“It is the most horrible thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” said Marian Hayes. She’d recently moved to the Lagrange Park area, and was in the process of getting her family settled in their new home when the problem started. “After my daughter finished using the bathroom, she flushed the toilet…but the water didn’t go down, that’s for sure! Let’s just say it was NOT the type of mess you want. The kids screaming about how grossed out they were wasn’t helping the situation, and neither was anything I was doing with the plunger!” A plunger can be a homeowner’s best friend – but it doesn’t, and can’t, solve every plumbing problem. When you’re facing a clogged drain pipe, whether it’s in your toilet, bathtub, or sink, the problem can require a more involved solution. Minor clogs can sometimes be removed by using chemical drain cleaners, the type you find at grocery or discount stores, but more serious issues may require you to call your Lagrange Park plumber. The severity of a clog depends on several factors, including what the substance blocking your drain pipe is composed of.
To determine what’s clogging up your pipes, think about what’s going down the drain. If it’s your kitchen sink that is backed up, the culprit is often grease. Warm water makes grease melt and float on the water, but once that hot water is gone, the grease collects and solidifies into a block. Coffee grounds, food debris, and even the occasional bit of dish cloth or silverware find their way into your pipes as well, resulting in a tangled obstruction that water simply cannot get by. Do not attempt to resolve a grease clog by pouring hot water down the drain: all you’re doing is forcing the clog to melt and reform further down your pipes, where repair may be more difficult and costly.
Clogged pipes in the bathroom are another issue. Bathtub and sink clogs are often due to hair, soap, and shaving cream. The toiletries we use each and every day contain a lot of oil and fat, which can act much the same way as grease does in the kitchen. When we turn our attention to a clogged toilet, the picture becomes a little bit more complicated. Things get flushed away that were never meant to – from diapers and feminine hygiene items to whatever an adventurous toddler can get their hands on.
If you are going to attempt to resolve the situation yourself, you have a few options. The plunger can help, using suction to pull the clog out of place at least enough to let the water go down. Bear in mind that shifting debris within a pipe is not actually fixing the clog, it’s just buying you time until you have another problem. There are chemical drain cleaners that remove organic material, but these are of limited effectiveness if you’ve got a child’s toy, cell phone, or other thing you wish really hadn’t gone down the toilet clogging up your pipes. Enzyme cleaners are a green option, but they work very slowly: not a great option for busy families who need the bathroom working now.
Calling your Lagrange Park plumber can offer you the ultimate in a quick and easy resolution. Plumbers handle clogged drains all of the time: they know the many ways to address each type of blocked pipe. They have the equipment to make the job easy: while you’re trying to force a department store snake down your tub drain – and likely scratching the tub in the process – only to discover it doesn’t have the heft or the reach to resolve the problem, they’ve got the professional version and can fix the problem in a few minutes. Prevention can be more than half the battle. Preventative drain cleaning is a service your Lagrange Park plumber will happily perform, generally at a fraction of the cost of an emergency service call. Consider adding regular drain cleaning to the routine of chores you have done on an annual basis as part of caring for your home and protecting the investment you’ve made in it. There’s no fuss, no mess, and you get the peace of mind of knowing that every time you flush the toilet, everything will go where it’s supposed to!
