Fall is the time of year to get your home ready for hosting indoor gatherings with family and friends. Part of making sure your home is ready is ensuring your drains perform well. Follow these fall tips for doing just that.
Clean Your Drains With Baking Soda and White Vinegar
You can use baking soda and white vinegar to clean all the drains in your home, even the toilets. For sinks and tubs, pour one cup of baking soda down the drain and follow it with one cup of white vinegar. Put a drain stopper over the drain and wait 10 minutes. Once 10 minutes have passed, run hot water down the drain.
For cleaning toilet drains, use essentially the same process. Pour one cup of baking soda into the toilet bowl and follow that by one cup of white vinegar. Shut the lid and wait 10 minutes. Once 10 minutes have passed, flush the toilet two to three times to create the gravity that will push the debris through the pipes and out of your home plumbing system.
When white vinegar and baking soda are mixed, the bubbling action loosens any debris from the walls of the pipes, and it can also break up clogs. This mixture can even kill bacteria, and many prefer to use it as a natural solution for household cleaning.
Flush Your Drains With Boiling Water
Along with cleaning your drains with baking soda and white vinegar, you will want to flush them with boiling water. Boiling water will melt any solidified gunk from your pipe walls so you can easily flush it away. For sinks and tubs, pour two large pots of boiling water down the drain and then run hot water to complete the flushing process.
To flush toilet drains, turn off the water and then flush the toilet to drain the bowl. Pour two large pots of boiling water into the toilet bowl and allow it to completely disappear. Turn the toilet back on and let the tank fill. Flush two to three times to provide the gravity needed to flush away the gunk.
Schedule Professional Drain Cleaning Services
Using home remedies to clean your drains can certainly help; however, there is no substitution for professional drain cleaning. It is more thorough and will remove even the most stubborn clogs. Plumbers recommend that you schedule professional drain cleaning once a year. Fall is the perfect time to do so because your plumbing will be ready to perform at its best when you host all those winter gatherings with family and friends.
When you schedule professional drain cleaning, plumbers will either snake your drains or use a hydro jetting machine. While snaking is the most common, hydro jetting is more thorough because the water jets will blast all debris from your pipes and leave them squeaky clean. Your plumber will work with you to determine which solution is best for your situation and your budget.
If you want to enhance your drain performance this fall and make sure your Indianapolis, IN home is ready for your family and friends this winter, contact us at JW’s to schedule professional drain cleaning services. We understand the importance of drains that perform well and will make sure your plumbing meets your needs.
