Tag Archives: diy drain unclogging

How to Safely Manage a Drain Backup Situation While Waiting for Professional Help

a drain backup in a kitchen sink.

Dealing with a drain backup situation can be a frustrating and messy experience. It’s important to act swiftly and safely to minimize further damage while waiting for professional help to arrive. This article provides practical tips and steps to help you manage a drain backup situation effectively.

Understanding the Cause

Before taking any action, it’s crucial to understand the cause of the drain backup. Common reasons include clogged pipes, tree roots intrusion, or a malfunctioning sewer system. By identifying the root cause, you can take appropriate measures to prevent future instances.

Ensure Your Safety

When dealing with a drain backup, your safety should always be the top priority. Here are some important safety considerations:

  • Wear protective gear: Put on gloves, boots, and eyewear to protect yourself from any harmful bacteria or chemicals that may be present in the backup.
  • Keep children and pets away: Ensure that children and pets are kept a safe distance away from the affected area.

Contain the Backup

While waiting for professional help, it’s important to contain the backup to prevent further damage to your property. Here’s what you can do:

  • Block off the affected area: Use towels, plastic sheets, or any available barriers to contain the backup and avoid it spreading to other areas.
  • Remove excess water: If there is standing water, use a wet vacuum or bucket to remove as much water as possible. Avoid using a regular vacuum cleaner as it may get damaged.
  • Seal off drains: Cover all drains in the affected area with plastic bags and secure them tightly to prevent any unpleasant odors or sewage from escaping.

Minimize Water Usage

To prevent further strain on the drainage system and exacerbating the backup, it’s essential to minimize water usage during this time. Here are some tips:

  • Avoid flushing toilets: Only use the toilet if absolutely necessary, and dispose of any waste in a separate bag.
  • Limit showers and baths: Take quick showers or consider using alternative facilities if available.
  • Avoid using the sink: Minimize the use of sinks for washing dishes or other tasks that require water.
a pot of boiling water can be used to unclog a drain.

Carefully pour boiling water down the drain to break up grease or soap buildup. Be cautious not to use this method on PVC pipes as it may cause damage.

DIY Drain Unclogging Techniques

If you’re confident in your abilities and want to attempt to unclog the drain yourself, here are a few techniques you can try:

  • Plunger: Use a plunger to create suction and dislodge any blockages. Make sure to cover the overflow drain if applicable.
  • Boiling water: Carefully pour boiling water down the drain to break up grease or soap buildup. Be cautious not to use this method on PVC pipes as it may cause damage.
  • Baking soda and vinegar: Mix equal parts of baking soda and vinegar and pour it down the drain. Let it sit for a few hours before flushing it with hot water.

Communicate with Professionals

While waiting for professional help to arrive, it’s important to maintain clear communication with the plumbing company. Follow these steps:

  • Contact reliable professionals: Research and contact reputable plumbing companies that offer emergency plumbing services to ensure prompt assistance.
  • Provide accurate information: Clearly describe the situation, its severity, and any actions you’ve already taken to manage the backup.
  • Ask for estimated arrival time: Request an estimated arrival time from the plumbing company to better plan your wait time.
  • Follow their guidance: Listen carefully to any instructions or precautions provided by the professionals and follow them accordingly.

Document the Situation

It’s important to document the drain backup situation for insurance purposes or any potential future reference. Here’s what you can do:

  • Take photographs: Capture photographs of the affected areas, visible damages, and any belongings that may have been affected by the backup.
  • Create a list of damages: Note down any damages or losses caused by the backup, including furniture, appliances, or personal items.
  • Keep receipts: Keep track of any expenses incurred due to the drain backup, such as hiring plumbers or purchasing cleaning supplies.

Preventive Measures for the Future

Once the drain backup situation has been resolved, it’s important to take preventive measures to avoid future occurrences. Consider the following:

  • Dispose of waste properly: Avoid flushing large items, grease, or non-biodegradable materials down the drain to minimize the risk of clogging.
  • Install drain screens: Use drain screens or guards to catch hair, debris, and other potential clog causing substances.
  • Plant trees away from pipes: If you have trees on your property, ensure they are planted away from any underground pipes to prevent root intrusion.

