DIY Drain Cleaning: Should You Do It?

We’ve all encountered this problem before. Your drain is clogged or it seems to be backed up quite a bit and it isn’t draining as well as it used to. The cause is pretty obvious – there’s a clog or build up that needs cleaning. Most people try to take things into their own hands and this often produces mixed results. You might be wondering why that is. There’s a wide variety of factors that determine whether or not your DIY drain cleaning effort will prove to be effective. If you want to know more, keep your eyes peeled for these pointers. 

It’s not always easy to solve

One of the first things you might do when your drain is clogged is trying out some simple methods that have been proven to work. Your parents or neighbours probably recommended pouring baking soda and vinegar and waiting a while for the chemical reaction to do its job.

It seems like an easy solution to a small inconvenience, but it doesn’t always work out. This might give your pipes a bit of a cleaning proximal to the blockage, but it probably won’t clear a big clog that blocks the passage of water. 

It’s pretty affordable, though

It’s no secret that homeowners can get quite stubborn when problems arise. You want to take care of the problem before having to call in for help, and for good reason. Why should you waste money when you’re perfectly capable of taking care of the occasional mishap in your own home.

It costs you exactly nothing to get ahold of your trusty plunger and try to force the clog out of the way. Whether or not it works the first time doesn’t matter all that much. You won’t strain yourself by using the plunger and you might succeed and solve the problem instantaneously. If you have any chemical drain cleaning supplies, it becomes even easier in theory.

It could be less serious

Drain blockages aren’t always all that serious. You could be stressing about a blockage that is so minor that a simple pull of the plunger will easily unclog it. In many cases, letting it soak in a mixture of soap and hot water will prove to be extremely effective after a couple of hours.

If you called in for help before trying anything, you might feel like a fool. After all, it’s worth a try. If you start out with simpler methods before moving on to chemical cleaners and wickets, you probably won’t make it any worse than it already is.

It can be a hassle

If your regular methods fail, you might decide that it’s high time to unblock the drain once and for all. A drain cleaning cable or wicket is pretty easy to use. Push it down the pipes and spin it until the clog is taken care of. 

However, you’re really going to get your hands dirty for this one. You need to know how to assemble and disassemble the whole drain, which is going to be messy enough because it’s clogged and filled with water. You also come into contact with a lot of oily dirt and grime, the smell of which will test your ability to hold down your lunch.

 It would be much simpler to contact affordable plumbing maintenance and save yourself the trouble of dealing with the uglier side of your piping. You can sit back and relax while the problem is taken care of in a fraction of the time it might have taken you.

You can cause damage

Leaving professional work to amateurs has some obvious downsides. You could end up doing a lot of damage to your piping and other parts of your home. Chemical drain cleaners might do the job, but their consequences outweigh the benefits you get from using them. They often interfere with the bacteria in your septic tank, which can make it a lot less effective at its job.

Using tools could just further clog the drain, making it even harder for you to unclog it. Worse yet, it could make the job even more expensive if you opt for professional help. Why risk it when you can just immediately solve the problem and rid yourself of the stress.

Conclusion

Drained clogs can be a real pain. They prevent you from using the faucet and that can really hamper your everyday activities. You can’t clean the dishes, which means you can’t cook up a proper meal without making the kitchen into a cluttered mess. Perhaps it could happen in the bathroom, which would lead to a day of skipping showers, which sounds bad enough on its own. The long wait for the plumbers can seem unbearable, which is why a lot of people take these things into their own hands. Keep these things in minds before you do a DIY cleaning of the drain and you should be good. Don’t rush into things and don’t be afraid to call for professionals if you get in way over your head.