Biggest Signs of Clogged Sewer Drains

Although one of the most important parts of the average home’s plumbing, very few people know much about the sewer line, other than it transports waste products away from their home and into the public system.  It’s not something that typically receives much attention until there’s a problem with it and you start to see the effects of this problem inside your home. The damage that clogged sewer drains can cause can be considerable in some cases, with each of the following not uncommon:

• Raw sewage backing up into your property and properties surrounding your home.
• Unhygienic living conditions and the presence of disease-causing organisms that can lead to illness.
• Considerable mess in various parts of your home that you will need to spend time cleaning up.

New Canadian Drain & Plumbing is a leading Toronto based plumbing firm and specializes in maintaining, repairing and replacing damaged drains, in addition to various other aspects of residential and commercial plumbing systems. Clogged sewer lines are more common than you might think and it’s a problem that needs to be dealt with swiftly. First of all though, how can you tell if you’ve got a blocked sewer line?

How to Tell if Your Sewer Drains are Blocked

Having blocked sewer drains isn’t a problem that will just slip by unnoticed and resolve itself after a short period of time. There are always signs that there is a problem and on the vast majority of occasions your home will “communicate” these problems to you. In particular, look out for the following signs:

• Washing Machine/Dishwasher – The onset of a problem with your sewer drains will often be accompanied by fixtures connected to your plumbing system behaving particularly strangely. For example, if you have a dishwasher or a washing machine, once it’s finished washing and the water drains out of it, you may also hear another drain in the house percolating  (it’ll sound like water is going down this drain too), with the toilet perhaps the most common. Alternatively, you may also see signs that water has spilt out of the drain in your basement area, or come up through the drain in the bathtub or shower.
• Unusual Toilet Flushes – You know how when you flush the toilet, the waste water will normally just drain away before being replaced with clean water from the toilet tank? When your sewer drains are clogged, the waste water won’t have anywhere to go, so it will back up and rise through the lowest point in the system, which is usually a drain in the basement or the bathtub/shower. If this happens you need to contact our plumbing team right away as your home could become very unhygienic, very quickly if you don’t.
• What Happens When You Run the Sink? – Again, water from the sink should just drain away under normal circumstances, but with clogged drains you may see other plumbing fixtures affected simply by turning a faucet on and letting it run for a few moments. The easiest way to test out this theory is to turn one of the faucets in your bathroom sink on and watch how the toilet reacts as this water goes down the drain. Can you see signs that more water is entering the toilet bowl? Or perhaps you can see a number of air bubbles rising? These are both signs that your sewer line is probably blocked.

By NOT Putting These Items Down the Drain, Your Sewer Drains are More Like to Stay Clog Free

As they always say, prevention is a lot better (and generally a lot cheaper) than the cure. Owing to that bit of wisdom, we would highly recommend that you don’t dispose of the following things down household drains.

• Paper Based Products – Kitchen towel, serviettes and diapers are all examples of paper based products that can often lead to clogged sewer drains when regularly put down the drain. Put them in the trash instead! This type of product, unlike standard toilet paper, won’t typically break down very quickly and over time will eventually collect and cause a blockage.

While they won’t cause a blockage, it’s also not a good idea to pour harmful chemicals down your drains either as they will often corrode the sewer line and make life a lot more difficult for water treatment plants. Instead, these chemicals will usually have to be disposed of via landfill.

As you were reading this article, if you recognized any of the signs outlined above, contact New Canadian Drain & Plumbing immediately. Every member of our team is fully trained and we are fully bonded and insured. For a free quote or to speak to a member of our team about any plumbing work you need carrying out, pick up the phone and call us on (416) 651-2990.