Now that the holiday season has passed, it’s time to clean up your home. But don’t call it quits after vacuuming, sanitizing, and taking out the trash. Take some time for a little preventive maintenance, and clean your drains too. Here are some quick and easy methods you can use to clean your drains and prevent clogs from forming.
1. Run Hot Water Through Drains
The simplest and most cost-effective method to clean your drains is to simply run very hot water down your drain for a few minutes. This requires no special equipment or tools and is totally free. Plus, it really does help clean your sink drain, shower drain, and drain pipes.
The water heats up and releases any oils and residue stuck to your drain and the sides of your water pipes. Running very hot water down your drains for a several minutes after those holiday parties is a great way to help prevent future clogs.
2. Use Non-Chemical Liquid Drain Cleaners
Store-bought chemical drain cleaners are powerful and can unclog a sink fairly quickly, but they contain very harsh chemicals that can damage pipes and fittings if used frequently.
Homemade liquid drain cleaning methods like vinegar and baking soda are much safer. Non-chemical cleaners that rely on microbial solutions and enzymes are also safer alternatives.
3. Manually Remove Hair and Soap Scum
Besides pouring stuff down your drains, you can also use manual methods to physically clear debris from your drains and prevent clogs from forming.
Wipe down your bathroom sinks to remove excess toothpaste and hairs that are stuck to the basins. Use a tissue to wipe and remove hair from shower drains too.
To clean deeper into the bathroom drains, use a flexible plastic drain hair remover. Just about any hardware store or neighborhood market will carry these. It looks like a long, skinny plastic strip with little spikes along each side.
4. Call in the Pros
Cleaning your drains after the holiday season is usually more of a light maintenance sort of task and more of a preventive measure to prevent future clogs. If your toilet or sink is already draining slowly or is fully clogged, then you should definitely give us a call.
Our professional plumbers can use a plumber’s snake to break up clogs deep down in your home’s plumbing. If the clog is further down in your sewer line running from the house to the street, our sewer pipe video cameras can locate the exact location of the clog so we can fix it.
Don’t put off preventive maintenance for your home’s plumbing system. Follow these simple tips above to clean your drains after the holidays. And if you need professional drain cleaning services in Augusta, GA, contact Drain Surgeon today.
