 segment of condo inside our weekly. And today, and I also want to extend our happy holidays to everybody. Hope everybody's going to be safe over the holidays. I want to introduce my guest today. His name is Bobby. He is with Pacific Drane Services. He's going to tell us the importance of maintaining our sewer drains, whether you're in a condo, whether you're in a townhouse or even a single family. It has to be issued to always be maintained at least yearly to avoid those surprise backups. So let me introduce Bobby. So Bobby, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in this industry. Okay, my name is Robert Perkins. Everybody calls me Bobby. I got introduced to this by a friend of mine years ago. I've been doing this since I was 13, 14 years old. And now I'm 53. And I have my own company. I've been in my company for 16 years, worked for several different companies. And I just wanted to do something on my own to pursue my career. So what should like, there's kind of like a little bit difference between condos and townhouses and in your single family. So let's start off with a high rice condo. How do you normally go about doing those surcofs? Because it's not just the ones on the ground, with the little things that you would, right? If you do it from the top down. So we actually go from the bottom up when we do our preventive maintenance, especially if we're doing like a kitchen stack for a high rice building. Because people realize that what happens with high rises is there's a lot of grease that's being let down. Soap is actually grease which people don't realize and they don't run enough water, hot water to flush the system. So a high rise actually is considered worse than a restaurant with the grease. They have about 50 times more than what a restaurant would have in their lines. So we come in and we either say like a 20 story building will go from like the fifth floor, 10th floor, 15th floor, 20th floor, go from each stack every five floors and clean the lines all the way down and flush it when we're done. That's to help break up the grease that's built up in the pipes. But also people don't realize this grease buildup actually turns to acid and eats the pipes from the inside out. Wow, I didn't know that either. Yeah, so that's why a lot of these buildings are having leakage is because the pipes are rotting. Not only that, drain oil, liquid plumber is a normal for those drains. They do cause a lot of problems for the building itself. So a lot of my high rise buildings they have notes posted that do not use drain oil or liquid plumber. So it's a grease. So that usually is one big common thing that could clog drains. So what should be the proper way to actually like baking grease? What should be the proper way to dispose of grease other than putting it down the drain? Basically put it in a little mayonnaise jar or any type of jelly jars that are empty. Put it in a freezer, throw it away. Or a lot of people will actually just wipe it off the pan and dump it in a rubbish can or dump it in the yard. But that's perfect for some people. Okay, I know at one time City Mail used to sell, it looked like a cardboard aid carton. I think, I remember right, you pour the grease in, I mean like I saved my cardboard aid cartons and that's where usually I dump the grease. Or in the trash can full of newspapers. Yeah, people do that today but a lot of people don't want to go out and buy that little product just to put grease in. So they decide they're gonna dump it down the sink and in return they don't run enough hot water. We don't tell people to do it, but people do do it and if they are gonna do it, they need to back it up with a lot of hot water to flow it through the system. I'm surprised to hear that even dish soap is a cause of some clogs. Like dish soap, shampoo, body wash, conditioner, everything that is soap-wise is made with grease. As they say, grease cuts grease. Oh, that's really, that's really interesting. So I recommend to my customers, even like they're, if they're washing dishes at the end of the night, let the hot water run extra two to three minutes when you're done washing dishes to make sure you flush all that stuff out of your system and then you go the big sore leg. What is one of your worst situations that you can remember that you've ever incurred that could have been preventive? Pretty much a lot of my jobs are the worst, especially with a disposal and people will constantly dump Thanksgiving dinners, leftovers and with the water saver flushes, I mean the water saver sinks, what they will do is not run enough hot water through the system. So when they're running a disposal it plugs up and it plugs up in their line and then when they clear their line it goes into the riser of the high rise and it clogs below someone's unit which is called a riser and then that unit below starts to overflow. Say they're on the fifth floor and you've got a 25-story building, now you've got 20 floors of water from the kitchen sink coming up in your unit. Same with like the bathroom, the bathroom sinks, the toilet, the bathtubs, same scenario. Here it builds up, riser gets clogged and it backs up and overflows into units. I've always been told like coffee grounds, eggshells, those are kind of the worst because I remember one time my coffee grounds clogged my dishwasher line so now I don't do that anymore. Thanksgiving usually some people say is the worst plumber's day, like the potato skins and all that stuff, they throw it down the disposal like it's our plumber. Honestly for me for a drain cleaning company every day is the worst day. It doesn't have to be Thanksgiving or a holiday, it's just people in preference doing stuff they shouldn't be doing with the sinks or the toilets. So what should