Drain Cleaning & Maintenance

Kitchen Drain Cleaning

As grease, fats, and soaps build up in the pipes, they act as magnets for food particles that are washed down the drain. That build up can quickly transform from a slowly draining sink to a raging kitchen flood. If you notice your drain is moving slower than usual, it is a sign that action should be taken soon. And if the problem persists, call Atomic for Drain Cleaning & Maintenance services.

In most households, your garbage disposal is your first line of defense to keep debris from clogging your sink’s drain. In order to protect your pipes from a bigger, nastier clog, you need a garbage disposal that chews through kitchen debris effectively. If it seems like your garbage disposal has lost some of its initial bite, or if it’s starting to smell like it’s harboring more trash than it’s disposing, it’s time to call Atomic.

Here are a few tips to avoid big backups:

Grease or fat should never be dumped down the drain. We recommend rinsing out and storing empty glass jars or coffee tins. These can easily hold hot grease and be thrown away once cooled and solidified.
Coffee grounds, tea leaves, vegetable peels, rice, pasta, and flour should all be disposed of in the trash can, NOT down your disposal. These items can gum up pipes quickly and cause major clogs.
If your drain is prone to clogs, we recommend purchasing a strainer or drain grate to prevent food scraps and other debris from making their way into your pipes.
Ask us how you can get Bio-Clean! Bio-Clean is a blend of natural bacteria and enzymes that clean your pipes by eating their way through the waste that has accumulated! This waste is their natural food – they digest the waste and continue through your system, cleaning it completely.
Schedule a regular kitchen drain cleaning with Atomic Plumbing to ensure your pipes are functioning as they should.

Toilet Drain Cleaning

Toilet clogs, no matter how extreme, can be stressful to resolve on your own. When you call Atomic Plumbing, our experts will get there as fast as possible to help keep your home safe and clean. Our team is accustomed to dealing with just about any bathroom disaster – from a toilet that won’t flush to a toilet whose contents have escaped onto the floor.

We’ll come to your home and, with the greatest sensitivity and attention to sanitary conditions, make the situation right.

With regular cleaning and maintenance, you can avoid most toilet drainage issues. A few tips to keep your water flowing smoothly all year round:

When regularly cleaning your toilet, remove the lid from the tank and flush to check if everything is working properly.
Flush ONLY toilet paper. Other paper products, even those labeled as “flushable” can cause major clogs.
Most household toilet clogs are caused by an overuse of toilet paper. Be conscious of what you are flushing.

Shower Drain Cleaning

Standing in a pool of water every time you shower? Call Atomic to schedule a regular shower drain cleaning, or an emergency drain cleaning for immediate assistance.

You can prevent major shower backups by purchasing a drain strainer or hair catcher. This, combined with use of a drain snake when drainage slows can help avoid an ankle-deep pool!

Atomic Plumbing specializes in all kinds of drain cleaning. If you need to improve the drain flow or unclog any drain, we offer quality plumbing services to our commercial and residential customers in Hampton Roads.

The Importance of Routine Drain Maintenance

Drain maintenance usually takes a backseat to household chores and maintenance tasks in an age where we’re constantly running around. Working parents and overwhelmed business owners might prioritize stocking up on supplies and doing laundry over maintaining a healthy drain. Over time, though, a clogged drain can create devastating and expensive problems.

You might be saying, “I’ll call a plumber when it becomes a problem.” Yes, that’s a great idea, but did you know you can avoid massive problems by being more regular about your maintenance habits? Atomic Plumbing is here to save you time, money, and troubles with this guide on the importance of routine drain maintenance and some affordable, simple tips.

What’s the Rush to Clean Your Drains?

Drain cleaning and maintenance is so important to include on your weekly and monthly task list because it will save you from both unpleasant living conditions and major damage. What’s the rush? On the least serious side of the symptoms of unhealthy drains, bad odors can ruin your day. Do you really want to clean your dishes or get drinking water from a smelly sink? Dirty water buildup and waste from food are the only two of the possible sources of drain odors

You probably also don’t want to be dealing with a slow drain. Washing dishes can take double the time if you have to keep turning off the faucet to let the water go down. It’s also unpleasant to be standing in a foot of water while you’re showering. If that’s not bad enough, water buildup anywhere leads to mildew and mold growth and also attracts mosquitos and rodents

Over time, buildup in your drains can become devastating. Water can leak into the structure of your house or business, floods can damage your floors and furniture, and pipes could even burst. You can also be more at risk of flooding during a heavy rainstorm! Whether you are a home-owner, renter, or business owner, drain maintenance is a must. The best way to easily integrate healthy drain habits into your routine is to learn about what causes drains to clog.

What Can Cause a Drain to Clog?

A household drain or business drain will be subject to a certain amount of wear no matter what. Using your drains for anything but water drainage will cause damage to the pipes and create buildup. There are certain things you can’t avoid, but do your best to avoid dumping the most damaging materials!

