Drain Cleaning in Tacoma

Helping You Maintain Healthy Drains at Home

Drains keep nasty stuff out of our lives. Clogged drains are nightmares, leading to potential damage and remodeling costs (not to mention dirty work!). It’s better to keep your drains running free, clear, and healthy. Bob Larson Plumbing is happy to lend suggestions, information, and help for all your drain-related needs.

Kitchen Drains

With regular use, even a kitchen drain can become clogged. Food waste, grease, and soap residue create gunk, and eventually a clog! Be careful what you put down your garbage disposal, and what gets washed off your dishes. Some common food items can cause immediate drainage problems. For example, grease and coffee grounds form together to make a concrete substitute right in your pipes. Bob Larson Plumbing can get your kitchen drain free of gunk and crud in no time.

Bathroom Sinks

Dropped jewelry, lotion caps, and child-proof lids can join hair, toothpaste, and soap residue to slow down and finally clog your bathroom sink. We can help remove these items and other wonders to unclog your bathroom sinks.

Shower & Tub Drains

Standing water in the tub is one thing, but a sewer line back up is even worse. The same items that clog up your bathroom sink work together in your tub and shower as well. Hair and soap residue is always working against you. In this case, the trap or the drain line could be the problem. Call Bob Larson Plumbing when you first notice a slow running drain or see standing water. We can correct the problem before it gets worse.

Here’s a list of what not to put down your garbage disposal, and of course, never your drains:

• Non-food items
• Bones and hard food items (such as fruit pits)
• Grease, oil, and greasy foods
• Coffee grounds
• Rice or pasta
• Hard fruit and vegetable peels
• Stringy vegetables
• Large pieces of citrus fruits
• Nutshells

Toilet Drains

Clogged toilets happen frequently. Too much toilet paper, a dropped washcloth, dental retainers, q-tips, a child’s toy—we’ve seen it all. Moist wipes are becoming popular but look out! While some are biodegradable and flushable, most are not. There’s nothing more terrifying than struggling to stop a clogged toilet from overflowing. Fortunately, our Tacoma plumbers can keep the line open for you as well as install new toilets and repair old ones.

Floor Drains

Basements, laundry rooms, garages, patios, driveways—these are just a few places you might find floor drains. Each drain should have a U-shaped trap leading from the drain opening. The trap is designed to hold water to prevent odors and gas from coming up through the sewers and drains. However, clogs may form in the trap or further down the drain, resulting in backups that cause a mess, and sometimes, damage.

Downspout Drains

Gutters on the roof are designed to carry water to the downspouts, where the water is shifted away from your house either via a drain field, a stormwater system, a curb drain, or another water system. To keep water away and avoid potential problems, gutters and downspouts should be kept open and clear.

Main Sewer Lines

Households either drain into a septic system or the main sewer lines. The sewer line is the largest pipe in your drainage system, running underground from the house to either the city sewer or the septic tank. When your main line becomes clogged with waste and debris, it stops every drain in your house. It may also damage floors, walls, or even structural supports. The drain pipe can also develop problems because of tree roots and breaks in the drain pipe itself. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have frequent earthquakes, which can cause ground shifts and pipe breakage. And of course, simple time can cause old pipes to separate.