Like many new homeowners, Naomi was unaware of the need for sewer drain cleaning.  “No one ever told me!” she said. “How I was I supposed to know that all this stuff we flush down the toilet builds up in the lines, forming clogs? And did you know that trees love septic lines?” A weeping willow tree in the back yard had sent hundreds of tiny roots into Naomi’s sewer drain, blocking the passage of water and damaging the sewer pipe. “I knew I’d never had it done, and we’ve owned this place for six years.  And who knows how long it was since the people before us had it done?”

Glen Ellyn Sewer Drain Cleaning

“So on my Mom’s advice, I called my Glen Ellyn plumber and told them what the situation was. They agreed with her that maybe I should hold off on buying the new toilet. Instead, they came out and did a visual inspection, putting this tiny little camera into the sewer system. It showed them everything that was going on, right on the screen.  That’s how we discovered the tree root situation – not to mention my daughter’s little stuffed bear, which had been missing for weeks!”

Sewer drain cleaning came next. “They cleaned out the pipes, and even removed the tree roots from the sewer drain,” Naomi said. “Now I know that every home needs regular sewer drain cleaning. I don’t want to get in that situation again!”

When flushing the toilet results in a nasty flood, chances are you have a sewer drain clog. Sewer drain cleaning is the answer!

What Causes Sewer Drains To Clog?

Your Oakbrook plumber can tell you that there are several reasons that your sewer drain can clog.

Natural Causes: Sometimes sewer drain clogs are caused by the inevitable sediment and material that settles out of the water with every flush. When this sediment accumulates to a significant degree, you have a clog.

Human Help: Some sewer drain clogs, particularly those that stop the flow of water near the toilet rather than further down the sewer drain pipe, can be attributed to human ‘helpers’ – who flush inappropriate items down the bowl. Dirty diapers, feminine hygiene products, children’s toys, and even shoes have all caused sewer line clogs before…and will do so again.

Tree Roots: Tree roots love sewer drain pipes like the tide loves the moon. Drawn by the promise of nutrient-rich moisture, tree roots will penetrate sewer lines. As these roots grow and thicken, they clog your sewer lines.

Watch The Weather: Severe weather events, especially things like earthquakes, landslides, and flooding, can impact the land your sewer drain pipes run through. Sometimes sewer lines collapse or are crushed, obstructing the flow of water and materials.

How Can You Tell What’s Causing Your Sewer Drain Clog?

Unless you have a guilty-faced toddler standing in front of you, explaining how “Teddy went Bye-Bye!” it can be hard to discern the cause of your sewer drain clog. You can look for clues to the situation – suspiciously healthy trees near your septic tank, for example – to get a general idea. Your Oakbrook plumber will perform a visual inspection of your sewer drains to discern exactly where your sewer drain clog is and what’s causing it. Each type of clog has a specific best remedy, guaranteed to get your pipes clean and clear quickly!

Never no mind the fact that Shakespeare, when the spirit moved him, simply made up the words he needed to suit his needs. The same people who rail against the inclusion of heart as a verb in the most recent OED supplement seldom know that their beloved Shakespeare would, when he could not find a word, invent one. (Were there critics before Shakespeare? Assuredly – but they did not call themselves such, as critic is one of the 1,700+ words that didn’t exist until the Bard has his way!)

Of course, there’s Romeo and Juliet,and countless bad movie variations aimed at romantic teens who feel very misunderstood – but still, I’m hesitant to blame Shakespeare for that. But To Be or Not To Be – that choice little bit from Hamlet that gets trotted out whenever someone has to make a choice, generally between two evils — that gets old, and I do wish the Bard had stilled his quill.

Take Drain Cleaning, for example. Is it better to call your St. Charles plumber and schedule regular drain cleaning, or should you wait until the drains are clogged, the toilet overflowing, and the sink filled with stinky, greasy water? The Bard is of absolutely no help here: you could scour all of his plays and find nary a word of plumbing wisdom.

So let the decision be thine. Are you better off preventing clogged sinks? Probably. Schedule drain cleaning, and let your St. Charles plumber remove the grime, crud, and stuff that clings to the interior of your home’s drainage pipes before it becomes a problem. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – and that, you can take Shakespeare’s word on.

Why Do Pipes Clog?

When we talk about pipes clogging up, we’re generally talking about drain pipes.  Water supply pipes that bring water into your house can also become clogged, but that’ s a much rarer circumstance, generally resulting in low water pressure.  When you  have clogged drain pipes the result is standing water in the kitchen sink, bathtubs that won’t drain, or in the case of clogged sewer drains, a mess in the bathroom that you don’t even want to think about!

