Maintaining your home’s drainage system and avoiding blockages can save you from unwelcome cost and distress. Brighton’s unique mix of Victorian and contemporary homes, coupled with its coastal location, presents its own challenges when it comes to drainage maintenance. This article is your essential guide to keeping your drains flow freely, ensuring that you can keep any problems at bay.
Regular Drain Maintenance:
Your drain system connects your home to the wider sewage disposal system. Regular maintenance is key to preventing unpleasant odours, blockages, backflows, and even structural damage. In Brighton, sand and salt from sea air, for instance, can enter and cause damage to your pipes if not inspected regularly.
For regular maintenance, first, check outside drains and gutters for any signs of blockage. This could be leaves, patchy moss, or debris that lead to water collecting rather than draining away. Stand by when it rains to see if water is gathering around any external parts of the drain. Handle these minor blockages yourself with a long, flexible cleaning rod to dislodge the debris.
Clean your drains regularly. Pour hot water down sinks and showers every fortnight to clear minor buildup of grease or soap that contributes to blockages. Using a mixture of vinegar and baking soda, followed by hot water, helps tackle stubborn soap buildups in kitchen and bathroom pipes.
Avoiding Blockages:
Prevention is better than cure, especially when dealing with the potential mess and disruption of a blocked drain. Regular maintenance helps prevent blockages, but here are some other steps to keep in mind:
In the kitchen, be cautious about what goes down the drain. Solid food particles, coffee grounds and grease should never go down the sink as they can stick to pipe walls and lead to blockages. Use a blocked drains brighton sink strainer to catch any solids and dispose of used cooking oil and grease in the bin rather than the sink.
In the bathroom, soap bits, hair, and solid particles commonly block drains. To prevent these, get mesh screens or drain-gates for shower drains to catch hair and soap particles. Never flush anything other than toilet paper down the toilet.
In Brighton, be careful about sand entering your drains. After a day on the beach, ensure you wash off any sand outdoors or into a bucket before showering or washing clothes.
Check your drain venting. Blocked vents, which are designed to regulate air pressure in your drains, can cause water to drain slowly. Regularly inspect and clean these vents.
If a Blockage Occurs:
Despite all your preventive measures, blockages can still occur. If you notice slow drainage, water backing up, a bad smell or gurgling sounds, then you may have a blockage. At the first sign, use a plunger to try to dislodge the blockage. If this fails, enlist professional help.
Maintaining your drains may not be the most eliciting of household activities, yet it’s an easy and vital aspect of keeping your home functional. Through regular maintenance and cautious daily habits, Brighton residents can keep their drainage systems operating efficiently and enjoy the benefits of a clean, blockage-free home.
