How to Unclog a Kitchen Sink

How to Unclog a Kitchen Sink

Septic Failure Prevention | Tips & Tricks

Plumbing How To -- The key to septic failure prevention is good maintenance of your septic tank and plumbing system. And also a little consideration on what you actually throw down the kitchen sink and flush down the toilet. Failure of a septic system can result in sewage water backing up into the tank and even into your home’s plumbing.
Knowing where your septic tank and drainfield are located is a vital part in the maintenance of your septic system. If you don’t know where to find your septic tank take the time to read: How to find your septic tank and manhole cover first.

Preventive Septic Maintenance

As with many things it is better to avoid problems with a septic tank beforehand, rather then trying to fix things after the septic tanks fails. Depending on the size of your household, the sewer sludge will build up at the bottom of the septic tank. With too much sewage sludge in the septic system, the septic tank can eventually spill over into the “distribution box” and drain-field and rapidly clog the distribution lines. For more information on how to take good care of your septic system, then please read : Septic System: Maintenance of Septic Tank Systems first.

Causes of Septic Tank Failure

A number of factors can cause an on-site septic to fail, including unsuitable soil conditions, improper design and installation, and inadequate maintenance practices. Failure rates for septic systems typically range between 1 and 5 percent each year, but can be much higher in some regions of the country.

Read more: Septic Failure | Tips & Tricks

Online Plumbing Terms, Vocabulary Test

Online Plumbing Terms, Vocabulary Test

How to fix a smelly Drain | Tips & Tricks

Plumbing How To -- we use our kitchen sink on a daily basis, and sometimes you get a foul smell coming from the kitchen drain. In this article we will explain how to fix a smelly drain as well as some ways to avoid smelling drains.

Cleaning a Drain With Baking Soda

An easy way to try to fix a smelly drain is to pour a cup of baking soda down your kitchen sink and let it work for 15-20 minutes before flushing the baking soda down the drain with a large pan of boiling hot water. After that turn off the garbage disposal and clean the rubber or plastic guard at the entrance to your drain. Then clean the pipes that run to the external plumbing using any commercial drain cleaner.

How to Stop Smelly Drains

In order to avoid a kitchen drain from smelling, you should try not to dump any food down the sink, and make sure that the sink stopper closes properly. If any food bits do go down the kitchen drain then make sure that you rinse it with enough water to get the particles past the sink p-trap.
To prevent a smelly bathtub drain, you shoud try to keep the amount of hairs that get flushed down the drain to a minimum, they can eventually lead to a slower drain, which in turn will allow smelly bits to settle more easily on the inside of the drain pipes. To avoid this all you need is a catch over the drain to block the hair from going down the drain.

Read more: Fix Smelly Drain

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