Plumbing 17 January 2023

Preventing Blockages in Your Drains: Tips and Tricks

Blockages in drains are a common issue that can cause inconvenience and water damage in homes and businesses. To keep your drains flowing smoothly, it’s important to take steps to prevent blockages from forming.

Keep Your Drain Covers Clean

One of the easiest ways to prevent blockages is to keep your drain covers clean. Debris, hair, and other materials can accumulate on the drain cover, blocking the flow of water. Regular cleaning of your drain covers can help prevent blockages.

Avoid Flushing Items That Don’t Belong in the Toilet

Flushing non-degradable items, such as wipes, paper towels, and sanitary products, can cause blockages in your pipes. To prevent these blockages, it’s important to only flush toilet paper and human waste down the toilet.

Don’t Pour Grease Down the Drain

Grease and oil can cause blockages in your pipes, so it’s important to avoid pouring these substances down the drain. Instead, allow grease and oil to cool and then dispose of it in the bin.

Use a Strainer in the Sink

A strainer in the sink can help prevent blockages by catching debris and food particles before they go down the drain. This is especially important in the kitchen, where food and grease are commonly poured down the drain.

Regular Maintenance

Regular maintenance, such as drain cleaning and underground drain inspections, can help prevent blockages and keep your plumbing system running smoothly. A professional plumber can provide these services and offer advice on how to keep your drains clear.

The Two Culprits We See Most

After years of clearing drains around Tonbridge, the pattern barely changes.

Fat from the kitchen. It leaves the sink as a liquid and sets solid further along the pipe where it is cold. This is why kitchen blockages come back in the same spot: the fix that lasts is keeping it out of the drain, not clearing it out again each year.

Wet wipes. Whatever the packet says about being flushable, they do not break down the way toilet paper does. They snag on anything slightly rough inside the pipe and then catch everything that follows. If we had to name one item that causes more blocked drains than any other, it would be this one.

Signs a Blockage Is Building

Drains rarely block without warning. Act on these and you will avoid the emergency:

• Water draining more slowly than it used to
• Gurgling from a nearby plughole when you run a tap or flush the toilet
• A faint drain smell in the kitchen or bathroom
• The outside gully filling up in heavy rain and being slow to clear

When It Is Not Your Pipework

If several fittings back up at once, or the manhole in the garden is standing full, the problem is in the underground drain rather than under your sink. In some cases the sewer is the water company’s responsibility rather than yours, which is worth establishing before anyone starts digging. We will tell you where the boundary falls.

What Not to Pour Down a Drain

Worth pinning inside a kitchen cupboard:

• Cooking fat, oil and meat juices — the single biggest cause of kitchen blockages.
• Coffee grounds and tea leaves, which clump together into a paste.
• Rice, pasta and flour, all of which keep swelling after they leave the sink.
• Wet wipes, cotton buds and sanitary products, whatever the packaging claims.
• Paint, plaster and tile adhesive rinsed off after DIY — these set hard inside the pipe exactly as they are designed to.

Getting Help

Drainage work is charged at £95 + VAT for the first hour, which is always billable, then £47.50 + VAT an hour after that. Most straightforward blockages are cleared within that first hour. Where a drain needs jetting or a camera survey, we will explain what is involved and what it costs before carrying on.

Call 01732 792 454 or see our plumbing services.