways to do this, but the best and easiest way is practicing frequent drain maintenance. We’ve gathered some tips and solutions for you to keep your drains healthy right here for easy reference, so have a look:

1. Never put oil or grease down the drain

   First things first: never pour liquid oils, or grease down the drain.  When they cool, they will become a solid and stick to the internal parts of pipes as clogs. Other things that should never go down your drains include:
   
   Eggshells - Their edges get on other things and grow into larger clogs.
   Coffee grounds - They stick to pipe wall surfaces and become a paste when crammed into small places.
   Medications - Not safe as they could make their way into water reservoirs.

2. Always keep your drains clean

   If you want to maintain the integrity of your drains and pipes, firstly stay away from the liquid cleaners because they can’t tell the difference between the clogs and the pipes. When chemical drain cleaners finish eating away at clogs, it is going to keep eating away at your pipes. Instead, you can try other, lower impact ways of maintaining and cleaning drains.
   
   There are several plumbing tasks that you probably won't do, but at least this one is easy. First, put an empty bucket under the U-shaped pipe (the trap) beneath the drain. The bucket will collect the water that can spill. By using a wrench, release the slip nuts at each end of the pipe. You need to be able to complete the operation by hand. Once the trap is free, remove it, turn it the other way up, and empty the contents into the bucket. You might also need to fish around inside it for particles, then do exactly the same with the pipes that were holding it. An old toothbrush would be great for having the hard gunk out. Rinse your trap with water and after that, put it all back together. In most cases, that will do the trick.

3. Don't forget to ditch the grease to prevent future incidents

   Grease filled-up in your drains can be dealt with using detergent along with a big amount of boiling water. Place a large pot of water on the stove and boil it. Apply at least a tablespoon of dish liquid straight into your drain and pour the boiling water into the drain after, just a little at a time. The swiftly boiling water will melt the grease while the detergent helps to break down the grease and oil, then let the boiling water flush it away. You might want to continue doing this procedure 2 to 3 times more if the grease is substantial.

4. Choose the right tools to have on-hand for removing clogs
   

   If you want to remove the clogs, make sure you have an auger, a snake, and a cup plunger. These 3 tools will all work to remove clogs. Cup plungers will work on the small clogs, and snakes will work on the bigger ones.
   
   Before starting out on removing the clogs, it’s best to get everything you’re very likely to need together in a single place so that all of the required tools will be to hand when they are required.
   
   These products will be helpful in this task:
   
   - protective gloves and goggles
   - baking powder
   - cleaning chemicals
   - soda crystals
   - white vinegar
   
   Most of these can be found in almost any house since they are common household items, so it’s likely that you will currently have some of them lying around your cupboards someplace. However, remember that some of these items might carry a specific degree of risk, so make sure you have considered this before starting out.

5. When in doubt, call the experts
   

   Maintaining your drains to prevent future incidents should be encouraged, as it is an essential part of keeping the drains clear of any stubborn blockages. However, if blockage does occur, then it’s usually going to be a better idea to call on the expertise of a professional drainage service provider, rather than attempting to do it yourself.
   
   If you want to make sure that your drains are cleaned, maintained, and fixed as thoroughly as possible, then give the professionals at Johns Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning a call. From home to commercial drains, our drain maintenance services will ensure that your home or working routines can continue uninterrupted, without any hassle!
   
   Find out more about our services here or, if you need someone to come out and help with your drain issues, fill out the form below or call us at 336-294-2301 to have a chat about how we can assist you.