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Clogged Kitchen Drains

Kitchen drains are most common and often include a garbage disposal. This type of drain is used several times a day for everything from drinking water to washing dishes and cleaning your hands. Daily usage for kitchen sinks means that they take the brunt of a wide variety of materials, products, and food waste

You’ll know your kitchen drain is beginning to clog when you experience:

Foul odors
Slow drainage
Water backup
Odd sounds such as gurgling or bubbling

House drains are very narrow, so ordinary objects and materials can easily block them if proper maintenance isn’t being completed regularly. Many people use their kitchen sink as a second trash can

The most common reasons for your kitchen drain to be clogged are:

Coffee grounds
Grease
Oil
Cooking fats
Paint
Toxic chemicals
Garbage disposal buildup

Coffee grounds are an extremely common reason for both business and household drains to be clogged because many people choose to dump them down the drain rather than throw them into the trash. Many people also frequently dump the leftover oils and greases from cooking, which can solidify inside your pipes. The best way to remember how to take care of your kitchen sink is to remember that drains are for water, not waste!<

Clogged Toilets

Clogged toilets can often be an easy fix with a plunger, but sometimes, a plumber like Atomic Plumbing needs to come to the rescue. The severity of a clogged toilet depends on the cause and how long your toilet’s drain and pipes have been mistreated

You’ll know your toilet is beginning to clog when you experience:

Foul smells
Slow flushing or unable to flush
Gurgling sounds
The gully trap is overflowing
The toilet bowl is overfilling

The problem might be originating from the toilet itself, the pipes, or more systemic issues like the septic system. If you can’t seem to find or solve the problem, you might need to call a plumber or see if there is work being done in your town to the water lines

Some of the most common causes of a clogged toilet, though, are

Using thick and highly absorbent toilet paper
Using too much toilet paper
Flushing other paper products like paper towels, napkins and baby wipes
Flushing feminine products
Disposing of medications with your toilet
Dumping paint and other chemicals down your toilet

When you choose to flush anything down your toilet besides water and organic waste, you are taking a gamble. Many people can go for years flushing other materials before the effects begin to show themselves. Right now, you might not see a problem, but clogged drains happen over time.

Dumping toxins and chemicals down your drains also damage your septic tanks, which causes major problems. Unless you want to find your bathroom flooded with rejected sewage, you should take drain maintenance seriously!

Clogged Shower Drains

Clogged shower drains can be quite a nuisance because they can be hard to clean depending on the type of drain you have. While kitchen sinks and toilets have pipes you can often access more easily, shower drains dump through your floor

You’ll know your shower drains are beginning to clog when:

Visible buildup on the surface of your drain
Slow or completely stopped water drainage
Bad odors
Water and other material is backing up into the shower floor
Odd noises such as gurgling and bubbling

It’s hard for us to avoid many of the reasons why shower drains clog because we use products in order to clean ourselves. The byproducts of showering are the main cause of clogged showers, including:

Hair
Dead skin
Sediment and dirt from working or playing outside
Sand from being at the beach
Soap and body washes
Hair products
Shaving products

We take showers in order to maintain hygiene so we can’t avoid the materials that clog our shower drains in the same way we can avoid them for our toilets and sinks. That’s where routine maintenance comes in!

What to Do When Your Drain is Clogged

When a drain is clogged, the first thing people usually grab is a toxic, over-the-counter drain cleaner. Chemical drain cleaners can seem like a quick and easy fix, but any plumber will tell you that they actually wreak havoc on your pipes. Cheap chemicals from the store can erode or alter your drains and pipes as well as destroy your septic systems

When your drains clog, think common household items! You can flush the drains with simple concoctions made of baking soda and vinegar followed by hot water. Hot water is a great way to flush your drains regularly, but if that isn’t enough, follow it with a cup of baking soda and a cup of vinegar

The chemical reaction could break clogs loose with another dose of hot water!

If your sink or drain is overflowing with water to the point that you can’t flush it with baking soda and vinegar, you can try using a plunger. Using a plunger on a dry drain can hurt your pipes, but if there’s water backup, it’ll work in the same way it does on a clogged toilet

Garbage disposals can often be the source of the problem as well. A quick and natural way to maintain your garbage disposal is to grind ice and flush it with hot water. You can also follow that with some lemons to achieve a fresh scent. If the clog is so serious that these household solutions aren’t working, it’s time to call Atomic for an emergency plumbing repair!

Free and Low-Cost Drain Maintenance Tips

Aside from your heroic actions during a plumbing emergency, you’ll want to keep up routine maintenance so that you have a low risk of serious plumbing problems. There are some low-cost or even free ways that you can start including in your daily habits and weekly or monthly chores to keep up with drain maintenance
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Be informed about damaging materials and products
Teach your household or employees about safe drain habits
Install drain grates
Check and clean drain stoppers during your cleaning routine
Make bins available near drains so it’s easy to rid of waste properly
Avoid over-the-counter chemicals for clogs!
Run hot water down your drains weekly
Disable and clean your garbage disposal regularly
Assess and diagnose issues at the first signs of a problem

Keeping up with healthy habits for your drains is a great way to avoid major problems down the road. We can’t avoid all of our problems though, so having a plumber on hand is always helpful

Save Your Drains

Being responsible and consistent with your drain maintenance is an essential part of maintenance for your house or business. Investing in regular maintenance from a plumber is a great way to find problems before you suffer the consequences. If you still feel like you don’t have enough time to meet the task, call us to help with your drain cleaning and maintenance today!