Is Drain Cleaning Service Just For Emergencies Or For Maintenance, Too? | Myrtle Beach, SC

12/3/2020

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Just like the dust in your Myrtle Beach, SC home, over time your drains accumulate layers of material that need to be removed. Your pipe material, joints, and p-traps can gradually attract grease, hair, soap scum, organic material, and even objects. You may not notice until the drain significantly slows or stops and you need to call us for emergency service. Clogged drains can also lead to overflows and damage to the wall or floor. Drain cleaning service is definitely a great preventive measure that makes sense both for convenience and avoiding the cost of major problems. An annual update will make sure that your plumbing is in top shape, and there’s one less thing you have to be concerned about.

It’s a Great Time for a General Plumbing Inspection, Too

Since our drain cleaning service is provided by expert technicians, we can also take a look and make any recommendations for plumbing updates and repairs that you might need, and even do basic fixes like repacking a leaky faucet or tightening a shower handle. As your Myrtle Beach, SC plumbing expert, there are a lot of ways that we can make sure that your home’s plumbing serves you well. When it comes to drain cleaning service, though, we’re in our element, with a wide variety of skills and technologies to make sure that anything from a grease and hair clog to a few plastic superheroes is cleared away and your drain is flowing smoothly.

Object Removal

The first rule of our drain cleaning service is never assume what’s in the drain. It’s important to have a strategy so you don’t make things worse by using the wrong technique. Once we’ve determined what’s down there by inspection, anecdotes, or expert guesswork, we can remove it, break it up and flush it down, or blast it out of the way with high pressure spray. Usually we don’t dissolve it with chemicals or shove it down with a plunger, because these methods can make the clog a caustic chemical mess in the first case, and an even more tightly wedged blockage further down the pipe in the second.

Hydro Jetting

If your pipes are in good shape for the pressure and it’s the right tool for this specific clog, hydro jetting can be a simple and powerful answer, and it’s one our drain cleaning service often uses even to clear sewer clogs. High-pressure water spray can clean the pipes of any long-term accumulations, leaving them clear and most importantly, smoother so they aren’t inclined to gather more material. Hydro jetting can even reach clogs that have built up further down your drain line, far beyond your sink drain and the p-trap below it.

Our Tiny Camera That Makes a Big Difference

We still use our experience and hard-earned wisdom to determine the right approach for our drain cleaning service, but these days we have an amazing tool that helps us target and treat your drain blockages with precision. It’s a tiny video camera that we send down the drain to inspect the inside of the pipe, observing the overall condition of your plumbing on the way and visually inspecting any clogs to identify the material from which they’ve been created. We can also use this camera to identify any potential issues in older piping, and perhaps most importantly in terms of cost savings, we can use it in your sewer line to let you know how it’s doing and, if there’s a clog in your sewer, to identify the optimum treatment. After all, these days we have a lot more options than pulling the sewer pipe and replacing it.

Why DIY Can Be Costly and Inconvenient

It can be empowering to take action and solve problems around the house, but we have the advantage of knowing exactly what can go wrong and how to prevent it. When it comes to your drains, that can help avoid worsening clogs with plunger pressure, complicating further efforts by adding risky chemicals, and running an auger past a plastic toy, creating a slight flow improvement but leaving the toy in place to accumulate further hair, grease, and other components of a future clog.

Let’s Talk About Your Pipes

Clogs can occur in pipes of any age, but older pipes, especially ones made of materials like cast iron that can corrode internally, can be more prone to accumulating material and need drain cleaning service more often. In some cases, we may suggest that your older pipes that have corroded or become brittle in the case of plastic pipes may benefit from partial or complete replacement. This can help avoid clogs and even leaks that could create sanitary issues.

When Backups Are Frequent Upstairs

Most clogs occur in piping close to the sink or toilet, but in some cases material may accumulate in a length of pipe where hot water cools and leaves grease residue on the pipe interior, or a pipe bend traps material that would otherwise have flowed to the sewer. Our camera can identify distant clogs like these and help us to target them appropriately.

Downstairs Backups Can Be an Ominous Sign

If you are having multiple backups in the lower level of your home, you may be seeing signs of a direct backup from your sewer line. This can be an urgent situation, and we recommend that you contact us promptly to investigate. Even though sewer problems can be costly, modern techniques for sewer cleaning and repair can make quick repairs a cost saver.

Your Expert Drain Cleaning Service and Quality General Plumber

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing of Myrtle Beach is your comprehensive drain cleaning service and plumbing expert. Count on us to make your life simpler and easier when it comes to keeping your home’s pipes flowing. Call us for emergencies and we highly recommend that you look to us for annual drain maintenance as well. Our 24-hour number is 843-894-0905.