Plumbing backups disrupt your household routine and can cause health hazards, property damage and bad odors. The good news is that you can avoid such issues by scheduling regular drain maintenance.
What Causes Drain Backups?
When something obstructs the flow of water through your pipes, this is a drain backup, and it can occur for a variety of reasons. Grease and food scraps are the normal culprits in kitchens. In bathrooms, flushing anything other than human waste and toilet paper can lead to serious drain blockages.
Backups can even occur outside of the house. For instance, tree roots can intrude on sewer lines, especially if they are old and have cracks.
Why Maintenance Matters
Maintenance matters a whole lot because it plays a major role in extending the life of your plumbing system. This service allows you to clear debris before it can become a full-on blockage, and it is instrumental in spotting and repairing problems before they become emergencies.
Letting plumbing problems go can create even more problems. For instance, you could contend with black mold, which can result in property damage that threatens the structural integrity of your home and be extremely expensive to repair. Some mold remediation jobs cost tens of thousands of dollars.
If your sewer line has a clog, raw sewage can back up into your home through your toilets and drains, and this can put your household in serious danger. Even a small amount of exposure to raw sewage can have negative effects, such as skin irritation, nausea, vomiting and lung issues. In extreme cases, organ failure can occur.
Easy Drain Maintenance Tips
In addition to having a professional perform drain maintenance, there are some tips that you can implement to keep trouble at bay. Do not treat your kitchen sink as a trash can. Pour grease and food scraps into the trash. Even if you have a garbage disposal, it is not designed to dispose of all sorts of food waste.
Do not flush anything besides toilet paper and human waste down your toilets. Even if products’ labels say they are flushable, they do not break down as easily as toilet paper. That means they can build up inside your pipes and later cause a blockage.
Use drain screens. These catch hair and food particles before they can cause clogs.
Clean your drains monthly. A mix of baking soda and white vinegar can break down grease and other debris naturally.
Even when you do everything right, you still need help sometimes. Should you run into trouble and contend with a clog the plunger just cannot break up, a plumber can use special tools to restore your plumbing to its normal functionality. For drain cleaning services to maintain the plumbing in your Fountain Valley, CA home, reach out to Carlson Plumbing Pros.
