When we’re looking for a property to live in, we’re often concerned with its location, whether it’s structurally sound, whether it’ll meet our needs and the costs of paying the rent or mortgage. Once we’ve moved in, we’re concerned with unpacking our items and settling in, whilst possibly redecorating or waiting for new items of furniture. We very rarely stop to think about the drainage system as we assume such things, along with a decent water supply, should work just fine. But what if they don’t? To help you with this, here are some maintenance tips for your home drainage system.
Types Of Drainage
There are usually two types of drainage in homes: foul and surface drainage, which we shall look at in turn. Although they tend to deal with drainage separately, older houses may have the surface drainage waste running into the foul drainage system. This is never done the other way round, what’s more, the pipes or sewage system pipes need to look different from other underground pipes, for obvious reasons.
Foul Drainage
This type of drainage will remove household waste from your toilet, bidet, bath, basin, sink, washing machine, dishwasher, and showers or wet rooms. Basically, any room or item that uses water from a water company will fall under foul drainage.
Surface Drainage
This type of drainage is concerned with water that accumulates from outside, like rainfall, and getting rid of it so that it doesn’t cause any damage to your property.
Home Drainage Maintenance Tips
Aside from cleaning your drains as regularly as possible, to ensure they remain clear from debris like hair, here are some more tips to help you keep them in good condition.
1. Look for Signs of Trouble
There’s no point pretending everything’s alright with your home drainage when something doesn’t appear or sound right. Therefore, when you’re house cleaning, pay particular attention to how water is leaving your sink, bath, shower, and toilet. Are there leaks, or unusual noises, for instance? If there is something different and persistent, it may be worth investigating further.
2. Don’t hesitate if you need a Professional
If you notice any water patches where they shouldn’t be, unwanted smells or anything else unexplainable, it may mean that you need to enlist the help of a professional, as the folks at https://fluidservices.com.au/ know only too well. This is no bad thing – all of us need the help of someone more knowledgeable in a different field, from time to time. The bad thing would be to ignore the problem until it gets more serious, which often means it’ll get more expensive, as well as potentially more stressful.
3. Regularly Use Boiling Hot Water
This is something more people should be doing, simply because we all can, and it’ll help maintain our home’s drainage system if done on a regular weekly basis. All you simply need to do is flush your drains with boiling water once a week. The benefit of this is that the boiling water will keep the oils from your food waste running down the drain, rather than allowing it to build up in them.
4. Use a Drain Guard
Another thing we should all do is invest in drain guards for every plug hole in our homes. This is because they will stop any unwanted debris from going down your drain, which includes hair and food.
Drain guards sit on top of your plug holes to collect the unwanted debris. You can either chuck the guard away or resume it, depending on the one you decide to purchase.
5. Invest in a Good Drain Cleaner
Out of sight very often means out of mind, but this doesn’t also mean that things will take care of themselves, so another thing we should invest in is a good drain cleaner. It’s a solution specially designed to keep your drains clean and clear, with regular use.
Always follow the instructions on the solution bottles, and, after, wash it down with boiling water. Also, consider opting for as natural a drain cleaner solution as possible because it’ll often mean less pipe corrosion in the long run.
6. Washing Pets
For those of you with pets, like dogs, and need to wash them, often doing so in the bath, you’ll know how much of your pet’s hair can disappear down our plugholes and into our drains. One way that will help reduce this is to place a washcloth over the plughole to catch excess hair. Although it won’t stop all the hair from going down the drain, it’ll greatly help to reduce it.
You can’t avoid damage to your drainage system because of general wear and tear. As with everything, including us, age can make things run slowly, require repairing or even replacing. However, you can ensure that your home drainage system is in good condition so that it keeps functioning for as long as possible, without the need for expensive call-outs. Knowing how to look after your drainage system, and regularly looking after it too, could make the difference between the number of costs to maintain it.
