Blocked drains are a common but potentially serious household problem, and are most often caused by fat and oils. Preventing blockages and acting quickly when they happen are both key to preventing leaking and damage to your pipes.
The Problem with Oils and Fats
Oils and fats are the leading cause of blocked drains in the UK. This happens when people pour them down the sink, expecting them to wash away with other liquids. However, fats will always solidify, and when this happens in the drain itself, they will remain in the place they turned solid, often in the corners of pipes. Not only will solidified fats build up, but they will also attract and hold onto other solids such as hair and food that come down the drain. Over time, these can block the entire drain and can lead to slow flowing drains and bad smells, or even to leaks and broken pipes. In the worst cases, these can occur in the sewer systems, causing major ‘fatbergs’. Whilst fatbergs are fixed by water companies and local authorities, blockages in household drains are the responsibility of homeowners.
Preventing, Diagnosing and Fixing Blockages
The most important part of drain management is to avoid pouring oils and fats down the sink or toilet in the first place. Ideally, fats should be left to cool and then deposited into your general waste. Installing a sink drainer or grease trap can also help prevent fats and other debris from building up. If you think you might have a blocked drain, then you should get this diagnosed with a drain survey. You can book a CCTV drain survey Loughborough with companies such as www.wilkinson-env.co.uk/drainage-services-cctv-surveys-midlands/cctv-drain-surveys/loughborough. Once a blockage has been found, a plumber will be able to clear the blockage before any damage occurs.
The most important step in avoiding blockages is to avoid pouring oils and fats down your sink in the first place. If you think you have a blockage building up, then dealing with the situation quickly will help prevent costly damage to your pipework.
Why a partly blocked drain starts to smell
A drain can look clear and still be the source of a bad smell. Water running away freely does not rule out a partial blockage further along the pipe. Something caught in the channel traps hair and scraps of food around it, and the first sign is often a rotting smell long before the drain slows down. Homes with small children are prone to this, as all sorts of objects find their way into plug holes.
In bathrooms, hair is the usual culprit. On its own it hardly smells, but as it builds up it catches everything else washed down with it. If a clump cannot be pulled out by hand, hair removal cream applied as directed, followed by a long run of the tap, can clear it.
In the kitchen, pouring a kettle of boiling water down the sink each day helps move along small lumps of fat before they grow. Mesh plug hole covers stop food and hair getting in at all.
Why blocked drains start to smell
A drain can look clean and seem to run freely while a partial clog builds further down the pipe. That clog is the most common cause of a bad smell, and the odour can spread through the whole house and be hard to get rid of, even after a thorough clean around the plughole.
Fats and oils are often to blame. They go down the sink as a liquid but soon harden inside the pipe, and anything else passing through sticks to them, so the blockage keeps growing. Once it reaches that stage it can be very difficult to clear.
The simplest rule is that nothing but water should go down the drain. Fit inexpensive mesh covers over plugholes and use them all the time to catch food scraps and hair. Pour leftover grease and cooking oil into an old can or jar, let it set, and put it in the bin. Prevention is far easier than clearing a smelly, stubborn blockage later.
Other kitchen waste that blocks drains
Fats are the main culprit, but they rarely cause a blockage on their own. When a 64-metre fatberg under the Esplanade in Sidmouth was examined in 2018, it was made of congealed fat bound together with hygiene products. Anything else that goes down the sink gives fat something to cling to.
Coffee grounds are a common example. They look harmless, but once they mix with fats and oils in the pipes they can form a blockage that needs a professional to clear. Put them on flower beds as a mulch instead. Paint, whether oil or latex, can dry inside pipes and clog them, and medicines should go back to a pharmacy or in the household rubbish rather than the sink.
Harsh cleaning products are worth thinking about too. Antibacterial agents and phosphates are toxic to rivers and water life, so natural cleaners are the gentler choice for both your pipes and the environment.