Few Ways to Maintain a Healthy Drainage System or: How to Clean and Maintain a Water Drainage System at Home

Maintaining a healthy drainage system is an essential part of looking after your home. Whether it’s saving money by avoiding blockages or regularly cleaning your drains, this guide should offer some helpful tips to help maintain a healthy drainage system in your home.

• Be mindful of what you throw away – The first and most important step to keeping a healthy drainage system is to only dispose of appropriate things down the drain. In kitchens, you should never dispose of grease, oil or fat. These congeal in the drains and pipes and block them. You should also try to avoid putting waste food down the drains and ensure it goes in the bin. In bathrooms, you should avoid flushing away wet wipes or sanitary towels. These don’t dissolve and can cause blockages, or bigger issues further down the sewer system such as fatbergs, which are difficult and costly to remove from sewers.
• Regularly clean your drains – Just as you put effort into maintaining the rest of your house, you should maintain your drains to keep the drains healthy. Hair can commonly cause issues with drains, especially in bathtubs and showers. There are many different ways to clean drains regularly. You can use hair-dissolving products, vinegar and baking soda mixtures, or boiling water to clean out residue. For bigger jobs, look for biological or enzymatic drain cleaners. These are relatively safe and environmentally friendly, and less likely to cause any damage or corrosion compared to chemical cleaners.
• The Drain Guard will ensure the area drains correctly – Drain guards are a great way to collect unwanted objects from going down your drain. A drain guard is a small plastic or metal grate-like disk that sits on top of a plughole to collect debris, such as food. You can pull the drain guard out and easily empty it into the bin.
• Look – Blocked drains are often not obvious until it is too late, and professional help is needed. Visually inspect the drains or smell them and look for leakage in the pipes. You might also notice wet patches elsewhere in your property which shouldn’t be there. As well, to your indoor drainage systems, you should pay attention to outdoor drains as well. These can get blocked by garden debris such as leaves and twigs, and blockages might cause flooding. You can install a grate to help keep outdoor drains clear.
• Advice on DIY drain unblocking methods – If your drain gets blocked, there are many potential solutions to fix it and maintain a healthy drainage system. One of the first solutions that comes to mind are plungers, commonly used for toilets. These work well for simple tasks. You can also buy barbed tools for removing blockages such as hair that have accumulated near the drain opening. As mentioned before, biological drain cleaners or enzymatic drain cleaners can deal with blockages very effectively. They can often be left overnight or used multiple times. If you’re confident, you could buy an inexpensive cable auger (or plumber’s snake).

If you can’t do it yourself then get Help to Unblock a Drain or if it is necessary, call a professional emergency plumbing company.