Drain pipes clog because they become filled with material that keeps water from leaving your home.  Many things go down the drain besides water: we wash dirt off of our hands, food scraps from our plates, grease from cooking pots, clay and art supplies as part of craft time clean up, shampoo and bathing products as part of our daily shower – and don’t forget about all of that hair! These materials can be carried along by the water, but sometimes they settle out, adhering to the inside of our pipes and settling in elbows and bends.  When enough material accumulates in one spot, it can block the passage of water – and whammo! You’ve got a clog.

Lombard Drain Cleaning

To clear clogged pipes, or remove the materials that are accumulating in your pipes before they form a clog, you’ll want to schedule drain cleaning service. Drain cleaning is performed by your Lombard plumber. They come to your house, and perform the drain cleaning. There’s no mess or fuss, and the job generally doesn’t take very long. You’ll have your drain pipes cleaned. Goodbye Clogs!

What is it lately with high profile personalities flushing their careers down the toilet? Charlie Sheen has certainly done a number on himself: drug-influenced ranting shut down his top television show. Lindsey Lohan has spent so much time in front of the judge that she could stand in for the bailiff. No one can be sure what’s motivating this bad behavior, but one thing’s for sure: when you flush big things down the toilet, you better hope that sewer drain is clear!

Clogged sewer drains are a big problem. When a sewer line is clogged, there’s nowhere for the water and other things you flush away to go. All of this accumulated material progresses down the pipe until it reaches the clog – and then it stops! Tree roots, collapsing sewer pipes, and changing weather conditions can also contribute to sewer line clogs.

What are Sewer Drains?

All of the water and organic material that you flush down the toilet has to go somewhere.  It doesn’t just magically disappear after you push the handle!  Beneath your toilet is a drain pipe that carries the water and organic material from the toilet to the municipal sewer system, or, if you have a septic system, to your septic tank.  This drain pipe is known as your sewer drain.  This is the only route that the material that goes into your toilet has to leave your home – if it can’t make it out through the sewer drain pipes, it’s not getting out!

Why Do Sewer Drains Clog?

Every drain pipe, regardless of type, requires regular drain cleaning.  This is because there is always some residue left behind when water passes through pipes.  This residue can be organic matter, food, dirt, grease,  hair, or cleaning products. In the case of sewer drains, there’s also the added burden of the many items people dispose of by flushing them down the toilet: prescription medications, feminine hygiene products, condoms, toilet tissue and more.  When these materials accumulate to a significant degree, a clog can form.

Another reason sewer drains clog is when tree roots, seeking water and nutrients, grow into your home’s sewer drain lines.  We may think the stuff inside a sewer pipe is absolutely disgusting, but if you’re a tree, that’s EXACTLY what you need to grow and thrive.  Tree roots are tough, thick, and more than capable of clogging a sewer line.

Chicagoland Sewer Drain Cleaning

What can be done about sewer drain clogs? Your Chicagoland plumber can perform a visual inspection, in which a specialized camera is inserted into your home’s sewer drain pipes.  The image comes up on your Chicagoland plumber’s computer, allowing them to see with pinpoint accuracy where the clog is and what’s causing it.

Amazingly, though, there are some people in this world who just don’t care about basketball.  What do these people do during March?  Well, after you get done celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day and reminiscing about the Ides of March (a remarkably bad time to find yourself Emperor of Rome!), many people devote this time of year to spring cleaning.

Greater Chicago Drain Cleaning

Spring is a great time to have your drains cleaned.  Drain cleaning helps your home smell better, eliminates accumulated debris and grime that lines the interior of your pipes, and helps prevent clogged kitchen sinks, overflowing toilets, and laundry room floods.

Every time you use your home’s plumbing, there’s a chance for some remnant of the material you flush down the drain to cling to the interior of your home’s drainage pipes.  In the kitchen, this can be food scraps, grease, dish soap residue, or even silverware! Bathroom drains clog when hair, grease, soap and shampoo residue accumulates in the pipes.  Sewer drains clog when there’s a build up of organic material, or when someone flushes inappropriate items, such as baby diapers or Spongebob Squarepants toys, down the toilet.  Tree roots can also penetrate your sewer lines, causing a clog. Weather events including flooding and even minor earthquakes can impact your sewer lines: cleaning helps pinpoint these problems before they become expensive nightmares!

