A blocked drain is something that nobody wants to deal with at any point in their lives. No matter how resilient you are or how good you’re at controlling your gag reflex, the murky brown water that starts flowing back into your toilet due to a blocked drain is enough to make you feel disgusted in horror. Not only is it difficult to clean the gross and awful-smelling water, but it’s also extremely hazardous to the health of anyone who gets exposed to it.
The blocked drain can cause some of the dirty water to seep into your regular water supply. Even if the regular water from your taps doesn’t look brown, the tiniest bit of seepage is enough to make your entire household extremely ill. There are a couple of ways by which you can fix this issue and prevent the dirty water, which’s a bacterial hotspot, from escalating into an even bigger issue. Today, we’re going to see how you can resolve this issue before anyone in your home is adversely affected by this unwanted water. So, let’s get to it and see how you can prevent the blocked drains from becoming a health hazard.
1. The Chemical Way
One of the comparatively easier ways to control a blocked drain is by utilizing chemical agents to unclog it. You can choose a homemade organic solution or go with stronger chemicals from the plumbing supplies store. The age-old trick of using hot water, baking soda, and vinegar usually does the job in case of minor clogs.
First, you need to pour some hot water through the drain followed by baking soda. After letting the baking soda sit in there for a while, you have to pour in the vinegar. This causes a chemical reaction that creates pressure and has a corrosive effect on the obstruction. After doing this, you just need to pour some more hot water and the drain will be cleared.
However, it’s not advisable to be used in case of a FOG (fat, oil, and grease) clog since the hot water will melt the FOG to clear the drain temporarily but it’ll redistribute the clog within the pipes and create problems in the future. You should also avoid using baking soda with metallic pipes since it can corrode the pipes and create another issue.
2. The Easy Way
The most convenient and perhaps the most effective way to deal with a clog is to call a professional who has experience in cleaning such obstructions. Calling a plumber does cost more money than doing it yourself, but it’s guaranteed to rectify the issue permanently without creating any further complications. The specialized tools such as a camera that goes into the pipe or the specific chemical agents in a plumber’s arsenal are the most efficient tools to handle the situation according to the Orange County plumber and it doesn’t have any added risks of damaging your pipeline either. So, if you think that the clog might be more serious than what you can handle, it’s always a good idea to take professional help.
3. The Physical Way
The most ingenious way to handle a clog is to fashion a tool out of materials that you would never even consider for cleaning a clogged drain, the bent wire hanger or any other similar metal object will do a fine job in cleaning the drains. What you want to do is straighten the hanger and make a hook at the end, after which you’ll have to go fishing for pieces of hair and other dirty clogged wastes. Remember to pull the waste out instead of pushing it down. Once you’ve got as much waste out as you can, flush it with warm water and the drain will be free-flowing once again.
These were some of the methods that you can utilize to clean a clogged drain at home. The two methods where you have to do the cleaning yourself are effective for minor drains only. The clog might be composed of FOG or it might be at a deeper remote level where the hanger can’t reach, in these cases, you should take the help of a professional who’ll do a much better job at cleaning it up. It’s always a good idea to try and rectify the clog at the first apparent sign even if it hasn’t become a full-blown back flowing river of brown water yet, doing so will ensure that the process is much easier than when it gets fully blocked and will need a lot of time and effort to clean.
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