One of the most important areas of maintenance for a commercial property owner to address involves plumbing. If you own industrial equipment or a commercial property, you should ensure drains are properly cleaned and that all plumbing has been kept up with regularly. Without routine cleaning and upkeep of commercial drains and plumbing, drains can clog, overflow or leak, causing disastrous plumbing problems for your commercial property.
To combat this, you should clean your commercial drains regularly and with proper care. In this guide, you will find out how often to clean your commercial property’s drains and plumbing and how to effectively clean them to ensure your property will continue to operate smoothly throughout the year.
To best ensure that a commercial property’s plumbing and drain systems are effectively cleaned, it is best to clean out drains about twice a year. As for how often you should clean industrial drains, a similar timeline of once a year or as needed should do. This will ensure the cleaning process is not too frequent to be too costly and burdensome but frequent enough that maintenance issues won’t build up. With scheduled maintenance, you can also avoid forgetting to maintain your commercial drains.
There is an old adage that goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” For commercial properties, this is the most common reason why drains and plumbing aren’t properly maintained.
Commercial property owners are busy and often have a lot on their plate. The average person won’t think about their drains and plumbing on a daily basis. After all, plumbing is built into the building and has always worked fine before. Why wouldn’t it continue to work effectively?
But once a major plumbing problem such as a clogged drain or overflow occurs, it can quickly become apparent that commercial plumbing maintenance should be at the forefront of every property owner’s mind.
One of the most difficult aspects of cleaning commercial drains is simply knowing when to start. It can often feel like an overwhelming process to begin, especially if there is no cleaning schedule in place. By marking a date on the calendar for each month to clean your commercial property’s drains, you can put your property in the best position possible to mitigate clogging, overflow and leakage risks.
During your monthly commercial drain cleaning, consider the following recommendations from plumbing experts to help you effectively perform an adequate cleaning.
One of the most effective ways to clean commercial drains is to perform water flushes regularly. A water flush can be performed by running hot water through all of your taps at the same time for around 15 minutes. The hot water will work to flush out loose debris and clogged material, benefitting your plumbing infrastructure and drain pipes.
Chemical cleaning may seem effective at clearing clogs, but it may cause more harm if you use chemicals too often. These cleaners have corrosive ingredients — when they clear clogs, they may also corrode your pipes, whether PVC, copper, galvanized steel or iron.
As the pipes wear down, they become more susceptible to leaks. That issue takes much more time and money to address than a clogged drain.
Those chemical cleaners can also harm you if you don’t use them correctly. They can burn your skin or cause damage if you breathe in their fumes. Instead of using strong chemical cleaners, opt for household ingredients like baking soda and vinegar.
If you do need to use chemical cleaners, you should know how to handle and store them properly to avoid damaging your plumbing or injuring yourself. Consult the manufacturer’s instructions and never deviate from them, and avoid mixing chemicals if you don’t know how they’ll react with each other.
For more stubborn clogs, consider having a professional drain jet your pipes. Drain jetting is a cleaning method for plumbing that utilizes pumping high-pressure, pre-stored water through a high-pressure hose fitted with a jet nozzle.
This jetted water is forced into the drain and pipes as a powerful stream designed to target blockages and dislodge them by force. This process can dislodge clogs, and it’s also suitable for routine cleaning. Drain jetting can clean the interior surfaces of your pipes, reducing the risks of fats, oils, grease and waste gathering over time and creating blockages.
Routinely drain jetting your pipes can help improve the flow and performance, restoring them to peak performance every time.
Unlike caustic chemicals, drain jetting does not harm your pipes in the process and is more environmentally friendly since water is typically the only cleaner involved. With this process for cleaning commercial and industrial drains, you can have the peace of mind that your pipes, property and environment aren’t being damaged by drain cleaners.
The best way to prevent clogs, overflows and leaks in plumbing is to regularly maintain them. Here are a few tips on how to properly maintain your commercial property’s drains and plumbing.
One of the most effective steps to take to prevent drain clogs is to simply mop the floors of your commercial space with soapy water. Floor drains in commercial spaces can become dried out if they are not mopped regularly. To prevent drains from drying out, pour a five-gallon bucket of soapy water into the drain and mop the floor surrounding it.
Professional plumbers will often use a drain auger — commonly referred to as a drain snake — to force apart clogged materials within pipes. Drain snakes are available for purchase in virtually any hardware store, and they’re good to have on hand. Consider using a drain snake every few months to prevent clogs or if you notice your drains are draining slowly and may be clogged.
Depending on what your commercial space is used for, installing a drain cover can help to prevent particles and debris from entering your drain and clogging it, which can save you maintenance time in the long run.
Although these long-term maintenance tips can help prevent your commercial drains from getting backed up, the drains still might get blocked. Here are some methods you can try if that were to happen.
Drain snaking is the simplest method to unclog a drain. With this method, you use a drain snake or auger that is sized according to the pipe in which you insert the snake to find the clog and remove it. Sometimes drain snaking is not effective enough for stubborn clogs. As a result, you will have to try a tougher method, which is drain jetting.
Drain jetting, also known as hydro-jetting, is an aggressive way to unclog drains. With this method, you insert a spray head into the pipe and the spray head will then release a stream of highly pressurized water to remove clogs.
Regularly cleaning, servicing and maintaining your industrial plumbing fixtures and drains can help to prevent costly clogs, overflows and leaks in the future. Not sure how to clean industrial or commercial drains or how often to perform plumbing maintenance? Reach out to the experts at Crawford Mechanical Services, Inc. for reliable commercial and industrial plumbing services in Columbus, Ohio.
Whatever your plumbing needs may be, Crawford Mechanical Services, Inc. has the expertise for proper preventative maintenance, expert repair and other services to keep your business — and drains — running smoothly. Contact Crawford Mechanical Services, Inc. today to schedule service!
