One of the most dreaded home chores is clearing a clog in the drainage. Even though you would wish never to go down that lane, it is inevitable to face the problem of blocked drainage sometime in your life.
Clearing blocked pipelines can be a very time-consuming and costly task to carry out on your own. Prevention is better than cure. It is a good practice to make sure your pipes don’t get blocked by remembering the reasons for the blockages. Here they are:
- Hair To Stay
The most common reason for drain blockage is the accumulation of hair in the plughole of the drainage in your shower or the washbasin. You cannot obviously stop hair fall or prevent it from getting washed away into the drain, but you can regularly check for tangled hair in the plughole to avoid the build-up of the hair to the point of blocking the pipeline.
People often overlook the plugholes or drain plates that are not visible to them, like those in a glass shower or below the washbasin. These places are more likely to amass a huge amount of hair because they are not regularly cleaned.
- Root Of The Problem – Roots
Tree roots are one of the biggest reasons a pipeline may get blocked. Tree roots often find their way into the underground pipelines and cause drainage blockage. It is important to identify if any pipelines are running near the roots of a tree in your garden or just outside the bathroom. Keep a regular lookout for damp soil near the place to know if any damage is being done under the ground.
If you suspect that such a problem might have occurred, it is a good idea to use a CCTV pipeline inspection system to reveal the location of the clog and only dig up that particular area. If you set out to find out the area affected by the roots manually by digging up the ground, it will damage your pipelines and prove much more costly than the inspection.
- External Threats
While most people do not intentionally clog their drains, their habits might be the reason plumbers find all sorts of things in the drainage pipe like toys, nappies, and even live fish.
People throw in a huge amount of tissue paper in the toilet that can get caught up with other things to create a blockage. The best way is to avoid putting anything into the toilet that is not supposed to go in there.
Yet, if you can’t find your car keys or believe something may have fallen into the toilet and is causing a blockage, you can ring up to schedule a pipeline inspection and find your lost belongings.
- Don’t Waste Food
While we should avoid wasting food anyway, it is even more important not to dispose of food in the drain. Kitchen sinks are destined to get blocked with regular deposits of fat and grease that may look harmless but can become a big block of fat that would be very hard to remove later on. The accumulated fat and grease from thousands of homes created a ‘fat berg’ found in the London sewerage lines; it was as big as a truck!
Many people pour used cooking oil down the drain; it solidifies as soon as it gets cooled down. The result is a solid grease blob at the bottom of your drainage line. Slowly, it builds up to create a blockage that can only be detected with a CCTV inspection probe. The time is now to change the habits of wasting food improperly. Always use the garbage can for all food disposals and keep your drainage pipelines clean.
If you follow the guidelines above, you might prevent blockage in your drainage for a long time. But even with all the due care, you may spot a leakage or start hearing gurgling sounds from the drain. You can always look for a professional to inspect your pipelines and get the proper repairs done.
Schedule your CCTV pipeline inspection by clicking here.
