Our Top Five Tips for Drain Maintenance

Keeping your drainage system clear and fully functional is vital. Failure to do so can result in a clog or even collapse, which can lead to thousands of pounds in repairs.

In this blog, we will discuss our top five tips for proper drainage maintenance. If you have found a problem within your system or would like to organise some professional upkeep, give us a call now on 0808 164 0776.

Five Ways to Keep Your Drains Clear

In short, here are five ways to keep water flowing through your drainage system freely:

• Don’t use chemical drain cleaners
• Dispose of all fats and grease in the bin
• Make sure hair stays out of the plughole
• Rake up fallen leaves as much as possible
• Utilise a professional drain cleaning service

Don’t Wash Away Fats and Grease

Fats and greases are more problematic than any other substance when it comes to blocking up your drains. Although they may be warm and liquid when you actually dispose of them, they will rapidly cool down within the cold atmosphere of your pipes and solidify, clinging to the side.

The solidified fats and grease will then gather up just about anything else which passes by. Hair, food residue, soap scum, plant matter, and anything else which passes by will combine to create a significant clog which water will struggle to pass by.

The best way to avoid this is to pour all fats and grease into a disposable container before throwing this out. Additionally, you should wipe all dishes and plates of any oils sticking to them before washing them in the sink.

Keep Hair out of Drain

For anyone who lives with long hair, you will probably have experienced stepping into the shower and finding a monster-like ball of hair sitting at the side, or next to the plughole. As horrible as this might be, it is better left there than being allowed to enter into your drainage system!

As you can probably see from these hairballs, they are very solid, tight, and robust. If they are allowed to journey through your pipes, it is easy to see how they will combine with other substances down there to create a clog which will disrupt water flow and, eventually, stops it altogether.

It is vital that you take measures to stop hair from entering our system at all. This is as easy as buying a drain guard from Amazon and leaving it over our plughole. Any hair which would be a problem is merely collected on the top, ready to be disposed of in the bin.

Rake up Fallen Leaves

Leaves and plant matter are difficult to keep out of your drainage system. If there are any entrances at all outside, then it is near impossible to completely exclude the possibility that some sticks, leaves, or anything else will eventually be blown around and end up within your pipes.

Nonetheless, you can make a real difference by raking up all of the fallen leaves in your garden as often as possible. It is unlikely you will be able to gather up every single one, but it doesn’t take too much effort to catch the majority!

Additionally, and this goes for everything and not just leaves, installing some sort of drain guard or screen outside will stop anything from getting inside. Through the combination with vigilant leave gathering, you can help to keep your drains safe.

Avoid Drain Cleaners

Drain cleaners are a tempting option to keep your drains clean and unblocked. They are effective in terms of cleaning your pipes and will quickly break down everything but the most robust objects stuck inside our system. However, they are a blunt instrument, and nothing more.

They work by corroding anything that is clogging your pipes, but it does so indiscriminately. This means that just as the chemicals will make short work of any hair, grease, soap scum, or anything else inside, they will also corrode the walls of your pipes.

Using a drain cleaner once on a new system probably won’t cause any significant issues or leaks, all going well. Having said that, using the chemical repeatedly, or on an older system, can easily create a fault or hole and lead to tremendous amounts of flooding.

Professional Drain Cleaning

Absolutely guaranteeing that a clog or blockage will never occur within your drainage system is impossible. However, the most significant step you can take to minimise this risk is to employ the cleaning services of a professional draining company like us.

At Clark Drainage, we employ high-pressure drain jetting equipment to blast away anything within your pipes that should not be there. Anything clinging to the side of the pipes will be forced to detach before being flushed along the pipe system.

Although the water is incredibly high pressure and can even be sued to cut through invasive tree roots, it will bounce off of the walls of your PVC or metal pipes harmlessly. There is no better option when it comes to keeping your drains flowing at optimum levels.

Get in Touch

By following these relatively simple steps, you can help to make sure that you never suffer a critical failure, avoiding widespread water damage and subsequent expensive repairs.

To talk to one of our operators today, give us a call on 0808 164 0776.

Alternatively, complete our contact form, and one of our personnel will be in touch.