It may all start with a little extra whiff at home you’ve until now blamed on the poor pet pooch but if you’re noticing a new less than lovely smell around the house you may be experiencing one of the most common and easiest to avoid domestic plumbing problems: the dreaded blocked drain.
We at Clear-flow can of course help clear any blockages before things get too bad but having a little knowledge in your back pocket on some of the common causes of blocked drains at home might help you take steps to prevent the issue in the first place.
Hair
Noticed that shower tray taking a little longer to clear? It’s likely that some hair has snuck into your drain and is starting to clog things up. Not just long hair shaken loose through washing either – facial hair can be a common culprit too. What starts with a slow draining shower can quickly become a more serious blockage when left unattended. Brace yourself and clear what you can from the plug hole and think about investing in a hair guard to stop the next clog building up.
Food and Fat
Rinsing off the dishes after dinner, it’s incredibly easy to wash bits of food and grease from the plates down into the plug hole. One family meal’s worth might not make much difference but over time these quick rinses can add up to a drain full of food and fat. Your best option here is to make sure any fats are disposed of in a separate container in the bin and use a drain guard in your sink to catch any spare particles before they become a problem.
Feminine Hygiene Products
We all know by now that sanitary towels and tampons are among the worst things you can discard down your loo and yet it is still estimated that 700,000 panty liners, 2.5 million tampons and 1.4 million sanitary towels are flushed down British toilets every single day. Not only do they absorb liquid and cause blockages, they can take half a century to decompose so each new yank of the chain simply adds to the problem. The simple solution is to discard these things into the bin or consider investing in reusable products at this time of the month.
Wipes – cleaning wipes, makeup wipes, baby wipes
With up to 93% of drain blockages in the UK caused by flushing wet wipes down the loo, a simple shift in behaviour can save you from a world of problems. Even those labelled flushable really shouldn’t be disposed of into your sewage system, they simply don’t degrade like loo roll and their build up over time, combined with everything else that ends up down your pipes can easily become a nasty blockage. We’d suggest binning rather than flushing any and all wipes you use at home, always.
Fallen Leaves
It can be easy to simply forget all about those outside drains but they’re just as much at risk of becoming clogged over time. Throughout the autumn and winter months take care to rake and clear your garden of any fallen leaves to stop them wriggling into your drain and causing an almighty blockage. It could be worth installing a drain guard outside to catch any leaves before they make their way inside.
At very best a blocked drain is not very nice to live with, at worst and left unresolved it can cause leaks in your system, very unpleasant overflows and in some circumstances problems with your electrical and other systems at home.