How to prevent blocked drains

The best way to avoid making a claim on your plumbing and drainage cover is to take steps to prevent your drains from becoming damaged in the first place.

You might not consider the importance of drain care, but when clogged-up drains prevent water from flowing properly, the pressure inside the drain can grow to dangerous levels and lead to a rupture or leak.

If you are fortunate enough to avoid this problem, a blocked drain will still reduce the life expectancy of your plumbing system, and you may end up requiring emergency plumbing repairs in the future.

A few simple steps could significantly reduce the likelihood of your kitchen or bathroom drains becoming clogged. You don’t have to be hyper-vigilant about drain care, but if you bear the following guidance in mind, you should be able to keep the water running freely down your plughole for decades and prevent your drains from being blocked.

How to Prevent Blocked Drains

• Put a plug screen over your plughole to prevent debris from going down the drain, and clean this regularly. A plug screen is useful for both bathroom and kitchen sinks – in kitchens, it will prevent food waste from clogging the drains, and in bathrooms, it will ensure that hair, soap, and beauty products are caught before they enter your plumbing system. Measure your plugs before you buy a drain screen, as there are a range of different filter sizes available.

• If you do not have a plug screen, remove hair and other substances from the drain every time you take a bath or shower.

• Do not pour grease or oil down the drain. A drain can handle clean water, milk, and other liquids without any hassle, but oil and grease can solidify and set within the pipes, creating a hard blockage that can be very difficult to get rid of. Oil and grease are emergency plumbers’ bread and butter; a huge number of household drains are blocked after people casually pour cooking oil down them. If the oil manages to make its way out of your household plumbing system, you are still not in the clear, as underground sewer networks regularly become clogged up due to people’s food waste.

Be careful what you flush away – it could lead to blocked drains!

• On a similar note, do not flush anything down the toilet other than human waste and toilet paper. It might be tempting to dispose of baby wipes in the toilet, but these wipes do not break down and degrade in the same way toilet paper does, and can easily block your toilet. Occasionally, plumbers are called to a house after a young child flushes one of their toys down the toilet – take steps to prevent this from happening if you think this is a risk in your house.

• Use drain unblocker regularly to get rid of any small blockages. Small clogs are not likely to wash away over time, but will instead attract debris and gunk until they become big clogs that fully block the pipes. If you would prefer to use an eco-friendly product to keep your drains clear, you can forego the corrosive chemicals found in many drain unblockers and use baking soda and vinegar instead. Pour boiling water down the drain, wait a few minutes, pour a cup of baking soda down the drain, and follow this with a cup of vinegar and another cup of hot water.

• If water is still running down the drains but is doing so slowly, fill up the sink and put a plunger over the drain. Use the plunger gently – if you plunge too vigorously, the pressure you create could break the seals of your pipes and lead to a leak.

Problems with blocked drains or your plumbing?

If you ever need assistance, contact us on 0345 3192 247 and we can help! Our technical teams will run through some simple troubleshooting tips with you to see if your problem can be resolved over the phone. If not, we’ll send a highly skilled and qualified plumber round to get your plumbing problems sorted as soon as possible.

There could be a number of reasons for your blocked drains so it’s better to trust the professionals. After all, you could end up making it worse and you could be faced with a hefty bill to pay to repair the damage. We help, we repair, we care.