Preventing blockages: how to take preventive care of your home drains

One of the tried and tested ways to look after your home is to use your senses. Usually, if you don't notice anything out of the ordinary, everything is fine. But if you start to hear strange noises in the apartment, notice water running out of the sink or toilet slower than usual, or suddenly smell unusual odours in the bathroom or kitchen, it's worth checking to see if everything is OK.

However, you should not rely on your senses alone to carry out maintenance. For example, preventive measures are needed to ensure the longevity of your home's drains and pipes. By taking these measures, you can extend the life of your home and its fixtures and fittings and, above all, save money by avoiding unnecessary and unexpected costs that can arise as a result of carelessness or negligence.

Here are a few tips on how to extend the life of your home with small steps:

• In the bathroom, make sure you clean the floor drain regularly. You can make cleaning easier by placing a filter in the floor drain to collect most of the hair and dirt. A filter is an inexpensive purchase that can be bought at a basic supermarket. The filter is easier to clean than trying to fish long "snakes" of hair out of the floor drain. Plus, if you drop a piercing bracket in the shower, for example, it won't escape very far when it gets caught in the installed filter.

  Cleaning the floor drain is part of basic home maintenance. The more often you clean your floor drain, the less unpleasant it will be. It is recommended that you clean your floor drain at least a couple of times a year. Cleaning is easy: pour ½-1 dl of baking soda and 1-2 dl of spirits vinegar into the floor drain. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes and then rinse the well with plenty of hot water. You can pick up loose hair and debris with a paper towel, for example.

• Only the excreta of natural elimination intended for the toilet should be discharged into the toilet bowl. Anything else, such as the hair mentioned above, but also facial cleansing tissues, cotton wool, sanitary towels and tampons, will clog the drains very quickly.

  However, if the toilet does get blocked, you can try the following:

1. Push the toilet brush firmly and slowly into the toilet's drain hole. This can sometimes be enough to open the blockage by moving the brush back and forth.
2. If a toilet brush doesn't help, you can try a plunger pump. Place the rubber suction cup of the plunger over the drain hole and push it firmly several times. This will create a vacuum and may help unblock the blockage.
3. If necessary, you can use a chemical sewage remover. Follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully and make sure you use the right product for your toilet.

   
   If none of these help, call a professional.

• Ensure proper recycling of food scraps and food waste as bio-waste. Avoid throwing food or cooking residues such as potato peelings or leftover sauce into the toilet or flushing them down the kitchen sink. Grease from food easily congeals in the pipes and over time can cause blockages. In addition, food scraps attract unwelcome guests such as rats. Who would want to suddenly encounter such unwanted guests in their bathroom while doing their morning chores?

  It is recommended that you clean your kitchen and bathroom sinks a couple of times a year, but at the latest - when you notice odours. If you are a flat-owner or tenant, check the responsibility table to see whether you are allowed to open the odour lock yourself or whether it is the responsibility of the maintenance company. Both tenants and owner-occupiers can have the cleaning done by a professional and benefit from the household tax credit.

• Knock the sand out or, if you live in a block of flats, make use of reusable bags. During the summer, children bring in a surprising amount of sand, and those on the top floors no longer feel like making the round of emptying pockets and shoes back outside. Instead of dumping your sneakers and pockets down the toilet, you can use a large Ikea reusable bag.

  Have your child stand in the open Ikea bag and empty the pockets and shoes into the bottom of the bag. This minimises the shedding of loose sand from the turned pockets into the rest of the house. Sand spilled on the bottom of the bag is easy to pour into the bin liner.

  Also remember that cat litter easily clogs drains, so it should be disposed of with your mixed waste.

Read more about preventative ways to look after your home's pipes and how you can unblock them yourself, but also when to call a professional. If a blockage gets worse, you can call a vacuum truck. Read the customer report when a suction truck was needed.

Sewer blockages are incredibly common. Read about the five most common reasons why drains block. You can access the post here.

24 Center to help when you need help with your home plumbing

24 Center's network of plumbing professionals is just one contact away when all the ingredients for disaster happen at your home's water points, or if you need advice on how to proceed with a minor damage. Our on-call customer service representatives are ready to help you with all your plumbing problems, from sewer clogs to thawing frozen pipes and repairing leaking pipes. 24 Center handles both non-urgent and scheduled plumbing installation work, as well as emergency procedures such as pipe thawing and unclogging. You can count on our professionalism and quick response when you need help with your plumbing challenges.

Contact 24 Center when you wonder - what to do!