Drain maintenance

**BigMonkey** · 09-30-2009, 06:54 PM

Hi all,

I've been lurking on here for close to six months, and I'd like to thank you all for the advice you give to us all.

I'm in the middle of a basement reno, and I'm about to start doing the finish work... and I was curious, ...

Is there any reason I should snake out the drain(or more accurately, have a pro do it) to the sewer. I figure, if there is a good reason to do it, now would be the time before the flooring and painting is done.

Thanks for any replies.
BM

**BigMonkey** · 10-03-2009, 04:07 PM

Hi all, I realize now that I probably should have posted this in the drain cleaning forum, but I don't see how to move it myself...

I apologize for bumping this back up, but as I'm hoping to get this reno done before our son comes into this world in 4 weeks(hopefully she doesn't go into labour early

)

So, is it a reasonable course of action to have the line snaked out to the sewer as a preventative maintenance?

Thanks again!

Kris

**seaofnames** · 10-03-2009, 09:46 PM

Do you have any large trees in your front yard? How old is the house? Any idea what type of drain pipe you have in the front yard?

If you doubt anything, get it done with a camer as well, and burn a copy on DVD.

I know you are talking about drainage, but supply lines could also be impacted/out dated as well. If you are gonna have to dig up your front yard, might as well do it all!

**BigMonkey** · 10-05-2009, 05:25 PM

Well, no trees in front yard.

Our house is almost 30 years old. And I have no idea what the pipe material is outside the house. Inside the DWV is all ABS(black), err, except the floor drain is PVC(white). I sometimes mix up all those abbr. so I included the colours

Other than the shower upstairs running slow(I know, i gotta dig out that plunger) everything else seems to be running just fine.

I just figured I'd ask about the preventative aspect, cause now, while I'm still under construction in the basement, I figured it be best to do it before the new floor and paint.

Thanks for your response,
Kris

(I'll be out of town for a couple days, but hopefully I can still get online)

hj · 10-06-2009, 05:33 AM

I usually do not recommend snaking a line if it is not obstructed and backed up. The water pressure and flow when the line finally clears carries the debris with it to the main line. Without that head of water, anything you cut loose with the snake just falls into the pipe and stays there unless you have some way to create an adequate flow to move it down the pipe. This can create a stoppage shortly after the snaking was done, and can cause an unhappy customer who thinks the plumber did a bad job.