Nobody wants to encounter a slow or clogged drain in their home. It’s an annoyance and can bring simple tasks in the household to an indefinite halt until it can be remedied. Fortunately, clearing out a clog isn’t a tough job. If you can’t manage it using a basic drain plunger or with a hand-cranked drain snake (don’t use chemical cleaners, please!), you can always call our plumbers any time of the day or night and we’ll have the drain cleared out fast.
However, clogged and slow drains sometimes indicate a problem that runs deeper than blockage in a drain pipe. Your home’s sewer line might be suffering from breaks, obstructions due to tree root infiltration, or organic and inorganic build-up. These are more serious troubles than drain clogs, because they can lead to the full failure of your home’s drainage system and eventually sewage backing up into the basement or foundation.
Spotting the difference between a standard clog or slow drain and a sewer line problem will help you know when it’s time to call for help. Our plumbers can handle any size clogging issue, from a clot of hair in the trap of a bathroom sink to replacing a corroded sewer pipeline. Below are ways to tell you may have sewer line worries.
The frequency of clogs
You don’t want to have clogs occurring so often that a plunger is standard equipment for the kitchen or bathroom. Clogs occurring more than once a month—that’s not good! Have a plumber look into what may be causing repeat clogs.
Multiple simultaneous clogs
One clog may be an annoyance. Two clogs in the house mean a much bigger problem. Indeed, when clogs are happening simultaneously in your home, it probably means the clogging is deeper into the drainage system, far along in the sewer line where it can slow multiple drains. It’s especially worrying if the clogs are first happening in the drains in the lower levels of the house, then expanding upward.
Bad odors from the drains
A single drain that’s started to smell bad is probably a simple problem: the drain hasn’t been used in a few weeks, and the water plug in the p-trap that keeps sewer gas from flowing the wrong direction in the plumbing has dried up. Pour some water down the drain, and that should take care of the trouble. But if it doesn’t, or if more drains are creating this foul sewer odor, the trouble is probably sewage backed-up in the pipes forcing the bad-smelling gases up through the p-traps.
Gurgling drains
This is connected to those bad drain odors. The gurgling sound is the sewer gas forced to bubble up through the water in the p-traps.
No matter the concern you have regarding your drains or your sewer line, you can trust to us for superb plumbing service in Burlington, VT and elsewhere in Northwest Vermont and Southwest New York. We’ll unclog the drains or take care of cleaning your sewer line, or even repair/replace it.
Red Rock Mechanical LLC: Serving Northwest Vermont and the Plattsburgh, NY area for over 23 years.
