The routine maintenance of your home’s systems keeps everything running smoothly, but it can be hard to know the condition of your sewer line. Do simple tasks to maintain your sewer line, and our plumbers can preemptively check for damage with cameras. Cleaning your sewer line and choosing preventive maintenance will protect you from future repairs.
How Often to Clean Your Sewer Line
You may think the sewer line is the city’s responsibility, but that applies only to the line once it leaves your property. Your plumbing system has pipes leading from every drain that connects to your sewer line. Clean your sewer line every 18 to 22 months depending on your household’s size.
Watch What Goes Down Your Kitchen Drains
Food waste is usually heavier than waste debris and has a better chance of creating a clog in your drains. Scrape food debris into the garbage since your plumbing can’t handle the heavier waste. Never treat your drains or garbage disposal like a trash can.
Some of the worst food waste to allow down the drain include starchy or greasy foods that can cling to the pipe walls and create clogs. Stringy and fibrous foods, such as potato skins and corn husks, are some of the densest waste your plumbing can’t handle. Coffee grounds and eggshells can fit down your drains but may block your pipes.
Set Toilets to High Volume Flush
A snake and camera can check the sewer line for flaws and inform you of your toilet’s type of slope. Toilets may come in low-flush, low-flow and high-efficiency styles, but your toilet’s slope makes a difference. A steep slope may eventually clog, but a negative slope needs a high-volume flush to remove waste from your home.
Quickly Handle Sewer Issues
If you notice an issue with your sewer line, plumbers can use a camera to investigate the problem inside the line. A snake can slip down a drain and pull gunk out depending on the size of the clog. Snaking can remove new clogs but may leave small debris within your pipes that may form another clog.
Hydro jetting is another option to maintain your sewer line. The high-pressure water can remove large clogs of food, material or tree roots. Snaking or hydro jetting are the fastest ways for plumbers to fix a sewer line once you notice slow or backed-up drains.
Remove Tree Roots
Your sewer line is about 50 feet of pipe running through your yard, which tree roots will grow toward for nutrients. Roots can grow through the walls of the sewer line, creating cracks or bursts. Hydro jetting removes tree roots from the pipe to unclog the line, but professionals should trim the tree roots near the sewer line annually.
Preventive maintenance protects your sewer line and delays expensive repairs and sewage backup. You can protect your plumbing by watching what goes into your drains and keeping trees away from the sewer line. If you need sewer line services in Brighton, CO, call us today at Royal Services to schedule an estimate.