Here’s what probably clogs your drain: hair, dirt, grime, dead skin, oils, and soapy residue. It’s nothing you don’t know already. But imagining what materials come together to stop up your drain is certainly an unpleasant prospect. There are times when simple home remedies will clear out our drains, but sometimes things build up too thickly. No matter what we do, the water just pools up and makes things worse. This is when it’s time to call in the experts.
Dave Cass, the owner of Cass Plumbing, Inc. in Tampa, says that a homeowner might rent drain cleaning equipment—although it’s rare that a homeowner goes so far. “The equipment we have is better than the usual homeowner’s,” says Cass. On top of that, Cass and his Tampa drain cleaners do not condone the use of Drano. The grievance against this popular drain-cleaning brand has nothing to do with its potential to take away any business. Rather, Cass says, Drano is bad for a home’s pipes, especially cast iron pipes. “Drano will eat through cast iron pipes eventually,” he says. That might clear the clog, but it will require entire sections of piping to be replaced one day. Avoiding Drano, therefore, and seeking the help of drain cleaners could save the pipes and clean out the drain at the same time.
Another method of drain cleaning that Cass employs is jet cleaning. “It’s a high-pressure pipe-cleaning system that homeowners don’t have access to,” he says. Cass explains that if a homeowner uses the wind-up drain machine from a rental place, “all it does is it snakes out the line.” That might unstop the pipe, but it doesn’t actually clean out the pipe. So the same problems could happen all over again, and soon.
To really clean out a pipe, says Cass, a homeowner needs professional jet cleaning services. Usually, says Cass, he performs these services for restaurants. Think about the grease and gunk from food oils; think about all of those plates being cleaned in a single night. After awhile, that food waste is going to cake onto the inside of pipes. Layer upon layer will stop up the pipes, and Cass’s Tampa drain cleaners will need to be called in.
But the jet cleaner has domestic applications too: “That same machine will clean up a sewer line from a house all the way to the street,” Cass explains. “Sewage pipes underneath a home’s front lawn are subject to root infiltration. Eventually, the pipes themselves will need full repair, but the jet cleaning operation can clear out the clogs from roots and buy some time for the pipes.” It’s inevitable that trees growing in a yard will reach their roots down into the soil, and if there’s a pipe under there, the tree won’t spare it. The kind of equipment that homeowners can rent will simply not clear out those pipes from the house to the municipal connection under the street. But fortunately, in these situations, Cass can come in to save the day.
