No one ever wants to deal with a clogged drain, it’s gross, and it can be a hassle to unclog. Unclogging a drain can become a headache of a project, and the longer you let the clog sit, the harder it becomes to deal with. If you don’t take care of the problem, clogged drains can escalate and cause extensive water damage.
Those who haven’t experienced clogs yet should consider themselves lucky but should still take precautions to avoid any future clogs. Luckily, there are some preventative measures that you can take to keep clogs from forming in your plumbing system. We visited one of the websites owned by the best plumber dulwich hill has to offer, and came up with this list of tips to help you keep your drains from clogging.
They include:
Table of Contents
Keeping Food Out of the Drains
Whether you have a garbage disposal or not, you should never put food down your drain. While it is normal for small pieces to sneak in once in a while, the key aim should be to rinse all your plates and scrape any debris off in the trash cans.
Even garbage disposals cannot handle food items even though the general assumption is that they tend to destroy anything. However, even your plumber will tell you never to put disposals like coffee grounds, skins, eggshells, or peels down the garbage disposal. These items not only ruin your garbage disposal, but they also stick to the sides of pipes, which eventually causes a full clog or blockage.
We recommend running your garbage disposal and also turn on cold water from the faucet. Coldwater tends to flush the debris down the pipes and out of the house better than warm water.
Proper Disposal of Grease and Oil
The worst thing you can do is pour grease or oil down your drains. When you do this, grease and fat end up cooling in the pipe to form a clog. This paves the way for other stuff to get stuck, and eventually, you find yourself stuck with a significant clog.
Hence, we recommend avoiding pouring grease or oil down the drain and always having a jar handy to collect grease and oil and then throw it into the trash when the jar is full.
Keep Some Substances Out
You can further prevent clogged drainages by placing certain items in the garbage rather than in the drain. Avoid draining items like household cleaning products, paper towels, eggshells, medications, coffee grounds, fruit peels, napkins, and produce stickers. These are some of the substances that can cause significant drainage issues.
Bathe Your Pets Outside
Always bathe your pets outdoors, especially when the weather is warm. Even when the weather is cold such that they can’t bathe outside, we recommend placing a mesh screen or cloth over your shower drain to effectively catch any excess hair. Instead, if using your bathtub, use a washtub so that you can quickly empty the water outside and prevent the risk of pet hair clogging your drain.
Clean and Inspect Your Drain Regularly
We barely think of drain cleaning unless we are doing a general house cleaning. However, one of the best ways of preventing drain clogs is by being mindful of what goes down in the drain and regularly cleaning any debris from the drain every once in a while.
Make a point of regularly checking your drains, especially in the kitchen sink and bathtub, to ensure no buildup of grease, soap, and hair.
