Tackle your blocked sewers with these primary tips
Tackle your blocked sewers with these primary tips
One of the most difficult kinds of household emergencies is a blocked drain. Similar to other household emergencies, they just occur unexpectedly. However, the most unpleasant aspects of a blocked drain are that it can cause nasty odours, flooding and loss of power in the home. If you are a business that is impacted the disruption can result in loss of customer and staff goodwill with the associated lost productivity and sales revenue.
There are some simple preventative measures that you can take to reduce the likelihood of a blocked drain whether it is through structural defects or foreign objects and they are listed below.
Remove hair clumps that collect in the waste plug hole on a regular basis.
Certain objects like combs, toilet rolls and medicine bottles can also block the drains so you need to keep them away from the toilet.
You can use a disinfectant to flush your wash basin and shower pipework so that no soap residue gets stuck in them.
Never try to flush large objects like nappies, sanitary towels, product wrappings, etc, even though they are disposable, since they often are the items which block drain pipes.
Instead of disposing the waste food scraps and cuttings down the drain they can rather be used as a compost.
If any items do fall into the sink pull the vegetable material out of the plug hole, do not try to poke through as you could impact the blockage making it harder to remove.
You must remember that cooked fats, on exposure to cold water, can thicken and finally solidify, so never dispose them off in the sink. However in case cooking fats are stuck into the drain, you can try to emulsify and dilute them by using detergent with warm water. Run the water for a while after this, so that the the oil is completely flushed out and the pipes remain clear.
Some regular maintenance from you side can reduce the occurrence of blocked drains.
Make sure that the gutters and drainpipes of your roof are cleared twice a year.
While trying to remove the gathered leaves and debris using a trowel, you should be careful that you do not fall off the ladder.
The inspection covers should be easily accessible because you can then use them to check the flow of the drains regularly.
Make sure that garden matter, such as leaves or moss, are kept out of the outside drainage grids.
Washing the extremal drains with hot water and detergent as regularly as the internal drains is a good practice.
A business house should ideally get a CCTV drain inspection service to survey and check the drainage system periodically. CCTV inspections not only help to monitor the structural condition of drainage pipes but also provides early warnings in case of serious blockages.