Most people donāt think about their drain maintenance until thereās a major issue. Donāt be one of these people: your best bet is to give your drains regular cleaning once a week. We also recommend a full CCTV drain survey once a year by a team of professionals who can find any drainage problems before they become drainage disasters.
Read on to learn more about dirty drains and how to clean them, as well as how a yearly survey can help. Prevention is always better than cure when it comes to cleaning your drains.
The Telltale Signs Your Drains Need Cleaning
Your drains are at risk of clogging if you donāt clean them regularly. How do you know a blockage is happening? These are the three most common signs:
- Slow-draining sinks: You may notice that water is taking a long time to drain down your kitchen or bathroom sink, or that youāre finding yourself standing in a steadily increasing pool of water while you shower. This is an obvious sign that there is something clogging up your pipes and that you need to act fast in clearing them.
- Foul smells: If thereās a suspiciously bad smell drifting from your drains, it means something dirty is stuck and needs getting rid of.
- Leaking or burst pipes: Large blockages in your plumbing system could potentially lead to a cracked or even a burst pipe as the water has nowhere to go. If you have an emergency like this, call our drainage and plumbing team who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (including Bank Holidays).
What Causes Blocked Drains?
But what exactly causes these telltale signs? Here is a list of common causes for blockages in drains that you should make sure to avoid doing yourself:
- Excessive bits of food being poured down the kitchen drain
- Pouring oil or fats down the kitchen drain
- Soap and hair clumping together in bathroom drains
- Excessive amounts of toilet paper in toilets
- Non-flushable items like nappies and sanitary pads in the toilet
- Drains which are not regularly cleaned
How To Clean Your Drains At Home
While you should get a professional drain survey every year, you should also clean your drains yourself once a week to ensure things arenāt building up in your pipes. The best thing to do is incorporate cleaning your drains into the weekly cleaning routine that you should have anyway, so it’s something you donāt forget and can get done on a regular basis.
Here are some easy methods for cleaning your drains at home:
- Boiling water
Pouring a kettle full of boiling water down each of your drains is a simple but highly effective method of reducing buildup in pipes. The boiling water can cut through fat, grease, and oil so itās especially good for kitchen drains.
- Baking soda and vinegar
Baking soda (or bicarbonate of soda) and white vinegar is a combination that can cure smaller household blockage issues. Another very simple but effective method, you just mix two tablespoons of baking soda into one cup of white vinegar and pour it down your drain straight away. Leave the mixture in the pipes for a few minutes then flush it out with freshly boiled water.
- Soda crystals
Soda crystals should be available to buy widely in any household shop. These are best for kitchen sinks as the corrosive elements get rid of grease effectively. Soda crystals arenāt very effective for dissolving hair and can even cause some pipe joint damage, so only use it for your kitchen pipes. For this method, pop a cup of the soda crystals into a bowl filled with freshly boiled water and dissolve the mixture by slowly stirring. Then, carefully pour this mixture down the drain.
- Avoid pouring fats and food bits down the sink
When youāre done with the oil youāve used for cooking, donāt pour it down the drain! Congealed fats, oils and grease accumulates to trap food particles on the side of the pipes which builds up to block your pipes. Prevention is better than cure.
- Household cleaning products
Most products that you can buy from supermarkets will be effective as a weekly cleaner. Commercial drain cleaners that you can purchase from DIY stores can help with blockages, too. However, if youāve got a significant blockage, itās best to contact a professional.
As experts in all things drainage systems, we have lots more helpful advice like this on our blog. If you wondering how often you should clean your shower drain, read our guide.
Keep On Top of Your Drain Maintenance With BlockBusters
The methods above are great for keeping on top of general maintenance of your household drains. But did you know that your outside drains can be adversely affected by tree roots and rotting leaves? These can cause big problems in your drains that boiling water or household cleaning products canāt fix. Thatās why getting a professional CCTV drain survey done once a year is the most effective method of finding issues early so that they donāt progress into catastrophes.
We provide scheduled servicing and maintenance by expert drainage engineers, completely for free. Our CCTV drain surveys are free, convenient, and comprehensive. Read more about them here. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help you.
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