do that to the other disposal? Basically if you're gonna, you can put pretty much everything down the disposal but you need to back it up with a lot of water. So if you got a faucet that's producing a little bit of water that's not going to help you. You need something that has a more high volume or what you do is you put the food in the disposal, cover the disposal with a cap, fill up your sink maybe about one third of the way, pull the cover, hit the switch for the disposal and then everything will flow through you through it but keep the water on as much as possible. That way you get a lot of head pressure pushing all the stuff out of your line into the sewer line. Okay so that's high rises and then you have your town houses like some of them are only like two or three maybe four stories would be the same principle. Same principle, same concept, just the same type of situations. And then single family homes. Same. So maybe everybody, everybody should be doing it at least once a year. Once a year for the kitchen sinks is what we highly recommend. Okay what about the sewer cleanouts? It's two to three years all depends what they want. If they have a big household old sewer plumbing then we would recommend once a year. If it's a newly built house like in the 80s up with ABS pipes or PVC pipes then it's not too bad because ABS is a closed pour versus cast iron being an open pour so everything sits inside a cast iron and then builds and builds and builds. Cast iron is one of the worst ones as far as grease because the grease adheres to the pipe and then starts to build. ABS or PVC because it's a closed sealed pipe. A lot of times it just slips right through but it can still get clogged up by putting wipes, heavy toilet paper, sanitary napkins, stuff that should not be flush that says flushable should not be flush. Yeah because our metal sewer pipes they rust from the inside out so there could be some rust particles that are just kind of like sticking to each other and it's going to catch up, catch that flow of toilet paper that's going to build and build and build and eventually you're going to get end up with a clog, right? Yeah so like even like for the older homes we do descaling of the sewer lines where what happens is over a period of time valleys build up in the pipe because of the rust and all the debris and it gets stuck to the pipe and then it starts building and building so we go in, we clean out the pipe from all the debris, we use a camera to verify everything is cut up and then we back it up with a jetter and we pull everything out of the pipe. It makes it almost like new but not brand new so stuff does not get hung up in the pipe. So when you descale it it's just is it kind of the machine does it kind of look like you know when they turn the drain? It's the same principle as clearing the drain but what you do is you're going to use a blade that is called for for it or nowadays they have a chain and that spins around and breaks up all the debris. That way and also while we're doing that we're viewing the line to see if there's any cracks or troughs in the drain which is caused by wear and tear of the pipe at the bottom where the base of the pipe disintegrates and disappears. Also it's kind of literally sitting in dirt at that point? Yeah. Oh then what that you guys got to dig it out and replace it? That's when we bring in another company to replace the pipe. Oh sounds expensive. My other thing is so you do also the sewer clean else that needs to be done and then while you do that do you do you send down a camera to make sure everything is clear tree roots? Upon repress. Upon repress we're doing a preventive maintenance and once they want the camera added then we'll do it. Most times it's just go in, clear out the lines, make sure everything is good but if some buildings specifically want the camera to check the conditions of the pipe so we also do that as well. So what would you recommend for some people that because you know there's all these different kinds of companies now that are selling like re-piping? No, I guess from the picture and I want to just put the pictures I see is that they put in like a layer that surrounds the inside the piping. So they put a liner in the pipe. Yeah yeah so how does that work when you're also like wouldn't that kind of be harmful if you're snaking the pipe or you've been you know trying to clean it? Yeah well there's a difference with lining and a regular so if they're going to line a pipe you cannot use a cable with a blade on it to clean that line because there's a liner inside so fiberglass liner. Our company we don't do that. For me I like to have things dug up and replaced but in certain situations people don't want to do it or it's too much for them so what they want to do is have the pipeline. In cases like that they need to let the people who come out to do the drain lines know that they have a liner in there because we won't know and what ends up happening is the blade will catch the liner and we'll end up breaking the liner. Yeah I can imagine that being a mess. So then if they have a liner then how would they encourage right? You'd have to use the jetter. Oh the hydro jetter? Yeah it's a high pressure it's a high pressure jetter it's got mausoles on the end that has forward and reverse penetrating so that you can clear out the line. That also helps to break up tree roots, reese, debris that's built up in the pipe, food. We have problems with kitchen sinks and stacks where a cable will go through the break the blockage and we won't be able to clear it so now we have to go with the mini jetter which shoots 1800 to 2500 psi and that will actually help you to penetrate and break it out and get it out of the way. So like there's a war of caution