Why It’s Time to Spring Clean Your Sewers

As spring approaches, Torontonians flock to clear cluttered rooms and tidy storage spaces. During this time of year, it also becomes practical to focus on pipes and sewers. The sewer line removes all the water flushed away with waste and directs it toward the sewer lines beneath the streets. If sewer pipes become blocked, this wastewater backs up into your home.

Arranging professional sewer cleaning is the best way to clear blockages and prevent any future blockages from occurring. At Drain King Plumbers, we receive plenty of calls from homeowners that require sewer cleaning services. We recommend you have yours cleaned once every 1-2 years.

Spring is a great time to clean sewer lines as many Canadians spend more time indoors, use sinks, tubs, and toilets more often during the winter season. If you’re unsure about your sewer lines, this blog is for you.

Here are the reasons your sewers need cleaning this spring.

Food Waste and Grease

It’s not just your toilet that feeds into the sewer lines in your home. Everything being flushed out of your house, including dishwater, enters the sewer lines. You’ll know it’s time to hire a sewer cleaning service if your kitchen sink is draining slowly or not at all.

Kitchen sinks should never be used to pour away old oil from cooking, but many Canadians still send oil down the drain while washing dishes. Cooked on bacon fat, liquid vegetable oil, and congealed butter products build up and get stuck in the drain, blocking your sewer from flushing out everything else you send out of your home.

While there are some tools you can use to reduce the waste that flows down your sink, there’s no DIY option for sewer line maintenance. Contacting a plumber early is your best hope for preserving the delicate pipes in your home.

Nasty Smells from Outside

The odour from any drain is never a good sign, but if you notice it hanging around outside your home, it’s probably a sewer issue. With spring on the horizon, rainwater and heat from the sun are about to make smelly things even smellier. Now’s the time to have your plumbing team get on board with a camera inspection.

A camera inspection is just as the name suggests. It involves sending a small camera down your sewer line to determine what’s blocking it. If this doesn’t provide insight, trenchless pipeline installation is sometimes a good alternative to ripping up and replacing old pipes. It involves the creation of a new pipe inside the pipe you have. This repair is faster and more affordable than traditional repair methods.

Water Coming Up Instead of Down

The most obvious sign it’s time to clean your sewer lines is when water starts defying gravity and rising out of your drains, rather than flowing down them.

You may notice water backing up out of the wrong drain. For example, if you run your kitchen sink to wash dishes, you might notice your laundry sink filling with water in the basement. You may even notice food particles coming up out of the basement sink and think, “That’s odd; I don’t wash dishes down here.”

The sewer line backs up into the lowest drains in your household. This means you could flush a toilet, and the tub could start flooding with water. If this describes your home, it’s time to contact a plumber for a sewer line cleaning.

Gurgling and Slow Draining

From your bathtub and shower drains to the laundry sink in the basement, anything blocking your drain can slow the flow of water. As air tries to escape the blockage, you’ll hear your sink gurgle, and you may even see bubbles or debris push up out of the drain.

This is a big sign it’s time for a spring cleaning on your sewer lines. Everything from soap buildup to a hairball can be cause for a slow drain, but if you don’t physically see anything in the drain, it’s probably the sewer line.

To learn more about how to tell when it’s time to clean your drains, call Drain King Plumbers at 1-833-983-5301 or contact us here.