Sewerage: even the word sounds straight-up nasty.
Thankfully, few of us are ever put in a position where we’re faced with dramatic sewerage problems.
Unfortunately, not all of us are that lucky.
Do you notice an awful smell throughout your entire home? Do you hear gurgling noises in the walls? Are drains all over your home constantly overflowing?
If so, we have some bad news: you might be one of the unfortunate ones!
Our Doncaster plumber helps to explain common problems including blockages, and more importantly, what you should do!
Detecting common sewer problems
While problems with the sewer mains are the responsibility of your water company, that’s not the only place where you can run into sewer problems.
Connecting each home to the sewer main is a sewer connection pipe. Everything that leaves your house goes through this pipe to be transported to treatment and disposal facilities.
Naturally, any issues with this pipe can lead to sewerage problems!
Your house smells
Without a functioning sewer line, where is your wastewater supposed to go?
The answer? Back where it came from.
This can cause your entire home to reek. Imagine waste water backing up out of each toilet in your home – no thanks!
Not only that, but a damaged sewer can also cause serious health problems if left unfixed.
A nasty smell coming from one drain indicates that said drain is blocked.
If this smell is coming from all over your house however, odds are you’ve got a sewer problem on your hands!
“If these walls could talk, the stories they would tell…”
If your walls do start speaking, rest assured, you’re not going crazy. In fact, it could just be a case of your home trying to warn you of a sewer problem!
Obstructions in your sewer pipe force air through the water in your drains. As such, it’s a common sign of a blocked pipe.
Normally it’s a problem with a single pipe. If the gurgling can be heard no matter the room however, chances are the blockage is further down the line in your sewer connection.
Marshy front garden
In some rare cases, sewer problems can lead to your front garden turning into a bit of a swamp!
An undetected sewer connection leaks sewer water into the soil underneath your home and front garden. This can cause your land to become lumpy and uneven as the soil takes on water.
Additionally, it can even cause your grass and flower beds to take on a sickly colour.
What causes sewage blockages?
Your toilet and drains aren’t rubbish bins – you can’t just pour waste down them free of consequences!
Some of the common culprits we tend to uncover during sewer inspection include:
- Tissues
- Wet wipes
- Food waste
- Hair
- Cotton buds
- Nappies
Basically, anything you can think of that might block your toilet can also clog your sewer line.
Remember, there are only two things that should go down your toilet. Toilet paper is one of them, and we bet you can guess the other!
Blockages aren’t the only sewer problems that require the assistance of a professional plumber to fix. Other issues can include…
Leaking sewage
Sewage leaks are much, much hard to detect than water pipes.
This is because unlike drainage pipes, most of your sewer line is underneath your home in the slab or under your front garden.
There are a couple of rules of thumb you can use to pick out a sewer leak:
- Constant sound of running water
- Rat and pest sightings
- Vegetation changes in your front garden
- Uneven land and cracked ground
However, the only way to diagnose leaks with any accuracy is to call your local Doncaster plumber.
Using the isolation test, we strategically create blockages, isolating sections of sewer pipe.
These sections are then pressurised with air and monitored via a pressure gauge. We can also identify breaks in drains with a drain camera.
Bellied pipes
Pipes don’t have to break to start causing problems. Sometimes, even a slight sag can cause problems!
Maybe the original blueprints didn’t account for the type of soil. They may have chosen a spot with a lot of movement. It could even be a case of improper bedding.
Whatever the cause, this results in drops or sags that interfere with the sewer pipes normal flow.
Eventually, this can cause sediment and waste to build in your pipes, leading to blockages.
With enough time, the sag can worsen to the point where it causes cracks and breakages!
Using hi-tech drain cameras, your emergency plumber explores your sewer lines to identify and fix sags and bellies.
Getting to the root of the problem
Tree roots are designed to seek out water. The tree doesn’t care if it’s sewage – water is water. So when it gets a whiff of the constant, never-ending supply of the stuff in your sewer line, the roots try their best to break in.
That mightn’t sound like a big deal. And in the short-term, it isn’t.
Here’s the thing, though: mother nature is powerful. Trees and roots can grow around and through man-made objects – here are just a few examples.
So it’s not too hard to imagine tree roots doing something similar to your sewer line too!
Choose an emergency plumber in Doncaster to fix your sewerage problems
Many homes in Doncaster and surrounding suburbs fall on the older end of the scale.
As such, they tend to use older sewage lines which are more prone to these problems.
You don’t want to call any old plumber to fix these. No, you’ll want to choose a local Doncaster plumber who knows the area and the plumbing quirks that come with it (including recent upgrades to the Warrandyte sewage system).
Whether you need to install a new sewerage system or fix your existing one, H2-Pro Plumbing is the team to call.
Based in Warrandyte, our team offers prompt and reliable plumbing services in Melbourne’s north east, including Doncaster, Eltham, and Mitcham.
Call our qualified Doncaster plumbers any time of the day or night on (03) 9844 1444 for immediate plumbing advice from a local expert!
Got a question? Contact us online here.
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