Three Reasons Why Your Drain May Be Clogged and What to Do About it

The old proverb say – knowledge is power. Well, when it comes to plumbing knowledge isn’t just power, it’s also a huge money saver. Don’t believe us? Just check out a couple of these numbers…

Statistics Every Homeowner Needs to Know

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, around 10% of homes in the country have leaks that waste more than ninety gallons of water on a daily basis,

Furthermore, these accidental leaks can cost you around 45 cents a day. While that doesn’t actually sound like much, but if the problem continues for 12 months, it will end up costing you around $165.

Who wants to waste that much because of bad plumbing? But that’s just a chunk of expenses. If you have a bigger problem, you could potentially end up spending thousands of dollars.

On average, larger plumbing system failures cost more than $5,000 per incident, according to statistics gathered by IBHS. Surprisingly, a vast majority of larger issues start with a simple problem like a clogged drain.

Dangers of Clogged Drains

Every homeowner will surely experience this problem at least once in his or her life. In addition to the odor, clogged rains are actually full of bacteria that bring a number of different health issues with them.

If the drain stays clogged for a couple of months, it will provide a great opportunity for the bacteria to spread all over, and after a while it will present a big potential health hazard for the youngest members of your family.

From a ton of hair getting stuck, to small foreign objects like toys and coins accidentally being dropped down the drain, there is a wide range of reasons why a household may experience clogged drains.

Understanding what exactly the issue is, what caused it and how to take care of it will help you prevent any similar problems in the future and avoid any damages to both your house and health.

Three Possible Explanations for a Clogged Water Drain

Problem #1: Hair

·        What happens?

Surely a most people who are reading this have dealt with this problem before. When hair starts building up and blocking the drain, in most cases, it’s easily removable. However, when you need to be aware of is that if you don’t remove it right away, the situation may get… well, a little bit hairy.

And if the hair piles up over time, it create a perfect breeding ground for some diseases, such as lymphatic filariasis – more commonly known as elephantiasis – that are more common during the wet season, according to research from the World Health Organization.

·        How to deal with it?

The best and the simplest thing to do in this situation is to grab a pair of gloves, put them on and take the hair out of the drain yourself. But if things get worse, you could buy a number of tools that will help you grab hold of the hair and pull it out completely.

The most important thing, however, is to inspect your pipes and deal with the hair before it gets clogged into the entry of your home’s drain pipes. As long as it’s clearly visible, you won’t actually experience any trouble removing it from your drain.

Problem #2: Grease

·        What happens?

Just like hair, grease will build up in your shower and kitchen sink over time. As a matter of fact, fatty substances like skin grease and fat are a common cause of clogged pipes, but can be a lot harder to clean than hair.

Any grease that gets washed down the sink will get stuck inside the pipes and build up to a point where it prevents water from flowing through it. In that case, you naturally won’t be able to do a lot without taking the sink apart.

·        How to deal with it?

In order to prevent this from happening, you should avoid washing any grease down the drain as much as possible. If you happen to have a full kitchen sink of grease a smart thing would be to scoop it, put it a plastic bag or a small container and throw it in the garbage.

But if this happens, you don’t have to call a plumber right away. You can buy a product that will remove the grease. But we need to mention that you should probably avoid using any home-made cleansers like the ever-popular vinegar and baking soda, because it turns out, they are pretty ineffective.

Problem #3: Broken Pipes

·        What happens?

Water pipes break all the time, generally due to wear and tear caused by age, but things like tree roots can also cause some damage. Even a small crack can will cause your pipes to become more sustainable to clogging than well-preserved ones.

The biggest problem here is – if you’re not able to physically see the crack, you won’t be able to diagnose the issue by yourself. And this is a point where we insist you contact a professional to help you with your problem, because you might try a number of solutions before you realize that your pipe is broken. And by then, the damage could be so big that you might need to change your pipes.

·        How to deal with it?

So if you suspect that there may be a crack in your pipes, the smart thing to do would be to call a professional to do the job for you. Because if you do have broken pipes, you’ll need more than a plunger to take care of the issue.

As Plumbing Heroes blocked drains experts from Sydney explain, in these situations, your pipes may cause structural damage to your home, if the problem doesn’t get solved as quickly as possible. Therefore, make sure to call a professional who’ll be able to detect any damage and fix your pipes.

The Bottom Line

In the end, prevention is a lot better than cure, so you need to put in some effort to ensure that your drains around the house don’t get clogged any time soon.

You should take a look at some drain protectors on the market – if you don’t already use one – to catch grease and hair before they do any damage.

Soap is another thing you should pay more attention to, because cheap soap can help to create clogs by sticking hairs together into huge clumps.

Once drainage problems begin, they only get worse over unless you take immediate action. So the sooner you deal with these problems, the easier they’ll be to resolve.