Dealing with a drain backup situation can be overwhelming, but by following the steps outlined in this article, you can safely manage the situation while waiting for professional help. Remember to prioritize your safety, contain the backup, minimize water usage, and communicate effectively with plumbers. By taking preventive measures, you can reduce the likelihood of future drain backups and maintain a healthy drainage system in your home.

DIY Drain Cleaning and Why It Can Be a Bad Idea

a women trying to unclog her drain

Slow or blocked drains are common issues every homeowner experiences with their home’s plumbing from time to time. Due to how often we use them and what we use them for, toilet, bathroom, and kitchen drains are always at risk of getting blocked.

When this happens, it is normal that you will want to cut costs by trying to fix the problem yourself. Like most homeowners, says DRP Management, you will reach for a drain snake, plunger, chemical drain cleaner, vinegar, or baking soda, each time your drains show signs of trouble.

But do DIY drain cleaning solutions work? Are you really saving money when you use them? What is their long-term impact on the health of your drains? Is there a right time to use DIY drain cleaning methods, and what are their limitations? This post answers those questions.

Common DIY drain cleaning methods and why they can be a bad idea

The most common do-it-yourself methods for clearing clogs and blockages from your drains are:

  • Handheld drain snakes
  • Plungers 
  • Baking soda, vinegar, salt, and boiling water
  • Chemical drain cleaners

Chemical drain cleaners are easily the worst things you can pour into your drains. While they may clear your drains, they do so at a huge cost. Chemical drain cleaners have acids in them. These acids do not discriminate between the material blocking the pipe and the pipe itself.

Chemical drain cleaners not only shorten the lifespan of your pipes, but they also harm the environment. The acids in chemical drain cleaners will not only dissolve the clogs inside your drain but corrode your pipes and eventually find their way into the soil, which will leach into groundwater.

The other DIY drain cleaning methods in this list are only suitable for removing clogs close to the drain opening. If the material blocking your drainpipe is further inside the pipe, removing it with the above drain cleaning methods is often impossible.

Baking soda, plungers, salt, vinegar, and hot water are only useful when you have an emergency. Because they do not actually remove the material blocking the pipe but merely push it further down the pipe, they cannot be used as a long-term fix.

But if you do not understand these DIY drain cleaning methods and use them as your go-to solution for drain issues, you can expect the following problems.

The trouble with DIY drain cleaning

Health and environmental issues

In addition to the harm they do to your drainpipes, chemical drain cleaners are also dangerous to your health. The toxic compounds inside drain cleaners linger in the air after the cleaner is flushed into the drain. They may eventually end up inside the lungs and stomachs of humans and pets.

Furthermore, using chemical drain cleaners is almost the same as putting poison in your drinking water. These harmful substances flow from your drain into the city sewer system and finally into the water bodies that feed the natural systems where we get our drinking water.

DIY solutions ignore the root cause

When you hire a professional plumber to solve a drain problem in your home, that plumber adopts a holistic approach, including the entire plumbing system and how you use them. 

This ensures that whatever solutions they employ for the issues will have a lasting effect. Conversely, DIY drain cleaning solutions are temporary fixes that do not address your drain problem’s underlying cause. 

Your drain problems never go away

DIY drain cleaning methods only worsen the issues with your drains. Unlike when you use a professional plumber, DIY drain cleaning does not highlight the things you are doing that may hurt your drains. They also don’t altogether remove the offensive materials inside the drains. The result is that those drain problems only worsen with time until they do massive damage that will cost a ton of money to fix.

You can’t do preventive maintenance with DIY drain cleaning

With DIY drain cleaning, you must wait until there is an issue with your drains before you take action. These solutions lock you into a reactive mindset where you are always one step behind the problems with your plumbing. 

A professional plumber, on the other hand, can help you create a preventive maintenance program that will let you avoid major issues with your drains, prolong the life of your plumbing and help you save money in the long run.

Save money and time

Hiring a professional plumber to solve the issues with your plumbing can help you save time and money. A professional plumber will find and solve those issues in a fraction of the time it takes you to find them. 

Furthermore, when selling your home, the fact that your plumbing is managed by a professional makes much difference. Buyers have more confidence when the systems are under the care of an expert, and they are often willing to pay you more for the peace of mind that comes with that knowledge.