Know If Your Main Line Is Clogged. You’re washing your dishes and humming to a commercial’s jingle when your congested nose falls prey to the faint odor of sewage (and a dying rodent!) underneath your sink!
Our scenario here seems pretty familiar, especially to home dwellers who have been struggling with their rotten iron cast pipes for ages!
Cast iron pipes older than 25 years or more accustom damage and, consequently, failure, due to the lack of inspection quite easily. Your drainage pipelines might fail due to a variety of reasons such as encroachment by dead tree roots, misalignment and mismanagement of sewer lines, and cracks or invasion of mold in the sewer system!
But the failure of sewage pipelines is inevitable when you don’t schedule a routine plumbing check! Once your main pipeline starts to deteriorate, it might ultimately break down and cost you a tremendous amount of money for repairs if you don’t hire a plumber right away.
To know about how you can tell if your main line is clogged or not, we have mentioned six prominent signs that might help you identify the root cause.
1) Sewage Backups
Significant blockage along the main pipeline can result in backflow of sewage through the lowest open drain. Since all of the branched sewage lines rely upon and flow into the main pipeline, a blockage in the drainage system will cause flooding of sewage whenever drain water.
So, whenever you flush the toilet, wash the dishes in the kitchen sink or dishwasher, or take a shower, you’ll observe backward pooling of sewage through the blocked drain! For instance, if you’re taking a shower and you observe water pooling in your toilet or the washbasin, then there is a possibility that you have multiple fixture clogs!
However, if you observe backup through one drain, then chances are that the corresponding branch is blocked instead of the entire sewage system.
2) The odor that Kills
– Or has killed!
Cracks in the sewer system can lead to the diffusion of a powerful yet pungent odor of sewer gas within your home! Sanitary sewers are usually sealed tightly so that the sewer gas wouldn’t emit its fumes within the respective building.
But there are exceptions as well. Drainage pipelines consist of vent stacks that are ideally placed along the roof for easy passage of sewer downhill. But vent stacks don’t cause any foul smells. So, if you’re smelling your sewage, then there’s a high chance of a crack in the sewer system.
3) Mold Invasion
Cracked sewer lines can also lead to an increase in the levels of humidity. When humidity reaches a level of 55 degrees or more, it can serve as a prompt motivation (rather an invitation!) for mold to grow and invade your home.
You can observe the mold growth taking over your room’s walls and ceiling along with a collapsing sewer odor if the cracks in the sewer system lead to broken pipelines.
4) Wet Lawn and Excessive Grass Growth
Notice patches of lush green grass growing arbitrarily in the middle of your lawn where there is no fertilizer?
Well, sewage draining from your pipelines into your lawn will act as a fertilizer rich in nutrients and promote the rapid growth of vegetation!
With collapsed pipelines, you’ll notice that your lawn is continuously soaked and wet with puddles of dirty, standing sewage water! Collapsed pipelines are the main culprit of leading the sewage towards the dirt outside, and causing it to overflow through the broken areas.
Dissipated soil and saturated ground with sewage is a hint that the collapsed pipelines lie underneath the pavers. You will also observe an indentation in your lawn, which will be prominent where the leak in the main pipeline has taken place.
Reputed and professional plumbers, such as those from Trenchless Water Line Repair, might notice the pool of standing sewage water on your lawn before even starting on the inspection.
To deal with the collapsed pipelines, digging through the lawn is the only way plausible for prompt repair or replacement of the choked sewage system.
5) Sinkholes
Cracked sewer lines left untreated for prolonged periods eventually lead to deterioration of your foundation slab and settlement.
Cracks begin to arise in your foundation, which can worsen and lead to the development of massive sinkholes. Treat the void in your yard by calling in a plumber and foundation specialist duo for immediate inspection and repairs.
6) Houston, we have rats
Roaches and rats – amongst other pests – are common inhabitants of sewer pipelines. A crack in the main pipeline might seem pretty inviting to rodents and will cause havoc during dinner.
No matter how thick rodents are, squeezing through the cracks in the main pipeline to reach the pipes running behind your walls is not a difficult feat for them.
7) Cockroach Infestation
Cracks also serve as a gross welcome for the infestation of insects such as roaches. If you see several cockroaches pooling into your bathroom or kitchen along with the backflow of sewage into your drains, be prepared! Cockroaches serve as the primary trigger of allergies and asthma.
The proteins present in the feces and saliva of cockroaches act as ‘allergens,’ leading to an abrupt asthmatic attack or rise in allergies.
If you observe complete eradication of cockroaches after spraying them with a pesticide or with the help of a pest control company, the problem might not be as significant as a pipeline leak. But, American and German cockroaches don’t stop there! If your pipeline comprises of a leak as minute as the size of a quarter or dime, these native cockroaches will squeeze their way through the spaces between the cracks!
Even your pesticides wouldn’t be able to divert the attention or cease the life out of these roaches, leaving you to shriek in terror or disgust, especially during nighttime!
To prevent damage to your pipelines, aim for a plumbing inspection before your nose falls prey to the distinguishing odor of sewage in your rooms! Impending storms can also wreck your plumbing systems, or they can fail out of the blue due to improperly aligned, faulty and mismanaged pipelines. A plumbing inspection at the right time can thus, prevent complete and inadvertent failure of your sewage system and negative consequences to your property. …