Sewer backups can overwhelm homeowners, posing serious health and financial risks while potentially wreaking havoc with flooring, walls, furniture and electrical infrastructure.
Sewage problems typically result from old or deteriorating sewer lines, heavy rainfall or tree roots invading drain systems. You can take preventive steps to help reduce potential sewage issues in your home. Read these tips and protect your home.
For peace of mind and proactive sewer line maintenance, check out these tips to safeguard your home from potential sewage problems – visit this site and learn more with Clover Services!
Table of Contents
1. Have your pipes regularly inspected
Sewage backups can be extremely messy and even result in serious health and property damages, making regular inspections by a plumber of your pipes essential to keeping them in great condition and avoiding expensive emergency costs.
Installing a backflow valve, which prevents water from flowing back into your house from drains, can help stop harmful contaminants found in sewage from entering and causing further damage. When this occurs, shut off all fixtures until a plumbing professional can remedy the situation.
2. Keep trees away from your pipes
Trees can be an asset to any yard, increasing curb appeal and property value while simultaneously raising curb appeal. Unfortunately, tree roots can wreak havoc on your sewer system – roots can penetrate tiny cracks to cause pipe damage that requires costly repairs and cleanup operations.
However, careful landscaping and barriers can prevent tree roots from entering sewer lines and creating costly issues.
When planning landscaping projects, consult your local nursery for advice on choosing trees that won’t spread invasive and fast-growing roots near sewer lines. Selecting suitable trees can make all the difference and help prevent emergency plumbing issues in the future.
Professional plumbers can install metal, concrete or wood barriers to protect sewer lines from getting penetrated by tree roots. Tree roots can clog your pipes, so take steps to prevent that by pruning trees regularly and using slow-release chemical solutions that inhibit their growth.
Also, have your plumbing system inspected every few years by a plumber in order to catch any problems early on and save both time and money in the long run. Taking these steps may reduce your chance of dealing with clogged sewer lines – and save both money and frustration over time!
3. Don’t throw oil in your sink
One of the main leading causes of sewer backup is solidifying cooking grease that clogs drains. To avoid this situation, fats or oils should never be dumped down the drain but instead should be properly disposed of either through garbage cans or trash collection.
Installing grease into your pipes and flushing it down the drain can quickly clog them and lead to an unexpected backup, especially if your home is older. Grease solidifies as it cools, trapping other particles and gunk in its path – leading to blockages. Flushing non-degradable items like paper towels, wipes, and “flushable” diapers could also contribute to this clogging issue.
Blockages in sewage pipes can result in backups that cause significant property damage and health threats for you and your family. Sewage contains bacteria such as E.coli, salmonella and giardia that may inflict illness when inhaled directly.
A simple way to avoid these issues is to not dispose of anything down your drain. For grease disposal purposes, use a container that can easily be discarded – for instance, an empty can – then allow the grease to solidify before disposing of it in your garbage can.
Remember that your sewer line primarily aims to transport wastewater, human waste and toilet paper away from your house. Anything other than this may clog pipes or even the main line leading backward and cause sewage backups into your house.
If there are any signs of blockages in your toilet, call an experienced plumber as soon as possible, as they will have all the tools and expertise required to remove them quickly and safely.
4. Don’t flush paper towels or wipes
Although it might seem harmless to flush paper towels, wet wipes, and menstrual hygiene products down the toilet, doing so is a bad idea. These non-dissolvable materials clog toilets and pipes, leading to sewer blockages. In extreme cases, this could even cause wastewater backflow into homes or businesses.
Flushable wipes and wet wipes pose unique environmental problems, as they contain plastic that doesn’t biodegrade and pollute public waterways where they harm fish and animals, contributing to fatbergs in sewer systems – which ultimately have negative impacts.
There are some easy steps you can take to protect your plumbing from issues and avoid any potential emergencies, including never connecting floor drains, drain tile, downspouts or sump pumps directly to the main sewer line – doing this may cause backup into your home or business and result in severe health and property issues.
