How can Waterman help with my drain service regarding repairs like backups in Hamilton?

A large part of keeping the plumbing in your home or property functioning at an optimal level is performing regular maintenance and frequent inspections. The homeowner can perform some inspections on their own by visually checking the pipes and making a note of slow drains, but pipework in the walls or under a concrete slab will require a professional like Waterman to come and perform moisture checks and inspect the inner workings of your plumbing with cameras and other high-tech tools. Luckily in the city of Hamilton there are many plumbers that are capable of working on your drainage system and making repairs while keeping a standing inspection schedule. These professionals have the tools and experience to pinpoint your problem before it does excessive damage to your walls and foundation.

Should you find a drain that has backed up in your home, the first line of action is generally to utilize a drain cleaning product from the local supermarket. These products can usually help you with minor clogs that result from organic matter in the drain. These solutions are not commercial grade, but they can dissolve many clogs. When the cleaning solution does not work, it is time to call a professional. You can contact your local Hamilton plumber like Waterman to sell you a commercial strength drain de-clogging product. Adventurous homeowners will straighten out a clothes hanger or other makeshift tool and proceed to prod around in the drain – this is not advisable as the “tool” could get caught on something that might break or further damage an older, weak pipe.

Drain snakes would be the next tool for rooting out a drain backup, but these should really only be used by professionals. Snakes that are used by homeowners without proper knowledge can find themselves causing more damage than repairs. Without knowing how far into the drain the clog actually is, using a short drain snake may reveal nothing anyway. There are manual snakes and powered ones that work by reaching the clog and breaking through it with the coiled metal loop that is on the end of the drain snake. Waterman is one such company that will use a powered snake to unroll deep into your pipe until it hits the blockage. Once the clog is found, the plumber will hit a switch and the powered snake coil will spin in order to allow the spiral cut loop to dig into the blockage to clear it. Sometimes the clog can be caught with a manually operated snake that you feed into the drain and make spin with a hand crank. Waterman or other plumbers in the Hamilton area will tell you the problem with manual snakes is that they usually don’t have more than 50-100 feet of coil, so if the blockage is further into your pipework, it will not find it. Industrial strength drain snakes can root out a backup that is several hundred feet into your system with no problem.
At this point as you can see, a clog or backup that requires more than a cleaning solution should be handled by a professional plumbing group like Waterman in the Hamilton area. You may be asking yourself what other tools a plumber has for finding the source of your drain backup. Another good question is what might have caused all these backups the homeowner is facing.

There are certain products that are bona fide drain cloggers and they are usually hair, fabrics, organic food waste and oil. Hair byproducts are usually found in sink and bathtub clogs, where laundry drains can be clogged with an errant sock or other small item that found its way into the drainage system. Organic waste and the oils that people cook with can block kitchen drains very quickly. The primary goal of any homeowner should be to keep as many of these things from entering the drainage system as possible in order to prevent backups.

Some things will cause drain backups that are basically out of the homeowner’s control. A prime example is when a drain pipe develops a “belly”, which is a plumber’s term that indicates there is a low point in the pipe, possibly occurring from sagging. This phenomenon allows water and sediment to collect in the “belly” which results in a blockage. This is common with plumbing in homes built on pier-and-beam systems.

Another problem with underground plumbing is the presence of roots that can crack and puncture your pipes. A drain snake will not tell you if there if it is a root that is encountered in the pipe and it could also snag the snake, which can create even bigger problems. Waterman is a plumbing group that uses some high tech cameras to inspect the blockage before getting in there to break it apart. We will insert a small camera connected to a semi-rigid wire into the drain to get a better idea of what is causing the backup. In order to repair a pipe cracked or crushed by a root, the plumber will have to find it and excavate around the blockage so we can access it for pipe replacement. Unfortunately this type of plumbing issue does not always get covered by insurance, but in most cases it can be filed as a claim.

After you’ve resolved your drain backup issue, most plumbers will take some time to sit down and discuss drain maintenance and how to prevent similar problems, provided they are something you have control over. They will more than likely stress that any signs of backup should be addressed immediately to avoid overflows and damage to your walls and floors. A drain clog that is caught early is easier to deal with and cheaper for the homeowner in the long run.
Overall there are a number of issues that can cause drain backups and if the repair entails more than pouring a cleaning solution in the pipe, it is probably best to leave the task to plumbing professionals like the Waterman group in the greater Hamilton area.