for a lot of people like if they constantly I mean if they have more than I would say one or two blockages a year they've got a problem. The snake is not it's only a temporary fix because I remember one someone was telling me that every once in a while their the sewer would back up and so they would call like either road and water or whoever they can get a hold of and they would clear it but then like maybe a year later or you know sometime later it would happen again no and so they didn't do the same thing um but everybody needs to be aware of that sometimes that's only a temporary fix it's only a band-aid fix they really need to spend that money to send that camera down because it shouldn't be happening that often. Sometimes if it happens once a year it's not a problem because things build up so now if you're getting a problem like every two three months then you definitely recommend using the camera. A lot of people who buy homes we recommend that they put the camera in to check the condition of the pipe before they buy yeah because you don't want to buy a home not knowing what it looks like inside the lines go ahead and do all your renovations and you find out your sewer line is no good right right you know so the camera is a key thing in in our job um I recommend that to a lot of places and especially if you're having problems with your sewer line every two to three months every four months um a lot of it is caused by just the toilet paper itself. If the toilet paper is too thick with the water saver toilets today and you have cast iron pipes it doesn't have enough head pressure to push the paper all the way out through into the main sewer line. Yeah it's one condo because they you know they finally set the camera down and what happened was the pipe was was clogged but there was only enough of a hole for a pinhole yeah and so so they finally figured out and so they actually now at least pinpointed the real problem and actually set something down to actually clean out that you know so that now the hole is the way it's supposed to be you know yeah um so if you have continuous blockages um yes to me even once a year sometimes might be too much but still if it's happening too frequently out of out to me out of but for cautionary purposes so you don't have that sewer backing up into your house um it pays that little extra money just to send the camera down just to double check that you don't have. Well peace of mind is always good by running the camera so that they know that okay my pipe is clear my pipe is clear there's nothing wrong with my pipe okay now it's something that we're doing yeah maybe the paper's too thick a lot of people like when they use the toilet they like to roll the toilet paper on their heads and they don't realize that they're creating a massive ball of toilet paper that will not break up because it's too thick and if you have a water saver toilet you're actually going to flush the toilet it'll it'll plug up in your toilet or it's going to go downstream on a turn and get stuck. Now the next time somebody use the bathroom same scenario it starts starts building a dam before it finally backs up. Let's talk about toilet paper so um I know a friend of mine at her house the plumber told them they cannot they can only use a certain brand so let's talk about your experiences with toilet papers. Different types of toilet papers are harmful to your system because it will not break up uh for one thing it's like charming angel soft the papers are too thick especially with a water saver toilet um for me I use Kirkland or Marathon I'm not too sure about the Sam's Club brand but for my side I tell them either the Kirkland or the Marathon brand I've done tests where I stick the paper folded in half and put it underneath the faucet and it breaks up within one second that's something that you want to use but if you fold your toilet paper in half and you put it underneath your faucet and it doesn't break like two three four seconds that's a problem because it will not break up fast enough in your sewer line to be flushed through and it just sits in your pipe. So you want the toilet paper that has the best biodegradable abilities? Yes something that breaks up better because of the situation with the water saver toilets that is a big problem. So most of the toilets you get now are they all water saver? Yes they're all water saver. All toilets are water saver because now certain toilets where this is your tank you'll get that much of water so that much of water versus the old style that much head pressure good this much head pressure not too good on a house that's old um big house long sewer line a lot of turns so you want something that's actually going to push it through so some places we tell them flush twice. Yeah okay okay I was at Lowe's recently I saw a sponge flood that caught my eye it has an overflow so there's poop that's up and near the top or if it overflows it goes into there but that's pretty cool you don't end up with a flood in your house and yeah so but and I think that one someone told me that when they flush it it's loud. That's the pressure assist toilet it's a good toilet I have those in my home as well um but you still can clog it up oh yeah you're not careful yeah okay okay bottom line is watch what you throw down those drains yes make sure you're really thoroughly rinsing out your sink after you're done washing dishes toilet paper take note of your toilet papers and what you throw down those toilets because I know I read a something for dummies it was what you don't throw down the toilet for dummies and there was a whole list no cigarette butts no dental floss q-tips um sanitary stuff wipes especially because some of those wipes are almost like a like a like a cloth