Plumbing Guides
Drains & Sewer
Slow drains, backups, cast iron lines, roots, and when a camera or jetter is the right tool.
Drains & Sewer Are flushable wipes really flushable? No, and here is what they do to your drains No. A wipe is built to stay in one piece when wet, and it does exactly that in your drain line. Wipes catch on cast iron scale, roots, and bellies in the pipe, and they… Drains & Sewer How to plunge a toilet the right way (and what not to do) Stop the water first: push the flapper closed inside the tank or shut the supply valve. Then use a flange plunger, the kind with a sleeve that folds out of the cup, seat… Drains & Sewer Bathroom sink draining slowly? Clean the pop-up stopper and the P-trap Nearly every slow bathroom sink is hair and soap scum wrapped around the pop-up stopper, with more of it settled in the P-trap below. Pull the pivot rod, lift the… Drains & Sewer Hydro jetting vs. cabling: which drain cleaning does your line need? A cable machine spins a cutting head through the blockage and is the right tool for roots, wipes, and a single soft clog. A hydro jetter uses high-pressure water to… Drains & Sewer Ficus roots and your sewer line: the Southwest Florida clog nobody warns you about Roots do not break into a sound pipe. They find a joint that leaks and follow the water in, and in Southwest Florida the root belongs to a ficus, a strangler fig, an… Drains & Sewer On a septic system in Lehigh Acres or Alva? The basics every owner should know Everything from the house flows to a buried tank where solids settle, and the liquid moves on to a drain field in the yard. The tank needs pumping on a schedule, the… Drains & Sewer Kitchen grease: where it actually ends up Grease leaves the sink as a liquid and sets within a few feet, first in the trap and then on the walls of the line under the slab, where it catches grit and narrows the… Drains & Sewer Bathtub and shower drains: hair first, then what Most tub and shower clogs are hair wrapped around the stopper or the crossbars just under it. Take the strainer or stopper out, pull the hair with a plastic hook, and… Drains & Sewer Sewer smell in the house: the seven usual causes In most Southwest Florida homes the smell is a dry trap in a fixture nobody uses, and a minute of running water fixes it. If it stays, work through the rest in order: a… Drains & Sewer Sewer camera inspection: what the video shows and how to read it The camera is a light and a lens on a push cable, and the video shows the inside of the drain line from the cleanout to the sewer or septic tank. You are looking at pipe…