Signs that Your Floor Drains Need to be Cleaned

Some Sacramento homeowners live in fear of burst or leaky pipes. That’s understandable, since they can cause widespread damage in your home. There’s another potential trouble source you might be neglecting: your floor drains. Ace Plumbing gives you the common warning signs that these drains need to be cleaned, and what you need to do.

 

Know Your Floor Drains

Floor drains are common in many parts of the home where water could accumulate without proper drainage. Bathrooms, basements, laundry rooms, garages, and even your patio or driveway might have these drains. They’re designed to divert water away from the home and into your sewer. They do their job well — usually — until they don’t, and that’s when trouble starts.

 

Know the Warning Signs

Like any other drain, your floor drains can back up. Like your shower drain, for instance, the debris you track in, the fur and hair shed by pets and humans alike, spilled food, and any number of other household hazards can cause clogs.

 

Those clogs can manifest in any number of ways, each of which will leave behind telltale signs.

 

• Slow Drainage: This is often the first sign of trouble. If you notice pools of standing water, or what looks like a tub ring on your floor where water pooled and receded, call a plumber.
• Unusual Sounds: If you’re hearing bubbling or gurgling during drainage, it’s often a sign of a clog or block further back in the pipes.
• Odd Smells: If you’re catching a whiff of something that smells like decomposition, sewage, or anything else that seems a bit “off,” don’t wait to have your drains checked and cleaned.
• Simultaneous Clogs: It’s not unusual for a single drain to clog. However, if you’re noticing that all of your drains are slow or clogged, that usually means a larger problem that’s not localized to one drain or fixture.

 

Avoid Neglect

Ace Plumbing often gets called for major plumbing repairs that didn’t need to be major. If something is caught and addressed early, it’s often a simple fix (like cleaning the P-Trap, a small device that catches debris and combats odors). Those small fixes become big problems if they’re ignored, so don’t ignore them. Call us for floor drain cleaning!

 

Proper Floor Drain Cleanup

When your toilet backs up, you probably reach for the plunger. If your sinks don’t drain, you probably poke around in the cabinets for Drano. Neither of those will help in this case, because the problem is usually much further back in your system. Nobody wants to clean raw sewage or heavily-contaminated water off their floors, or to have to throw away family valuables and heirlooms that have fallen victim to a backup. So what can you do?

 

It’s actually simple, and won’t even involve getting your hands dirty. Pick up the phone and call your Sacramento plumbing professionals. From quick fixes like drain hydro-jetting to more complex operations like video inspection, we have the tools and the knowledge to protect your home!

 

Ace Plumbing is available at 916-455-4548.