you know yeah it is a cloth and um and they're kind of they're kind of I want to say more like polyester yes polyester feel to it um dryer sheets because that definitely will not break up because it was snagging the pipe as well yeah so if you've got a metal pipe there's a there's a little nicot it'll just stick right there um and watch what you throw down the garbage disposal I mean I know um I've always been told no no eggs no eggshells so you're I mean um coffee grinds and besides eggshells you can recycle them into your into your yards it's a right calcium so um once I learned that actually I feel like my work is and they actually do a lot better right so we also have a product that's called bio one it's a live organic waste heater it's approved by the EPA it's eco-friendly um if they want to go they can go to our website at pacificdrainservice.com and it will be on my website so we do that for a lot of buildings restaurants where once a month we put in two to four ounces so it's basically set it and forget it you don't have to run water just dump it in and just let it do its thing dump it into every drain you can dump it into your kitchen sink your bathroom sink your bathtub your washer and drain um there's a couple buildings here that use it one is Puno Olcliffe's one is Discovery Bay 1448 Young Street they also use it I do have it at the Waimolo shopping center in Ohana barbecue and as well as Kabuki's restaurant and that has substantially lowered their blockages so it's something that people can look into it it's not something that we push on people but it's a product that we have and I've been using that for about 25 years so what is it what does it contain in there just enzyme stuff that will get rid of stuff yeah so the msds sheets everything would be on my website and that would explain everything what it's about it's called one biotechnology that is their website and they can feel free to google that and they can look that up as well okay cool so um we're kind of nearing the end is there any other um tips and tricks that you want to give to some of our um condo board members or even our resident managers general managers um maintain their their drains and what you know what they should do to protect their properties um the best thing to do is preventive maintenance um always run a lot of hot water especially if you're putting soap and grease down your sinks um shaving in your bathroom washing your hands washing your face in your bathroom sink same thing run a lot of hot water um that stuff is key to help keep the drain flowing properly and as we talked about no sanitary napkins no wipes no baby wipes um what else all those kind kinds of things will back your problems and give you a lot of headaches yeah because I remember cigarette butts don't mildly great they just I mean even if you throw it in the garden people are like always screaming because they don't mildly great you know they just stay yeah you know so I can I can imagine that being just a build up alone so um are you um I hope you're and your family are going to have a really nice Christmas and are prepared for like a really nice Christmas I'm kind of looking forward to the to Christmas and New Year's this year um and I really want to thank you Bobby for being on the show giving us an education of what we we should and should not do with our sewers and our drains and um and your what was it bio bio one bio one okay I want to have to look that up because that's always a good thing to have and also the thing do you don't put down the to clear plot would be like the drain oh um what's the other rumor drain oh anything that has acid in it acid and live because I remember someone told me don't put that because that's yeah there's also a product called you'll kick that people put down their drains which is pretty much straight acid that is not good for the pipe because it basically issue the walls of the pipes and sharpen the life of the sewer line okay so um we should all check out the bio one I know I definitely have because it's kind of something good to have to just keep your drains clear and um I mean I learned about the soap I didn't realize that the so called eventually clock can also fog up um yes I look on people's faces when we tell them that soap is grease is is funny people don't realize that sometimes I water my down because you spend more time rinsing off that you know you can always water it so I usually water it down a little bit and then um use it for the suds that's at the end of the night when you're washing dishes the suds is what actually turns into the grease so that's why we tell people flush it let your water one two to three minutes so you can make sure you force everything through that is okay that's really a that to me was mind-blowing lessons you know and I figured okay but that's supposed to be good no not always that good still have that property that's good this was a really good learning experience so um thank you Bobby for um being on the show with me today and um sharing our sharing your knowledge about um our sewers and our water pipes um and make sure that they're all maintained well and by one so everybody make sure you go to pacific drain services dot com pacific drain service dot com okay and look up by one um yes thank you so much and um you're welcome and I really want to thank brand for also um introducing us um so that we can do this you this was a really good education for me i can tell you that um and i look forward to seeing you in the future again thank you so much for watching think tech hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on youtube and the follow button on vimeo you can also follow us on facebook instagram and linked in and donate to us at think.kawaii.com mahalo