How Long Does Drain Cleaning Take to Complete?

What do you do when you have a clog in your drains? While pouring acid-based or off-the-shelf drain cleaners into your plumbing may seem fast and easy for drain cleaning, this shaves years off your pipe’s lifespan. The acid in these drains destroys the lining of your sewer pipes.

At Bob Oates, we’re a family-run business with decades of serving the communities around Seattle. We’re proud to help homeowners with expert plumbing and drain cleaning tips, many of which they can do themselves.

In this post, we’ll go over how long professional drain cleaning takes to complete. And, of course, we’re always a quick call or email away from scheduling top-notch drain cleaning services whenever needed.

The Drain Cleaning Process

Let’s go over some reasons why professional drain cleaners help restore clogged pipes quickly, and the time involved to get the job done.

Getting your drains serviced from the pros can easily be done in an afternoon. You can expect us, as your cleaning company, to finish the task in less than three hours.

During those three hours, our techs install, utilize and remove all the drain cleaning equipment. This includes a hose, attached to a specialized machine and a water tank. The hose goes into your sewer pipes and pumps high pressure water through the pipes, cleaning them of debris and waste.

The process of pumping water through the drains (at around 20 gallons per minute) takes around an hour to complete. After the dirt, debris, tree roots, hair, oil, and other waste is thoroughly flushed out of the system, the technician does a sewer camera inspection within an hour.

This is done to make sure that your sewer pipes are properly clean and ensure that all of the blockages are carefully removed all the way down your sewer line.

Professional Drain Cleaning Breathes More Life Into Your Home’s Pipes

Because of the speed at which professional drain cleaning can be completed, it is absolutely recommended for completely cleaning your pipes. Any reputable Seattle plumber will be able to explain exactly how long drain cleaning takes to complete, the cost involved, and go over all the benefits.

Keep in mind that the store-bought drain cleaner solutions usually lasts for a week, sometimes less. You will find yourself repeating the same steps again after a few days.

By comparison, after a hydro-jetting session with our techs, you won’t require any cleaning for the next six months or longer depending on the care given to your pipes. We suggest a check-in at least once a year for general maintenance.

Preventive Steps You Can Take to Ensure Healthy Pipes

There are a few things you should never do to pipes. You can delay your drains from clogging and help speed up the process of drain cleaning sessions by doing the following:

• Take care of what you flush down the drains. Most of the time, we accidentally flush down small food particles down the drain when washing our dishes. While it’s impossible to just allow water to pass through the drains, we can still throw out the leftovers in the garbage before washing.
• Some people are in the habit of flushing condoms, sanitary napkins, etc., down their toilet bowl. Your toilet isn’t supposed to be a wastepaper basket. Avoid doing this, since those products collect inside your sewer pipes and lead to blockage.
• Install a drain catcher. A drain catcher keeps the big particles from doing down your drains. It does half the job of preventing a drain clog.
• Pour hot water in your drains frequently. Every other day, boil a kettle of water and pour it down the drain. The hot water dissolves part of the clogs and it’s much safer than store-bought drain cleaners.

Smart measures like these work as preventive measures in your home maintenance routine!

Rely on Bob Oates for Professional Drain Cleaning Services

We hope this helps answer how long drain cleaning takes to complete as well as other questions you may have — but get a hold of us anytime, for any questions. The team at Bob Oates Sewer and Rooter is here to help!

Call or contact our experts today. After thoroughly assessing the nature and extent of the clog, we will give you an accurate estimate of exactly how long we expect it to be to clean your drains.