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A Guide To Sewer Line Preventative Maintenance

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We know that sewer backups are a costly, smelly disaster, so we offer all kinds of preventive services, from regular plumbing checks to Winnipeg line flushing. There are, however, a number of things you can do on your own to help maintain your sewer line and avoid backups.

 

Be Mindful Of What You Flush

Sewer line backups can be caused by clogs; these clogs tend to start relatively small and accumulate over time until you reach the point of total blockage. This can be prevented by watching what you flush down the toilet or sink. Avoid throwing food scraps down the sink unless you have a garburator. In the same vein, don’t drain grease, fats, and oils unless you have an appropriately sized grease trap. The City of Toronto has created a comprehensive list of no-flush items; the same logic applies here in Winnipeg.

 

Watch Out For That Tree

Roots are another major cause of sewer line clogs and backup. There are a couple options if you want to avoid root-based backups:

The first option is to simply remove trees near your sewer line. The advantage to this solution is that it’s quite permanent and effective. The disadvantage, of course, is that you lose the trees, which can be a downer.

 

The second option is to get yourself some root prevention treatment (which, conveniently enough, we sell). Root prevention treatments act by killing the parts of the root that make their way into your sewer line without doing any damage to the tree. 

 

Watch Your Vent Pipe

When you have fluid in a straw, and you put your finger over one end, the fluid won’t spill out the other end. That’s basically the premise of a vent pipe – it supplies air to your plumbing so that it can flow properly. Without getting too deeply into fluid dynamics, it’s pretty simple –  for your plumbing to function properly, you need air pressure at the top of the system.

 

Check on your vent pipe regularly to make sure it’s not obstructed by tennis balls, a bird’s nest, and the like. This will help you avoid undue pressure and clogs in your sewer line.

 

Get Regular Maintenance

Everything we’ve mentioned here should help you avoid sewer backups, but it’s still a good idea to have preventive maintenance done. We can use a camera to check for cracks or other problems with the sewer line, and our line flushing will get rid of debris, sediment, and other materials that could make for clogs or damage to your pipe. 

 

Some Obvious Tips

Don’t dig without knowing where your sewer line is. Don’t start a landscaping project without considering what it might do to your sewer line. Don’t attempt complicated plumbing-related tasks that you don’t know anything about, because you could damage your sewer line. These things are pretty obvious, but everyone has off days, so we figured it would be useful to include them here. 

For plumbing in Winnipeg choose Clean Line.

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