Take These Steps To Avoid Costly Water Damage Restoration

Modern living room with a light sofa, white coffee table, and large window; open kitchen in the background The pipes that provide water to and from our Charleston homes are essential to daily life. One of the most common causes of water damage in homes though is also due to pipes. Leaky, clogged, or blocked pipes can leave your home in need of water damage restoration, instead of providing convenient water supply to sinks, faucets, appliances, showers, and more. Since clogged drains can cause serious flooding in your home, it is important to keep water flowing freely through your pipes. Here are some things you can do to help prevent clogs, blockages, and leaks from disrupting the water flow in your home leaving you with water damage restoration.

Don’t just pour anything and everything down your drains. One thing you should make sure to never pour down your drain is cooking grease. Cooking grease hardens and sticks to the sides of your pipes, creating thick sludge that attracts other build up, resulting in major clogs. Another culprit of clogged drains are coffee grounds. Instead of dumping them down the sink, throw them away in the trash. Even with a garbage disposal, large items should be dumped into the trash can where they have no risk of clogging the drain. Some food items that should never be washed down the drain are banana peels, eggshells, and potato skins because they are thick and sticky so they cling to the sides of the drain and pipes. If you are questioning whether or not to wash something down the kitchen sink, it is always better to be safe than sorry and just throw it in the trash.
Install drain gate or screens to bathroom sinks, tubs, and showers to help catch excess soap scum and hair from going down the drain. Few things are more cringe-worthy than pulling up soggy, mangled hair balls from a bathroom drain, and these devices can help prevent just that.
Be sure to only flush toilet paper in small amounts down the toilet. Clogged and overflowing toilets are common occurrences, but when clogs become large enough they can result in water flooding into your bathroom. Never flush paper products or feminine hygiene products down the toilet. These products can expand in water, get stuck in turns of pipes, and cause major blockages.
Regularly clean your drains with vinegar and baking soda. Vinegar helps to clear slow drainage by removing buildup in pipes because it contains acetic acid which is an excellent organic solvent. Baking soda is a terrific cleaning agent and also helps to absorb bad odors left behind in drain pipes. When combined with vinegar, baking soda will begin bubbling and then becomes foamy. This helps to lift away grime, buildup, and blockages. You should also run hot water through the drain daily to keep things moving and prevent buildup from sticking to the sides of pipes.