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New homeowners often find their pipelines blocked for various reasons. This is quite frustrating because they have spent their lifetimes’ fortunes acquiring their property only to find their pipelines are blocked! Choked pipelines affect you in more ways than one, chief among them is that they could come for your very health. Read on to know more about what can be done to keep your drains, sewers, and pipes fine and functional throughout the year.
What's Inside
Waste Pipes Aren’t Supply Pipes
One of the most common reasons your pipes fail is that you confuse waste pipes with supply ones. Both are different. Waste pipes are those that carry your kitchen and bathroom waste.
As such, they are built of different materials. If you are building your house, ask your plumber to design pipes based on usage.
Earlier waste pipes were made of lead, but these days, thanks to environmental consciousness, these are now being made of plastic.
Look Out for Vegetation
It’s great to be nature-friendly and have trees in your backyard, but sometimes vegetation can also clog your pipelines. Sometimes, the roots of a tree spread horizontally and wrap themselves around the neighboring pipes and drains.
When these roots tighten themselves, they pressure the trapped pipes and drains, causing the latter to crack. Later, soil and gravel may enter these pipelines and clog them.
The solution – keep a lookout for surrounding vegetation and make sure there are no roots, etc., around your drains and pipelines.
Angle
It’s not enough to fix your pipes and drains while configuring your drainage. While going about this job, you need to take care of three variables.
Your waste/supply pipes must be aligned at a certain angle. Angle specifications vary from state to state, and it would be useful to check with your plumber on what suits your house and locality.
Kitchen Waste
Another common reason your pipes get choked is that you are unknowingly stuffing them with used tea leaves, vegetable peels, and hot fat. Most homeowners in a 2009 survey revealed that tea leaves block their kitchen pipes regularly. You can do away with this menace by doing either of these two things:
- Increase the diameter of your kitchen pipe. This solution can only give you temporary relief because tea leaves and other substances will continue to deposit inside the pipes and restrict your water flow.
- Have a waste-basket near your sink. Every time you prepare your tea, throw away those leaves in that basket. The same goes for your vegetable peels.
Never throw hot oil or fat into the pipe. Once it cools down, that fat will block your pipe.
Regular Maintenance
You can avoid pipeline blockages by regularly checking them. Hire a plumber or a specialized firm and have them audit your pipeline circuit. Make a calendar, and stick to your maintenance plan.
Look Out for Pests
Pets and rodents also block your drains and pipelines. Rats often build their nests in bathroom drains by bringing in twigs and small pieces of cloth. As part of your maintenance audit, look out for these creatures near your pipelines.
Surrounding Pipelines
Often your pipelines get clogged because drains and sewers of your neighbors have choked. At one point, all the drains of a community get connected. Speak to your neighbor/ housing society before this problem gets out of hand.
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