A good amount of debris and residue is common in your drains and plumbing lines because your drains move water and waste out of the home. Unfortunately, even a small amount of residue can lead to big problems for your home and finances, including corroded pipes, overwhelming water leaks, and extensive water damage.
Dirty drains can also affect your health. If drains and underlying pipes start to corrode and rust, you will likely experience leaks and possible mold growth. Exposure to mold can lead to respiratory problems, skin rashes, and allergy symptoms.
In addition, dangerous fungal growth can be common in dirty household drains. Thankfully, you can protect your drains, plumbing lines, and health with proper drain maintenance. Here are a few habits to break if you want to maintain healthy drains.
1. Pouring Grease Down the Drain
Pouring grease down your drain is one of the worst habits to continue. Even if you run hot water, the grease will harden as it cools inside your drains. The grease will not only harden and clog up the actual sink drain, but it can move through your pipes, affecting your underlying plumbing and sewage systems.
Recent reports showed that fat and oil buildups cause 47 percent of 36,000 sewer overflows that happen each year in the United States. Although it affects your home’s plumbing, the grease also affects wastewater around your home, negatively affecting the environment.
2. Flushing Problematic Debris
Another habit you should stop is using your toilet as a trash can. Your toilet should only flush away bathroom waste, such as actual bodily waste and toilet tissue. Avoid flushing random pieces of trash or debris down your toilet, since this could cause serious problems in your toilet, toilet drain, and septic/sewage systems.
Flushing problematic debris increases the risk of toilet clogs and water leaks. However, a lot of this debris cannot be broken down properly by your septic/sewage system, resulting in environmental hazards, extensive flooding onto your yard, and costly repairs.
In addition, you may have been told flushing flushable wipes, contact lenses, cigarette butts, and other debris down the toilet is okay, but this debris can actually do a great deal of harm to your plumbing/septic systems.
3. Not Using Drain Strainers
Many homeowners may believe that once something goes down the drain, they will not need to worry about it. Unfortunately, just because the debris is out of sight, does not mean it should be out of your mind because the waste may still linger in your drains and pipes.
Most sinks, tubs, and showers will have some sort of cover over the actual drain opening. However, these covers do have small openings, which allow water, soap, and dirt to flow freely through. But items that should not actually move through the drain, such as larger chunks of debris, food residue, soap scum, and strands of hair, may also seep through the openings of the cover.
A drain strainer is a great investment for your sink, tub, and shower drains. These strainers do cover the drain opening, but they have much smaller openings, which are only large enough for water to move through. The strainers trap larger pieces of debris, bits of food, clumps of soap, and strands of hair, preventing them from building up and clogging your drains and underlying plumbing lines.
You can protect your drains and plumbing/septic system from overwhelming clogs, corrosion, and costly water leaks. Follow the tips in this guide to prevent the dangers of a few common habits that negatively affect your drains and plumbing lines. For more information about maintaining your drains, contact Justice Plumbing and call (817) 318-7932 today.