A challenge that almost all homemakers face these days are blocked drains. Be it in an apartment or even a home or smaller place, these drains tend to get clogged leading to messy blockage, smells, and of course a lot of headache. Then you have to call the plumber at the oddest hour and he would charge you an exorbitant amount for fixing the issue. On the other hand, some individuals try to fix it themselves, but the damage is usually already so much that there is no going back. So, the best scenario here would be trying to prevent them from happening in the first place. Here are a few tips on how to prevent the blocked drains-
Do not dump bigger cloggers into the drains
The first rule of thumb to prevent blocked drains would be to avoid dumping anything that is chunky and big into your drain. This includes a plethora of items like plastic caps, corks, bigger chunks of meat, any larger radius dough, or similar items. Even hair is known to be a messy drain clogged and you should ensure that it goes into the bin rather than the drain.
Put a filter
The next aspect or important factor to keep in mind is using a filter for the drain. Do not let the dump and garbage go right into the drain. You should try to keep a filter placed right on top of the drain. This can be an aluminum mesh, or anything made of steel. Make sure that it is waterproof because rust can be an issue here. These are imperative to drain protection and you must use it to prevent blocked drains.
Some other aspects that you must keep in mind are-
- Do not let the greasy substance pour down into the drain. A lot of the drainage choking happens because of grease. Try to throw the grease into a dumpster rather than the drain. What happens here is grease attracts the bigger ingredients that stick around the drain pipe.
- Along with this, even dump coffee powder into the bin rather than the pipe. Doing so too attracts a lot of garbage to stick to the pipes.
- As mentioned above, though you have put drain screens and filters to prevent blocked drains make sure to clean the same on a regular basis.
- Do use a lot of regular drain cleaning methods. They are not time consuming but help in preventing the drains from getting blocked. For example, one such option would be using hot water. All you have to do is let hot water run through drains. Doing so prevents the ingredients in the pipe from sticking to the drains.
- There are also a lot of home methods and procedures to prevent blocked drains. Some of them include pouring in a baking powder into the pipes. Then let it stay for a while. After a bit, pour in some vinegar into the pipe. Let that stay for about 30 minutes. Once this take place, you should start pouring hot water into the drain. This will help in clearing the drain and prevent long-term clogging and blocking.
- Avoid putting flour and other materials into the drain that are sticky and tend to let more food particles stick around.
These are a few tips that would help you in preventing blocked drains. Also, keep tools like plungers handy so that in case something goes into the drain by mistake, you can take the same out immediately using the plunger. These items include pasta, stickers, baby wipes, floss, etc. and other similar items. Hence, by following these little tips, you can easily prevent blocked drains.
