Floor Drain Clogs

Monday, December 14, 2009 @ 07:12 PM
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Floor Drain Clogs
Clearing a floor drain clog is one of the most challenging drain clog chores you may ever have to face.  Since floor drains are found predominately in basements, laundry rooms, and garages, the waste products that make their way through these drains are usually clog-inducing waste to begin with.  Waste water from washing machines, water heaters, and air conditioners, not to mention the lint, grime and sand that are always present in these areas of your home, filters through a floor drain can result in some pretty substantial clog issues.

Drain unclogging products and home solutions will probably not work on a full-fledged floor drain clog.  You will most likely have to contact a plumber or rent a power auger to clear a stubborn, floor drain clog.  A power auger is a machine that uses cutting blades to literally cut through the clog.  If your drain has a drain basin with a clean-out plug, you can circumvent your drain trap and gain access directly to the pipe to your floor drain.  If not, you’ll have to snake the pipe through the floor drain assembly.  Having to snake your way through is more difficult, but not an impossible task.  Once the auger reached the clog, its blades cut through the clog by alternating the direction of its blades as you move the snake back and forth through the clog.

Most floor drains are designed to accommodate a certain amount of overflow.  As a result, pressure builds in a floor drain system and may cause your drain to overflow.  There is a standpipe that is supposed to hold back some of the waste water flowing through the drain to help eliminate this pressure buildup and overflow and to keep your pipes and drain assembly from breaking under the pressure, but these can fail.  So if you suspect that your floor drain is accepting large quantities of waste water, you may have a more complicated problem than a floor drain clog.  Call a qualified licensed plumber to check out your floor drain system before you have to deal with cracked pipes caused from pressure build-up.

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