Greater Chicago drain cleaning services will come to your home and quickly and efficiently clean your drains.  Drain cleaning doesn’t take very long, and your Greater Chicago plumber will perform the job without making a mess or disturbing your family.  Regular drain cleaning helps prevent clogs, which can help you avoid expensive emergency service calls!

Here are the do’s and don’ts of drain cleaning:

DO: Exercise common sense when putting things down the drain.  Out of sight is not  necessarily out of mind! People pour items down the drain because they don’t know how else to dispose of them – but your kitchen sink drain was never built to handle leftover wallpaper paste,  motor oil, or any thick, viscous liquid! Even sinks that have garbage disposals can’t handle everything.  Starchy foods such as rice and pasta and grease can contribute to terrible kitchen sink clogs.  Keep an eye out for pulpy, stringy vegetable matter too!

DON’T: Use the ‘hot water’ trick to unclog kitchen sink clogs.  Hot water doesn’t eliminate clogs, even those that are formed primarily of grease. Instead, the hot water causes the clog to move further down the drain pipe, where it can reform again.  The liquid drain cleaning chemicals that you can buy in discount stores and groceries can eliminate minor clogs, but bear in  mind that these chemicals are tough on the environment.

DO: Have your home’s drains cleaned regularly.  Every home needs their household drains cleaned on a regular basis, as part of the maintenance routine. Drain cleaning removes the materials that accumulate in your drains as part of regular operation. Sewer drain cleaning clears the material from the pipes that connect your home’s toilets to the sewer system.  Talk with your Villa Park plumber about how often you need to have your drains cleaned.  There are several factors to consider, including family size and usage patterns.  The typical Villa Park family has their drains cleaned every twenty four months, unless weather events, flooding, or other circumstances cause a  need for drain cleaning to crop up sooner.

What Is Drain Cleaning?

Drain cleaning a service performed by your Winfield plumber. Drain cleaning is used to remove the material that accumulates in your home’s drain pipes. For example, in the kitchen, food scraps, grease, hair, and even silverware can find its way down the drain. Over the course of time, these materials accumulate, slowly filling your pipes to such a point that water can no longer pass. When this happens, you’ve got a clogged drain! This results in a backed up kitchen sink, which is gross, nasty, and always inconvenient. Drain cleaning removes material accumulated in kitchen drains, bathroom drains, and laundry room drains.

Winfield Commercial Drain Cleaning Services

Business owners have a special set of concerns where drain cleaning is concerned.  Restaurants, small manufacturers, and similar businesses have to have clear drains that work reliably.  There’s no time in the schedule to stop working just because the drains are clogged.  Regular drain cleaning is essential for the small business owner: a small investment in physical plant maintenance can eliminate emergency service calls, disgruntled customers, and expensive down time!

How Often Do My Drains Need Cleaning

Household drain cleaning in the Winfield area typically needs to be performed every two to three years.  This is only an average: busier households or those that put intense stress on their home drainage system may need the drains cleaned more regularly!  Sewer drain cleaning is performed to make sure the lines that connect your toilet to your home’s septic system are clear and free from obstruction. This also needs to be performed every couple of years, to avoid clogged toilets and bathroom disasters!

Spring is an ideal time to have your drains cleaned. Get rid of the accumulated debris of a long tough winter and look forward to a better summer!

You see, people have a lot of misconceptions about drains. Drains are mysterious – these dark portals that lead away from kitchen sinks and bathtubs, laundry rooms and showers, carrying away the waste water of our lives. When it gets to sewer drains – those drains that connect our toilet to the sewer system – we don’t even like to think about it, much less talk about it.

But a drain ignored is a drain likely to clog. Drains clog when stuff – dirt, grease, hair, food debris, silverware, children’s toys – accumulates in the pipes. Drains can also clog when there’s damage to the lines, which can happen when there’s a big weather event – think floods, earthquakes, stuff like that – or some tree roots that pushed through the pipes to get to the water and nutrient rich content – think fertilizer! – inside.

If you want to prevent having clogged pipes in your home (and most of us do, even if the topic never does come up at dinner parties!) you’ll want to engage in some preventative maintenance. Take care of your home’s plumbing and it will take care of you! Your West Chicago Drain Cleaning Service can perform a visual inspection of your home’s drainage system. This will help you pinpoint any problems you may have with your home’s plumbing – it’s easier to deal with tree roots when they’re small than when they’re big! Regular drain cleaning removes accumulated debris from your lines, helping to prevent clogs. Your home will also smell better – the lingering material that builds up inside pipes slowly rots in place and can really stink. Sewer drain cleaning is integral in preventing backed up toilets!