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Posts Tagged ‘San Antonio TX drain cleaning’

Most of the family has cleared out of the house and preparations are underway for New Year’s celebrations with friends. The season’s festivities undoubtedly will put a strain on your plumbing, particularly your drains. Your San Antonio TX drain clog experts at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing are here to help with some preventative maintenance. If the problem becomes too great then Benjamin Franklin Plumbing is the preferred plumber in the San Antonio area.

Water is not the only thing pouring down our pipes and drains. This is the main cause of drain clogs and being aware of what things are being put into your drains is an important part of knowing how to best proceed in clearing the clog. The kitchen sink is the most used drain in your home and anything from small food items, leftovers, cooking oils and grease, and non-food items are put into our garbage disposal or sink. Bathroom drains in the shower or toilet present a different kind of problem with anything from clumped hair, toilet paper, and anything kids might put down the drain.

For serious clogged drains, call the experts at your San Antonio TX plumber, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, for professional service. For mild drain clogs, remove the stopper or strainer and remove any objects you find before pouring hot water down the drain. Usually, hot water can solve slight clogs as the heat will loosen any clumping.

If hot water does not work or if you’re dealing with a toilet drain, a plunger should be used. It is a good idea to keep a plunger in each of your toilet areas and bathrooms as you never know when you will need one. If you are comfortable with a sewer snake or auger, one of these plumbing drain cleaners should be the course of action after a plunger fails. Always call a professional plumber at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing if you are uncomfortable cleaning your own drain. Often it is best to let a professional handle it so as not to make matters worse leading to more costly plumbing repairs.

Some best practices to prevent drain clogs from happening are bulleted below:

• Avoid dumping food, grease, and coffee grounds into your sink drain
• Install sink strainers and sink stoppers in drains and consistently clean them
• Run cold water in your garbage disposal while using it to chop up food
• Never flush paper towels or non-toilet paper products down the toilet
• Pour hot water down drains often to prevent buildup in pipes

Call Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, your San Antonio plumbing company, at 210-549-9944 or visit their website for more information and to schedule service.

Many large meals will be cooked over the holidays with family in town and it is important to keep in mind the strain one can put on drain pipes. Fat from cooking, oil, grease, leftover food, bone scraps, and many other thick and congealing substances will be tossed down the sink drain without a care. Your San Antonio TX drain cleaning experts at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing want to remind you of a few things before you scrape off your plate or dump your leftover oils into your drain pipes.

Much of the traditional holiday food menu contains fatty oils and grease. Items such as roasted chicken, pie, cookie dough, sauces and gravy, oils, butter, and steak juices have clog creating substance. Water can’t carry all of these substances down the sink drain pipes and too much of them will create a major backup.

Also, some of these oils are not environmentally friendly, aside from the danger of clogging your drain. In most cities and metropolitan areas, you can take up to 10 gallons to local landfill’s that have household and hazardous waste collection facilities. Check your local San Antonio TX city website to find where these landfills are located.  Oils are often reused in an environmentally friendly way and recycled to make another usable product.

Your local San Antonio TX plumber at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing most likely has family of his own in town over the holidays. And while emergency plumbing service is offered, following these simple steps to keep your plumbing draining smoothly over the holidays can’t hurt:

• Do not dump cooking oils and grease into sink drains
• Food scraps should be put into a plastic trash bag
• Cooking grease should be cooled and then scraped into trash bags
• “Unflushables” such as baby wipes, diapers, rags, paper towels, toilet bowel cleaning pads, hygiene products and anything that will not breakup or dissolve in water should not be flushed down the toilet

Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, your San Antonio TX plumbing maintenance specialists, can provide you with drain cleaning service should you have trouble this holiday season. Give them at call at 210-549-9944 or visit them online to schedule plumbing service now.