Plumber Tips: The Roller Coaster Ride Of Drains In Your Home | Bedford, TX
Even what you can see of your home’s drain pipes looks a lot like a roller coaster ride, doesn’t it? There are specific reasons why your drain pipes roll, twist, tilt, and slide from floor to floor, and why they connect to rooftop vents and big sewer pipes in the ways that they do, with special access for servicing and controls for your water supply that become really important when you have drain problems as well as high-pressure leaks. At Tioga Plumbing & Electric in Bedford, TX, our plumbers design, install, and repair these complex pipe structures and we understand the subtleties of how they work. When we’re installing new plumbing for remodeling or renovation, or chasing down a particularly elusive drain blockage, our experience as skilled plumbing professionals helps you get the most from your plumbing with the least amount of hassle.
Drain Power Is the Power of Gravity
If you want to find out how drains work without gravity, check out the design of toilets on the International Space Station. We’re fortunate to be able to count on wastewater flowing through our homes down the various pipes across and between floors and down to our home’s sewer line. Of course, it’s when there are blockages working against gravity that we start to have drain problems, as the water and waste flowing downward reach an obstacle and slow or stop. This can lead to water continuing on and waste building up into a clog over time, or just a general stop if the blockage is too big. Sometimes it’s more like a beaver’s dam, a mesh of materials that allows water to seep through but not much else, and slowly at that. If the blockage is organic, it may decay over time. If it’s plastic, thick wipes, diaper material, and the like, it’s going to need some help.
The Plumbing Vent’s Part
In addition to the downward flow of material, your plumbing system needs air to be pulled in through the vent for balance. If for some reason your vent gets blocked, it could resist the pull of gravity and not allow your wastewater to flow freely down until more air gets let in. That’s why our plumbers will sometimes look for a vent problem instead of just a clog down the line, because their experience tells them where in this complicated system to find the issue.
Helping Your Drains By Sticking to Organic
Ideally, what flows down your toilet should be toilet tissue and human waste. Everything else gets thrown out or composted. That means no wipes, diapers, Q-tips, cotton balls, or synthetic substitutes, no bulky food, especially rice or pasta, and so on. And definitely no kitty litter, especially the clumping variety. Remember, the toilet may look like a bigger opening, but it goes looping around inside as well, and things can get stuck, taking a plumber to dig around and break them free. The loops help protect against sewer gas escaping through toilets and drains, so they’re everywhere. Remember, just organic in the toilet and sink, and try to avoid grease and fats, too, since they make great clog material, especially with hair.
Fancy Junctions Like Your Garbage Disposal and Dishwasher
Sometimes the drain plumbing is connected in ways that take a plumber to figure out, like the connections between your kitchen sink, garbage disposal, and dishwasher, with a small vent up on your countertop to help avoid backup from one to the other. When those get clogged, you can get strange effects like sink waste popping up into your dishwasher. It’s important to call your plumber if that happens, or if you’re clogging the garbage disposal and running the dishwasher at the same time.
Backups Between Nearby Drains
Another time that junctions can cause strange issues is when you have multiple fixtures on the same wall, on either side such as in back-to-back bathrooms, or in the same room. You may find that a clog in just the right spot causes downward motion like flushing to push back up through another drain, and other misbehavior that can require a plumber to figure out. Remember the health issues involved in drain backups, and make sure that you avoid overflow which can damage the subfloor of your bathroom requiring significant work to repair.
Sewer Line Backups
Larger scale backups occur when your sewer line gets clogged, which can be the cumulative result of getting away with flushing wipes and other materials that made it down fairly clean pipes and then piled up in the sewer. There’s a lot of talk about how these problems occur on a huge scale in city sewers, and the work it takes to break up the piles of material and remove them from the sewers. When your sewer isn’t flowing freely, you may experience backup through your basement drains, which is a clue, especially if you have several down there and they’re all backing up. Problems can extend upward to other sinks and toilets if things get really bad. At the first sign of trouble, your plumber can use video inspection and other techniques to locate your drain and sewer issues and make a plan.
Drain Cleaning Service to Reset Your Pipes
A full drain cleaning service annually helps keep your pipes clear so that problems are less likely to occur. Our plumbers inspect, clean, hydro jet if appropriate, and otherwise clean out whatever has been gathering in your pipes. It could mean fewer drain backup visits later!
Your Plumbing and Drain System Experts in Bedford, TX
We’re Tioga Plumbing & Electric in Bedford, TX, providing professional plumbing services, leak detection, and expert drain cleaning and diagnosis. Our plumbers have the skill and experience to locate the source of drain problems wherever they are and apply effective resolution so you won’t be stuck in an unnecessary cycle of repeated calls for the same drain. Give us a call today and get the best working on your home’s plumbing.
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