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Signs You Need Drain Cleaning | Katy, TX
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When all goes well, most homeowners don’t spend much time thinking about the drains in their house. Truthfully, your drain is a lot like a baseball umpire: you only really notice it when it doesn’t do its job properly.
Unfortunately, when your drain doesn’t do its job properly, you’re really going to notice the consequences. If you’re lucky, the only issue you run into before getting drain cleaning assistance will be a slow-flowing drain. If things get out of hand, you could find yourself with a flooded bathroom, broken pipes and more.
Luckily, your drain does give off a few telltale signs that it’s got a problem. If you spot any of these, you don’t have much time to contact a drain cleaning specialist before you run into a bigger issue, so there’s no time to waste. Learn what to look for here!
Stopped Toilet
A stopped toilet is both the most likely culprit of a clogged drain and the easiest sign that something is seriously wrong. If you’ve got young children, the toilet should be the first place you check for an issue, because children are most likely to flush something down the toilet that shouldn’t be going down your pipes. In many cases, a toy or another foreign object proved to be the culprit that had to be pulled out of the pipes during the cleaning process.
However, toys are far from the only thing that can cause major problems with your drains and pipes. Many plumbers have pulled things out of the drain such as hair, diapers and even flushable wipes, all of which has caused severe damage to the home owner’s pipes. The only things that should ever go down your toilet are human waste and toilet paper; putting anything else down the pipes invites a serious issue that’s going to require drain cleaning to properly fix.
Bad Smells
When something doesn’t smell right near your plumbing, that’s a sign that something is probably stuck in your pipes. This kind of issue is likely to be most prevalent around your kitchen, because food particles can be small enough to fit down your sink without fully decomposing. In a moist environment such as your pipes, there’s plenty of room for mold to grow and create an unpleasant smell.
Worse, small particles of food that don’t decompose can create larger clogs by catching other items that come down your pipes, creating a larger or even a total blockage. As soon as you notice anything unpleasant coming from the drains in your Katy, TX home, it’s time to call a drain cleaning service to try to fix the problem before something really goes wrong with your pipes.
Unexplained Moist Ground
A wet ground in the morning or after a rainstorm is one thing. But if parts of your backyard feel like a marsh and you haven’t seen any rain for the past two or three days, the most likely culprit is with your plumbing. If you have trees in your backyard, their roots can place a lot of pressure on your plumbing. If your pipes develop a blockage, the combination of the pressure in your pipes and the pressure from the tree roots can cause a pipe to burst, leading to a major spillage of water underneath the lawn.
Even if your pipes stay intact, the roots of your trees can still interfere with the flow of your water, because roots tend to go toward whatever sources of water they can find. In either case, you’ll need a professional drain cleaning service to help prevent your pipes from getting partially or totally blocked.
Gurgling Drains
Sometimes, the most obvious signs that something’s wrong with your pipes doesn’t come from scent or sight. One obvious sign is hearing something in your drain that doesn’t sound normal. Rushing water might happen when you’re running your faucet or the shower, but when you’re not using the water and you still hear a noise, that’s a sign that something’s wrong with either your pipes or your drains.
It’s impossible to tell from a simple noise what the problem is, so it’s best to call for a drain cleaning service as soon as you hear something strange with your pipes. In many cases, having a professional come out to your home can fix the problem before you find yourself with a plumbing emergency and a lot of water damage.
Slow-Moving Drains
If you’re in an older home, you might think that there’s nothing unusual about a drain that takes a while to flow properly. After all, an older home likely has an older plumbing system, and it’s natural for performance to lessen with time. It’s no reason to call for a drain cleaning service, right?
Actually, a slow-flowing drain is every bit as much of a problem as a blocked drain. The only real difference is that a blocked drain requires an immediate fix, while a slow-flowing drain is a problem that you can solve before the situation becomes a catastrophe. However, a slow-flowing drain isn’t something you can ignore, especially if it’s in your shower or bathtub. Soap, shampoo and hair can attract other foreign objects, and over time, that can lead to a total blockage.
When objects get caught in your pipes, it’s imperative that you call for a drain cleaning service soon. Whatever you do, don’t try to fix it yourself with Drano or another corrosive cleaner. Not only will you likely not get the clog cleared, but you’ll create far more work for your plumber to solve.
At bluefrog Plumbing + Drain, we’re proud to help Katy, TX homeowners keep their drains flowing properly by clearing out clogs whenever they appear. If your drain isn’t flowing the way it should, just contact our drain cleaning service and get us on the job. We’ll be happy to clear out the clog and prevent further problems from occurring!
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