What causes the majority of clogs in household drains? There are a couple of usual suspects: hair, food waste, grease, fats, soap scum, and small objects like bottle caps accidentally tipped over into the sink. When people call us for a plumber in Orlando, FL to unclog a drain, we often find ourselves dealing with one of the typical drainpipe blockers. No problem, we’ve got the best equipment (like hydro-jetters) and some of the best-trained plumbers around to clear out that drain in no time.
Of course, life is often weird, and plumbing can be extremely weird. Drains can collect some strange things down in them that lead to tough blockages. We’ve been in the business for a long time—more than 40 years—so we’ve come across some bizarre drain cleaning issues. We can take care of them all, don’t worry about that, but we’d like to go over some of the odder reasons a drain can become clogged.
Smart phones
Yeah, smart phones. You’re probably thinking, “Wait, a smart phone doesn’t fit down a drain!” That’s true for most drains in a house—except the toilet. A smart phone can sometimes end up dropped down a toilet and clog it. This is a big deal, as you can imagine, and you’ll need a plumber to get this fixed. (We’re afraid we won’t be able to salvage the phone, however.)
Kids’ toys
This one is a bit hard to stop, because younger kids just like to drop things down drains. And they can certainly knock toys over by accident into sinks. Small toys can easily end up in toilets and other drains around the house, and it first you may not notice the blockage—until other objects catch on the toy and you end up with clog no basic store-bought plunger is going to fix!
Cement
Here’s where we have to be stern: please don’t attempt to do plumbing fixes or changes on your own. Homeowners sometimes try to go DIY to plug up drains that aren’t in use anymore using cement. Unfortunately, like many DIY projects, this often goes wrong and the cement ends up in a drain that is in use. You definitely need experts to get this problem solved.
Vermin
It’s not a pleasant thought, but small animals can get inside your home and create trouble. You don’t want rats and mice in your house at all, for many reasons. One of them is because these critters can get down inside a drain and blocking it. Oh, yeah, one more thing—snakes can do this too. And we have snakes in Florida. We don’t want to frighten you—these are rare causes of drain clogs—but it can happen.
Cat litter
Here’s one that you can avoid easily: don’t dispose of kitty litter down the toilet! Or down the garbage disposal or any other drain. Cat litter must be disposed of in the actual outdoor garbage. The big problem with cat litter in the drain is the clumping action, which can create some of the toughest clogs you can imagine.
Whatever you’ve got clogging up the drains in your home, trust to us to fix the problem!
Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc. has proudly served Central Florida with quality plumbing for more than 40 years.