The trouble with your drains is that a lot of fairly ordinary everyday activities can lead to them becoming blocked.
We’ve created this guide to help you recognise how you might be inadvertently blocking your drains and how to help you to stop.
- Foreign Objects
There are some objects that could easily be dropped down the drains in the home, albeit unintentionally. For example, soap and jewellery can become lodged in drains. It could also be a case of small children flushing everything they lay their hands on, including toys, down the toilet.
You may be shocked to learn that people even treat the toilets in their homes as rubbish bins where food is dumped. Unsurprisingly, these objects can cause blocked drains.
- Plant Matter
Sometimes trees and leaves are responsible for blocked drains. Roots seek out water to keep their tree healthy, often leading them to your drains, which causes cracks and results in blockages.
In autumn, there are also a lot of leaves falling around your home. These leaves can form a mass big enough to cause your drains to become blocked. Adequate attention should be given to ensure trees and leaves are kept in check.
- Hair
Hair falling off the body or pulled from combs can build up gradually in the drains. Failure to curb this habit can prevent water from passing freely when the build-up becomes significant. Thankfully, there are steps that can be taken to prevent hairs from making their way into pipes. First of all, when you clean out brushes or shave over the sink, collect up as much of the hair as you can and put it in the bin, not down the drain. You can also get various devices to catch hair before it is pulled down the drain.
- Grease and Fat
Greasy and fatty substances that fall down the drain can quickly become problematic. This is particularly important in the kitchen where oily or fatty substances form an integral part of most cooking and remnants can be easily washed down the sink. The problem here is that grease and fat don’t just slide through the pipes as you might expect. They stick to the inside of the pipes and build up, eventually causing blockages.
- Toiletries
It is fairly common to see people flushing nappies and baby wipes down the toilet – this is not a good thing to do. Nappies are especially bad, as they become swollen when immersed in water as a result of absorption. Also, baby wipes are not like toilet rolls that can easily disintegrate when immersed in water and easily get stuck in pipes. Even if your baby wipes claim to be flushable, don’t trust them. The best course of action is just to throw them in the bin.
Get It Unblocked
Even with all the precautions in the world, your drain still might become clogged. If it does, check out our guide to unblocking your drains or get in touch about our range of plumbing services in Canberra.