The drains in your house connect to a larger network of pipes like the London sewage system. All the wastewater from your house is carried by these drains and pipes to the main sewage line. Therefore, it’s very important that the drains and pipes in your house flow smoothly. And a sure-shot way to ensure that is to clean your drains and pipes regularly. Drain clearance from time to time, which is also known as preventive plumbing, ensures your drains and pipes never get clogged.
Most blocked drains start out small. They only become much more serious when not cleared early. Regular cleaning removes these clogs when they are small and helps you save money on major drain repairs. For example, the pressure inside a pipe that doesn’t drain properly can get intense and even crack the pipe. Replacing pipes is very expensive, which you can avoid with regular drain cleaning.
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The health of your drainage system apart, regular cleaning also keeps you and your house safe. An unclean or clogged drain is prone to give out odours or even leak sewage water into your home. Both issues pose a threat to your comfort and overall health. Moreover, the sewer water can also leak into the inner structure of your house and weaken it subsequently.
How does one know if the drain needs cleaning? You can easily look out for certain symptoms of blocked drains and carry out a cleaning accordingly. These symptoms include a sulphurous odour, slow draining sink, overflowing sinks and toilets and gurgling showers, sinks and toilets. Note that not all these symptoms occur at the same time.
What are the causes of these drain clogs? Surprisingly enough, most blocked drains are the result of wrong disposal practices. This refers to flushing or throwing into the drain things that a drain is not built for. These include hair, soap grease, toiletries, sanitary products, kitchen oil and fat, and foreign objects like toys.
Although serious, not every blocked drain or sink needs professional intervention at the outset. There are quite a few things you can try at home before calling up your plumber. For starters, boiling water is a method that’s been used for hundreds of years to unclog sinks and drains. When you pour boiling hot water into your sink or drain, it can dissolve solidified fats and oils and clear your drain. You can also use baking soda and vinegar solution, which is an excellent homemade drain cleaner that can remove clogs that have hardened over time. For an alternative, you can an off-the-shelf drain cleaning chemical from the local department store.
There are also devices you can use to rectify slow running drains. A plunger is a tool that uses suction to weed out blocks and clear a drain. The key here is to ensure the seal between the plunger and the sink or drain hole is tight. But plungers can prove inadequate when the clog you are dealing with is heavy. In this case, you need a something like a drain rod/snake. It’s a drain cleaner tool that is inserted into the drain and twisted with force when it encounters the block. This action chips away at the clog until it’s cleared. You can also create a homemade snake drain using a long and thick piece of wire.
However, when none of these methods works, it’s best to call in your plumber. There are certain blockages that are far too advanced and cannot be cleared using home remedies. A professional plumber, on the other hand, has just the right tools and expertise to clear the stubborn block. Even better, you can prevent such a situation from ever arising by cleaning your drain regularly and ensuring any foreign objects do not enter your drain.
