Clogs are the number one drain problem experienced in homes. You do not have to misuse your home’s plumbing for the home’s drains to become clogged. Drain clogs can happen as the natural consequence of your home’s drain doing what they are designed to do and in turn you may need drain cleaning service.
Clogs happen because the water that travels through your home’s drains contains debris. These can be tiny food particles from the kitchen sink or solid waste from the toilet. Some of these materials get stuck inside the drain pipes as wastewater passes through them.
Over time these small deposits can grow to become large buildups that obstruct the pipe and slow the water flow. When this happens, you may see the effects in a shower or toilet that drains slowly. It can also manifest as bad odors emanating from your drains.
Property Specialists warns that if these clogs are not dealt with promptly, they can result in even bigger issues. A sewer backup is one of the most common outcomes of neglected drain problems. Clogged drains also increase the stress on your home’s drain. They make the pipes more prone to premature failure.
But these issues can only happen if the early warning signs of the drain problem are not heeded. Most times, a clogged drain will leave signs that alert the homeowner of the problem. If these signs are missed, minor drain issues can quickly deteriorate into plumbing emergencies.
How do you keep your drain pipes free of clogs?
The best way to handle drain clogs is to prevent them. That means taking steps to ensure that the debris inside wastewater never builds up to a point where it clogs your home’s drains. The way to do this is to clean the drain pipes on an annual or biannual schedule.
The second best way to keep your home’s drains free of clogs is to detect when there is a buildup in the drains and remove that debris before it becomes a problem. To do this, you must know the signs that your home’s drain pipes are clogged and need cleaning.
What are the signs that debris is building up inside your drains, and it is time to hire a professional drain cleaning service to get rid of the materials inside your drain pipes?
Bad odors
If you have recently been dealing with bad odors from your drains, it is probably because your drain pipes are clogged. Bad odors happen when sewer gasses cannot escape from the drains (due to a clog), so they find their way back into your home.
Musty drains
A musty odor from your sink or bathtub is a sign of impending drain blockage. Moldy odors mean that mold is growing somewhere in the vicinity. If that odor is from your drains, the pipes are clogged with debris that allows mold to grow.
Gurgling sounds and air bubbles
If you see air bubbles rising out of the water or hear gurgling sounds when you flush your toilets, it is because there is a blockage inside your home’s drains. That also applies if the water in a toilet bowl moves whenever you use one of the other drains in your home.
Problems with fruit flies
Fruit flies in your kitchen – especially when you don’t have leftover food in the sink and your trash can is not overflowing – could mean there is a clog in your drain pipes. The fruit flies could be feeding on the food particles stuck inside the clogged pipe.
Frequent clogs
If your home has been seeing a lot of drain clogs lately or your toilet seems to overflow easily, the root of the issues might not be in those drains. Clogs deep inside your drain pipes can manifest as frequently-clogged drains inside the home.
Multiple drain clogs
If shower, sink, and toilet drains are showing signs of slowness at the same time, the problem is often not with any of the affected drains. More often than not, this problem is from a clog inside your home’s main sewer line.
Standing water
You may find standing water around your laundry machine or dishwasher. When that happens, it is normal to assume the appliance is leaking. But standing water at the base of an appliance or toilet could be due to a clog in your drain pipes.
Sewer backup
A sewer backup is the worst drain problem in a home. But sewer backups only happen when the other warning signs discussed above are ignored. A sewer backup is often an extreme outcome that happens as the final stage of a drain clog.
All the problems listed above can be solved or avoided easily. How?
By giving your home’s drains a thorough wash. You should not wait until you start seeing signs of a clogged drain before you do this. Cleaning your drains on a schedule, at least once a year, will help you avoid these problems and preserve your drains.