Your sewer line is a pipe that runs from your home to your municipal sewer line or your septic tank. It carries all the wastewater from your drains away from your house. This job is pretty important! As long as it’s working well, you never have to think about your sewer line or the unpleasant mess it deals with for you.
What if there’s a clog in your sewer line? It can lead to smelly, unsanitary, downright disgusting issues. Here are 3 ways to catch it before it gets that bad.
1: Spot the Signs of a Sewer Clog
Before you end up with sewage backing up into your basement or your bathtub, there will be indicators that something is amiss. If you’re noticing any of these things, it’s time for sewer cleaning in Union, NJ.
- Drain Clogs: While these can happen on occasion from a blockage in an individual drain, if you’ve got a drain that clogs frequently, or multiple drains in the house clogging at the same time, it’s likely that there’s an obstruction deeper within the drainage system or sewer line.
- Foul Odors: We don’t generally expect the bathroom to be the loveliest-smelling room in the house, but if a nasty smell wafts up from your drains, it can indicate that things are not moving along as they should.
- Lawn Problems: Does your lawn have a soggy spot that might be along the sewer line? Does the soggy spot have an unpleasant smell? Is a certain part of your lawn particularly lush and green, like it’s getting extra fertilizer? Your sewer line is probably the culprit.
2: The Old-Fashioned Method
Once upon a time, sewer pipes had to be accessed blindly. Equipment like drain augers was put down the drains and turned, with high hopes and no real information about where the clog might be. If a break in the sewer line was suspected—a problem which can happen in combination with a clog, often because tree roots infiltrated the sewer line—a trench would be dug to access the whole line.
Does that sound like a lot of bother? Luckily, times have changed.
3: The Modern Method
If a clog in a sewer line proves hard to tackle, video pipe inspection can give your plumber a real-time view of exactly what’s down there, and exactly where the clog is located, so the cleaning can be precisely targeted. A tiny camera can be inserted on a long, thin line, just like spies use in the movies!
Video pipe inspection also makes it unnecessary to dig long trenches across your yard to expose the sewer line and check for broken sections. Instead, the camera can pinpoint the location of the break from inside, and only a small, targeted hole will need to be dug to access the exact spot that needs repair.
If you’re concerned about your drains or your sewer line, don’t hesitate to get help. You don’t want it to turn into one of those worst-case scenarios. And when our qualified, highly-trained, modern-day plumber arrives to resolve your problem, it will be with high-tech solutions that maximize efficiency and minimize the impact on your time and your lawn.
Established in 1912, Max Sr & Paul Schoenwalder Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, A Corp. is your trusted resource for reliable drain and sewer cleaning and repair. Reach out to us today.