It’s easy to forget about your home’s plumbing through day-to-day life. Yet, when something appears wrong, panic can make it hard to figure out what to do.

Before you reach for the drain cleaner, know when it’s better to call in a drain cleaning service. Trying a fix yourself might not only be ineffective, it could do more harm than good.

To help you keep your home’s drains happy and running smoothly, let’s look at 10 signs you need a professional drain cleaning.

1. Standing Water

Have water that won’t drain from a sink or washing machine? Maybe you take a shower and get left standing in water that comes up over your ankles.

Standing water means there’s a plug somewhere in your drainage pipes. Whether it’s clogged by hair or gunk, there’s enough of it that won’t let water pass by.

Cleaning your drains is the only way to unplug the pipes to let water drain out of your home. If it’s clogged enough to not let any water escape, it’s time to call in a professional for help.

2. Slow Moving Drain

If it takes your bathtub or sink longer to empty of water than normal, it’s likely you have a clog forming somewhere in your drain.

Over time, substances such as hair, soap, grease, and food particles will gather in the pipes. It starts to build up, slowly creating a blockage.

A slow-moving drain will become a bigger problem if you don’t clean your drainage pipes. Taking care of the problem as soon as you notice it will save you money and headaches down the line.

3. Unexplained Foul Odor

You’ve noticed a weird smell in your home but don’t know where it’s coming from. No matter how much you clean, it only seems to get worse, not better… but maybe you’re not cleaning the right area.

Your drains could be the source of the problem. Even if your drains seem to be functioning as they should, that doesn’t mean food or sewage isn’t building up somewhere in your pipes.

A drain cleaning service can come out and get rid of any material that’s stinking up your drainage line. They’ll have special equipment that can reach the source of the smell no matter where it’s located.

4. Frequent Clogs

You had a clog in the bathroom sink last week you thought you took care of. Yet, here is a clog again. Getting frequent clogs might mean you have a more serious blockage a simple fix won’t get rid of.

Gunk and residue can build up on the inside of pipes. Home drain cleaners might help break the clog down, but it won’t always get rid of the entire issue. The buildup comes back and creates frequent clogs in your home.

This is when a professional drain cleaning service can help get rid of the problem once and for all.

5. Gurgling Sounds

There’s an odd sound coming from your sink. It sounds like gurgling, even though your drain seems to be working fine.

Weird noises coming from pipes is a sign there’s a problem building up behind the scenes. As a clog begins to form, it creates air bubbles as water rushes past it. These air bubbles are what is causing the gurgling sound you hear as the sink drains.

Once a drain cleaning service cleans out the clog, these sounds will disappear as well.

6. Water Backup

It’s every homeowner’s worst nightmare, you walk into your bathroom or laundry room to find a pool of dirty, sometimes foul-smelling, water.

Water backups can be a hassle to clean and expensive to repair the damage. It’s caused by drain lines being completely clogged, leaving your water nowhere to go but back into your house.

Call a drain cleaning service right away. Not only will water backups cause water damage to your home, they can also be unsanitary to your family.

7. Problem with Fruit Flies

You never had problems with fruit flies in the past, but for some reason they seem to have appeared overnight. You’ve cleared any food off kitchen counters and cleaned as best as you can, but they won’t go away.

Many people don’t know fruit flies are attracted to food stuck in your drainage pipes. When food begins to build up, fruit flies will take notice.

Plumbing professionals will know how to clean all traces of food from your drains. When the food is gone, your fruit flies will have no choice but to move on.

8. Overflowing Toilets

It’s easy to know why your toilet overflowed when your child flushes his favorite toy car. Yet, if it overflows often with no clear explanation, it could be the drainage lines.

Waste and toilet paper can clog up sewage drains. Frequent overflows mean there’s a clog that’s not allowing your toilet to empty properly.
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A drain cleaning service will find the location of the sewage clog and clear it so your toilet can flush freely again.

9. Multiple Clogged Drains

You don’t have just one sink clogged, but the bathtub, toilet, and other sinks in the house won’t drain as well.

Multiple clogged drains are a sign there’s a serious problem in your pipes. There might be a main sewer line clog or an issue going on with the main drainage line.

Call in the professionals right away. If you let this sit too long, you risk having water back up through multiple drains in your home, causing major damage.

10. Using Too Much Liquid Drain Cleaner

Usually, one bottle of liquid drain cleaner does the trick. Yet, this time you’ve used two bottles and your drains are still moving slow.

Don’t continue to pour store-bought cleaners. Not only is it not clearing the problem, you could cause damage to your pipes.

For tough clogs, only a drain cleaning service will be able to clear it out while protecting your pipe’s structure.

Use a Drain Cleaning Service to Get Happy Drains Again

Don’t let a clog create a big problem. By knowing when to call a drain cleaning service, you can keep the water flowing freely and your drains happy.

Have a drain issue you need help with? Contact us today! Let Plumb Time Plumbing put our years of experience to work for you.