It’s nearing the holiday season this year, which means that more people are potentially going to be using your home’s drains. That’s not a bad thing, actually, it’s exactly what they’re designed for! As long as everyone does their part and doesn’t flush anything they shouldn’t down the drain, you should be perfectly fine, right? Well, that’s the best-case scenario.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that can clog a drain, most of which are materials that homeowners don’t even know their drains can’t handle. As experts of plumbing in Lake Worth, FL, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to give you a bit of a PSA before the Thanksgiving season to talk about some ways to identify the culprits of a clogged drain.
Don’t worry, we’ll even go further to talk about some solutions that can help deal with these clogging materials. Keep reading to learn more!
The Materials of Drain Clogs
We can’t really cover the worst drain clogging materials unless we talk about the two most common drains in the house—the bathroom drain and the kitchen drain. Each drain deals with a different set of clogging materials.
The Bathroom
Here’s what might be clogging your bathroom drain:
- Hair. We all know how bad hair can be for a drain. Mesh screens are absolutely vital in your bathroom for catching hair so that you can throw it away. This will help your drain system immensely.
- Soap residue. Soap can normally dissolve, but when residue reaches areas of your drain that don’t get a lot of contact with water, it can quickly solidify into a mass that’s hard to get rid of.
- Gels. Those products and hair gels might be vital to making your appearance shine, but they can ultimately clog up your drain. Be mindful of how much thick gel you’re sending down the drain. These can coagulate on the sides of your plumbing system.
The Kitchen
Here’s what might be clogging your kitchen drain:
- Fats, oils, and grease (FOG). Fats, oils, and grease are one of the most sinister culprits of drain clogs. They’re liquid when we flush them down the drain, but they cool off and quickly solidify once in there.
- Food waste. It might feel like an easy solution to flush your food waste down the drain, but you’re giving yourself problems to deal with later on.
- Coffee grounds and fruit seeds. Even though these materials might seem tiny and impossible substances to clog your drain, but they can in large enough numbers.
Quick Solutions That Can Help
Here are just a few quick solutions that can help you this holiday season.
- Keep fats, oils, and greases out of the sink. Try mopping them up with a paper towel after you’re done cooking, and sending them straight into the trash. This should help remove one of the most insidious drain clogging materials in your kitchen.
- Use mesh screens in kitchen bathrooms to catch food particles, as well as in the bathroom to catch hair and other drain clogging culprits.
- Stay vigilant of your little ones! A flushed toy or candy down the toilet can lead to all sorts of problems with your plumbing system.
