A backed-up drain
Prevent and Clear Blocked Drains
Clogged drains and blocked drains are more than just an inconvenience, they can quickly cause expensive damage to your home. If you have running water in your home, here are a few essential things you need to know about your drains!
Signs of Blocked Drains
When your sewer is plugged or your septic tank needs pumping, here’s what could happen:
- Water backs up out of your tub drain when you flush your toilet.
- When you empty your bathtub, the water stops flowing and bubbles back at you or bubbles into the toilet.
- When you empty your kitchen sink, the sink water backs up into the toilet.
- When you flush your toilet, sewer water backs up through an outside downspout, patio drain, driveway drain, or the lowest floor drain in your house.
- When you run a load of laundry, soapy water comes up into a toilet, shower, or floor drain.
How to Unclog a Drain and Prevent Clogs
- Let plenty of water run down the drain by keeping the faucet open for up to half a minute each day.
- Sink lines commonly plug because not enough water is flushed through them, especially after the garbage disposal is used. Run the faucet for about five seconds after you turn off the disposal. This helps flush the line.
- Never pour hot oil or grease down the sink—whether or not you have a disposal.
- About once a month, fill the sink to the top with very hot water. Using a fork or other kitchen utensil so you don’t scald your hand, remove the sink’s plug. As the clean hot water swirls down through the sink line, it takes much of the grease buildup with it.
- Drain-cleaning chemicals, if used improperly, can solidify in a drain line and aggravate the blockage. If the chemical doesn’t eat through the blockage, therefore not flushing down the drain, the chemical sits in your sink line. It crystallizes, and then there is no way you can easily clean a sink line after chemicals harden in it. Always be sure to follow the instructions
- It’s a good idea to keep a simple plumbing snake in your home. The snake can help you unclog your sink, bathtub, or shower drain if hair and other gunk happens to block them. A simple plumbing snake can be bought at your local hardware store or online for only a few dollars.
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To Keep a Toilet from Clogging
- Don’t put anything foreign down the toilet except toilet paper.
- Items such as dental floss, Q-Tips, baby wipes, feminine hygiene products, or any other paper product cling to the roots in the sewer and cause an immediate blockage.
- Always have a plunger on hand, and don’t wait until you need one to buy one—by then, it’s too late!
More Helpful Household Hints:
Catherine Boeckmann
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My shower runs the water out slow. Now water is leaking some where in my kitchen by th dishwasher but its never been used. My toilet is running ok.
Bathtub and kitchen sink are pouring out of washer drain. Husband tried to snake it, it went in a foot and hit like solid rocky material. Don't have the extra funds for a plumber. Need advise
My sink and bathtub in the upstairs bathroom has always drained slow. Over time it got worse and since the bathroom isn't used much we just let it drain slow. Eventually we stopped using the tub and sink entirely until we could look more into it. Now we are finding water sitting in our bathtub. It is always clean water only an inch or two. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from but when the water to the sink got turned off it stopped happening. Does this mean there is a something worse going on???
Acid is the best way to unclog drains provided there are no toxic chemical used in it. It will definitely save you from a number of headaches while cleaning the drain quickly. Drains are hidden heroes in your home. If you’re lucky, you can go for years without thinking about them, but when dirty sink water suddenly won’t go away or a toilet won’t flush, they can be a major frustration. A plugged drain certainly demands attention, but fixing it is probably something you can do yourself. You’ll get faster results than calling Pumpco Septic. they offer excellent Septic pumping, tank cleaning, Plumber, sewer repair and drain field maintenance Services.
What kind of acid because I'm having it where my kitchen sink is draining into my tub
My bath water keeps getting pieces of tissue in it, I am freaked out, plus I get fibers and black specks everywhere,
I am disgusted and feel like it is poison. I also find tissue forming in the water I get from the reverse osmosis, which I find in the dogs bowl.
It seems to form on its own, may come out clear and form into tissue, like toilet paper tissue. Please HELP!!!
In general, black particles in the water are related to a disintegrating or corroding piece of plumbing.
If the black specs are in hot water only (not cold), it may be related to your water heater, not the city water supply or anything poisonous. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations for maintenance of the water heater or call a plumber.
I have a pipe...I'm assuming a drain pipe...underneath the AC unit inside. A PVC pipe comes off the AC unit and goes down and drips water into this pipe/drain. The other day I noticed it was overflowing.
I'm a single mother, calling a plumber is out of my price range. I have snaked the pipe and nothing has come out.
Any other ideas?
I am having the same issue...I poured bleach down the pipe that is overfilling ....slowly but surely it went down completely. I read that your supposed to do this every year to prevent this from happening. You get yours fixed?
We have a backup as explained by your article (our shower water came bubbling up out of a toilet) but it isn't that severe (fixes itself within 20-30 minutes).
What is the cheapest way to fix this? Snake it?
