Plumb It Right!

by Don Brodderick
(St Pete's Beach, Florida, USA)

Plumbing problems are considered to be one of the major problems that each household can experience at least once in a lifetime. Although most would opt to call a professional plumber to do the dirty work for them, most plumbing repairs are actually minor ones that even you can do without having to pay a plumber some notable amount of cash.

Be Vigilant

One way to fix major plumbing problems is by prevention. Keeping a sharp eye for sluggish or slow drains is the key. It is way much easier to fix and unclog a slow drain than opening one that has wholly stopped from functioning.

If your drain is slow, you can fix this by simply pouring scalding water down the pipe. Do this to loosen any grease buildup. Additionally, you should clean the drain screen or stopper. This should do the trick.

However, if it doesn’t, then try to locate the problem by checking out other household drains. Do this to know whether the clog is present in only one fixture. If it turns out that other drains are clogged, then you may have a problem with your main drain pipe.

Sinking In

Fighting a sink clog automatically means getting a bathroom plunger. In picking a plunger, make sure it has a large enough suction cup that can completely cover up the drain. It should also be able to create an airtight seal around the surrounding sink.

Next, you should fill the fixture to completely cover the plunger’s suction cup. Do this by using water or coating the cup’s rim with petroleum jelly.

You should create a vacuum by trying to seal off other outlets, like overflow drain in sinks. Then, push out any trapped air underneath the cup. After this, do 15 to 20 forceful up-and-down pumping blows to jerk loose the clog. It may take you three to five times of this cycle to do the trick.

Snake It Out If using the plunger doesn’t work, then you would have to resort to another technique. In this remedy, you would need to have a plumbing snake.

You can get one at your local hardware. These can work their way through your drain pipes and physically push out the clogs.

Plumbing snakes are considered to be one of the most dependable tools for fixing drainage problems. All you have to do is push the snake in until you hit the clog.

Once you hit the clog, hook it up by twisting your snake’s handle. After hooking it up, push your snake back and forth until you feel that the obstruction has broken up. Then, flush out the pipe using cold water.

Main Drain Cleanup

If you detect that more than one of your draining fixtures is clogged up, then your main drain line may be the problem. Thus, you have to clean it up. You can start off by locating the clean-out plugs of the large drain pipes. You can find these in your crawlspace or basement.

Main drain lines can also be found in your garage or somewhere outside, along the foundations of your house. You can see that each plug has a cap on it that has a square fitting on the top. Use a wrench to remove the cap.

Make sure that you have a bucket with you to catch some dripping water. Also, be sure that nobody will use the facilities while you the main drain line is open, or else some serious problem can come your way.

Once you have everything in place, use a plumbing snake to break up any obstructions in the main line by running the snake in all directions of the pipe.

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Plumb It Right!

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