No one wants a blocked drain. Not only are blocked drains a nuisance with bad smells and slow-draining sinks, but blockages can also cause long-term problems in your plumbing system.
Fortunately, there are easy and cheap methods to prevent your house plumbing from getting blocked.
Sink Strainers
These cheap household additions will prevent most issues with your drainage. Made from stainless steel or silicone, they are placed in your plug-hole and act like a sieve or strainer. They allow the water to go down the drain but stop things like food and hair from clogging up your drains.
While we are on this subject, it is worth adding drain covers to your shower and baths. Hair clumps quickly and, when bound with conditioners and beauty products, can become a problem that water alone cannot remove.
A drain cover also means you don’t have to clean the plug hole every time you shower.
Disposing of Oil and Grease
Don’t pour oil or grease down your drains, ever! Cooking oil and grease, including lard, butter and margarine products, is your drains’ worst enemy.
As fats enter your pipework, they slow down draining and eventually solidify, often with hair and food entangled, making it a surefire way to have blocked and clogged drains. It may seem initially that everything has gone down the drain without issue, but the problem will slowly build up further down the system.
As oil and water do not mix, flushing water down the drain will often have no effect, and you will need to resort to more aggressive measures to clean it, such as drain unblockers or a professional drain unblocking service.
Only flush the 3 P’s
The toilet and subsequent pipework are designed to handle human waste and toilet paper. The use of baby wipes and wet wipes has increased massively, and these need to be disposed of.
Unfortunately, the toilet is not the place for these or female sanitary products. Neither of these products breaks down like toilet paper does and frequently causes significant drain blockages.
That said, the increase in the use of thicker multi-ply toilet tissue has started to cause an issue with blocked pipes. Use the minimum ply you are comfortable with, or if you are hooked on super soft 4-ply, use less and save yourself problems further down the line.
Enzyme cleaning sticks
These are a cheap, less than £1 each, way to help your sinks and drains. They are made from a safe, bio-friendly enzyme to dissolve grease, fat and soap residues. All that is required for you to do is to place one in every plug-hole each month. Every time you put water down, the enzyme will do its’ work, clearing fatty deposits and leaving your drain odour free.
Regular unblocker treatments
Unfortunately, for some people, all the tips above can be ineffective. If that is the case, you need to start a regimen of regular unblocking using commercial treatments. Drain unblockers are relatively cheap and are easy to use, but ensure you wear protection for your hands and eyes as the chemicals used are powerful.