Even if you’re careful about what goes down your home’s drains and toilets, hair, grease, soap scum, and other solids still accumulate within drain pipes and the sewer line. Over time, this can lead to issues like smelly drains, frequent clogs, and backups. Regular drain cleaning and inspections lessen the chances of you encountering these problems. It’s also crucial for protecting your drain pipes and sewer lines, helping to avoid major issues that require costly, invasive repairs.
Preventing Clogs, Overflows, and Costly Sewer Backups
With regular drain and sewer cleaning, you’re much less likely to encounter major clogs that could result in a toilet or shower overflowing and flooding the bathroom. There’s also a greatly reduced chance of your sewer line getting obstructed and resulting in sewage backing up within your home. Sewage backups are something you want to avoid at all costs due to the extensive damage they can cause. Having sewage backup in your house can also pose a serious health risk since raw sewage often contains E.coli and other harmful pathogens.
Hydro jetting is among the most effective methods of cleaning drain and sewer lines. A hydro-jet machine is essentially like a pressure washer designed for use on plumbing systems. The machine produces high-pressure jets of water that spray out of a special nozzle. As the plumber feeds the nozzle and hose down through the drain or sewer line, the jets scour the inside of the pipe, blasting away grease, soap scum, mineral deposits, food particles, and more. The machine produces enough pressure that the water can blast through and break up blockages and stubborn clogs. As long as the process is performed by an experienced, trained professional and the pipe is still in relatively good condition, hydro jetting can be done safely without posing any risk of damaging the pipe.
Avoiding Water Damage and Mold Issues
Maintaining your drain and sewer system through professional cleaning and inspections helps to avoid issues that could lead to leaks and water damage. In the warm California climate, leaks can quickly cause mold to start growing within a house and lead to costly mold remediation services.
While it’s somewhat rare, a major drain clog can cause a drain pipe to break or burst due to the pressure of all the water within the pipe. Older pipes sometimes have issues with the joints and pipe fittings no longer being fully sealed. This is something you often won’t notice until the pipe fills up with water because it’s clogged, and water then starts seeping out of a joint. By ensuring that your drain pipes are clean, you can avoid these types of problems from occurring and causing water damage within your home.
Ensuring Sewer Line Remains in Good Condition
Regular inspections are a key part of sewer maintenance. Inspections ensure that a sewer line isn’t damaged or leaking and that no tree roots have started growing inside it. A sewer inspection involves a plumber feeding a waterproof fiber optic camera down through the sewer line to check the condition of the pipe. This allows them to easily identify areas of concern, such as cracks, loose fittings, corrosion, obstructions, and tree root intrusion.
Trenchless sewer repair is a minimally invasive solution for repairing and sealing minor gaps, cracks, and holes within the pipe that could result in sewage leaking out into the yard. By identifying and fixing these problems early on, you can avoid major issues down the road. If you ignore them, you may soon find yourself needing to pay several thousand dollars for a full sewer line replacement that requires digging up much of your yard and landscaping. Another major concern is that a sewer line leak has the potential to do major damage to a house’s foundation.
Signs You Should Schedule Drain/Sewer Cleaning
We recommend scheduling a professional inspection and drain cleaning service at least once a year, especially if your plumbing system is older. While routine drain cleaning is important, equally crucial is calling for professional service at the first sign of any potential problem. By being proactive, you can avoid the issue worsening and leading to a serious clog or your sewer line backing up.
Slow draining, incomplete flushing, and gurgling noises coming from drain pipes and plumbing fixtures all indicate that a pipe has started to clog. If these issues are present throughout your house, it means that the sewer line is beginning to clog and may soon start backing up. Sewage smells throughout the house typically also indicate that the sewer line isn’t draining properly.
There are also signs that indicate a sewer line is leaking and should be repaired or replaced as soon as possible. This includes standing water or unusually wet, spongy soil near the sewer line. The most obvious indication of a sewer line leak is a strong, persistent sewage odor in the yard. Another thing to watch for is a patch of overly lush, fast-growing grass in the vicinity of the sewer line. This happens due to the wastewater seeping out of the pipe, providing the grass with additional nourishment. An increase in pests in the yard can also indicate that your sewer line is leaking.
Tips for Avoiding Major Drain and Sewer Issues
Taking some simple precautions and adopting certain habits in regards to how you use your plumbing can go a long way toward avoiding clogs, backups, and other issues with your drain and sewer system. The biggest sources of major drain and sewer problems are flushing fat, oil, and grease down the kitchen sink and flushing items like sanitary products, wet wipes, and cotton pads down the toilet.
Fat, oil, and grease are concerns because they cling to the inside of pipes, creating a sticky coating that can trap toilet paper, waste, food particles, hair, and other solid items. This can quickly lead to a major blockage forming that results in pipes continually getting clogged.
Flushing anything other than toilet paper and waste creates a high potential for sewer clogs and backups. Toilet paper and waste get broken up when flushed, ensuring the water carries them all the way out to the municipal sewer system. Items like wipes and feminine hygiene products remain intact, which can lead to them being outpaced by the water and getting stuck within a home’s sewer line.
Scraping dishes into the trash before they go into the sink and using a sink strainer when doing dishes to keep food particles from going down the drain are also important proactive measures. If you have a garbage disposal, you should make sure to have cold water running when using the disposal. Leave the water on for at least 15 to 30 seconds after turning off the disposal. Even something as simple as flushing all of your drains with hot water for a few minutes each week can help keep them cleaner. This step is especially useful for getting rid of sludge within the drain and P-trap to help prevent foul drain odors.
If you’re searching for professional drain cleaning in San Jose, Knockout Plumbing & Repipe Inc. is the company to call. We’re proud to be the top name for hydro jetting in CA. Our expert team can help you overcome any problems and ensure that your drains and sewer line remain in proper working condition. To schedule an inspection or drain/sewer cleaning service, contact us today.
