As Christmas approaches, the days grow longer and we get together with our family and friends, keep an eye out for some of those vital symptoms that indicate you have a slow or blocked drain.
Make it a holiday break to remember for the right reasons, rather than needing to call an emergency plumber to rescue you and your family from a sewer blockage.
Keep an eye out for;
The excessive rise or fall of the water level in your toilet. We call it syphoning, and it comes with a Glug Glug Glug
Slow draining water or ankle deep water in the shower or bath.
Swarms of small flies or sewer flies around smelly drains
Your kitchen sink, waste disposal unit or dishwasher are slow to drain.
Toilet paper or dirty water around your sewer surcharge gully in the garden or yard.
Dirty water leaking from a retaining wall or garden bed that conceals sewer pipes.
These are signs of a blockage, and your pipes have been trying to tell you, that all isn’t well.
When the extra guests arrive you will know.
So have a look around you home for the symptoms and please do not ignore them.
Defective toilet paper causes a $40,000 plumbing problem.
This blocked drain sounds like a job for The Lone Drainer And Pronto
According to the Denver Post, The University of Colorado is suing over ‘defective’ toilet paper that caused $US40,000 in plumbing fees over the past few years.
The incidents included toilets bubbling over, overflowing toilets, and toilets that simply wouldn’t flush and would cause some flooding and backed up drains. In one instance, the university had to saw-cut concrete and excavate sewer pipes in order to remove an auger from a sewer line that was so bound up and clogged with toilet paper that it became stuck. There were flooding issues in 27 buildings in the spring of 2009 alone. The lawsuit claims that ‘the toilet paper… failed to disperse properly and caused the toilets and sewer lines at the university to become clogged’.
Now the problem has been addressed, and the lawyers have begun clogging the pipelines of the legal system with their own paperwork. For plumbers, cleaning out blocked sewers comes with the territory. Dealing with lawyers, however, is something else.
The 19th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi India have made headlines for several reasons.
Firstly, the Australian athletes have done exceptionally well. I have personally enjoyed the efforts of swimming legend Geoff Huegill on the comeback trail after a long break from the discipline of training.
Huegill, the man they call Skippy, swam the best race of his life in the 100m butterfly final. His time, 51.69sec, was easily the fastest he has ever swum and astonishingly places him, at 31, second in the world this year behind the greatest swimmer of all time, American great Michael Phelps
A problem with blocked drains in the athletes village was blamed on an abundance of used condoms blocking up the sewer pipes.
Indian newspapers reported the blockages, organisers are denying it saying “there was no blockage in the drains in the village and no emergency plumbers were called in.
But one fact remains, the supply of complimentary condoms has been depleted by 4,000. So either there have been a lot of water fights, or groups of young athletes at their physical and hormonal peak have been “getting to know one another”.
I know which one my money is on!
It was during the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games that condoms were first purposefully handed out to athletes, and organisers have continued to do so ever since.
Whether you are in New Delhi, Double Bay, or Mosman, we don’t recommend disposing of condoms by flushing them down the loo into the sewer pipes.
Blocked drains in Sydney happen everyday and all the plumbers on our team love getting out there to help people clear their blocked drain, clean up any mess from an overflowing sewer and get on with their lives.
Hair, make sure to remove it from hand basins, shower grates and drains
Sand and soil usually gets washed into the sewer from low lying surcharge gullies and stormwater running down footpaths and driveways.
Foreign objects like dental floss, toilet deodorisers , kids toys or even underwear will block up sewer pipes very quickly.
The most common cause of blocked drains in Australia is tree roots, they grow into the pipes for many different reasons, but todays theory has been raised by a colleague who believes the full moon causes trees to do “something different” every month, search for more water or just “flex their muscles”, thus causing more sewer blockages.
It is a very interesting theory and we have been tracking it for about 18 months.
Every month, two or three days either side of the full moon we have a 10-15% spike in requests for help on blocked drains caused by tree roots. This month the full moon fell on July 26th 2010, and it was no exception.
Of course this only a theory, but we will keep tracking it!
If you see or hear of emergency plumbers and blocked drain specialists acting and looking a little weird around the full moon………….let me know!
Today pleasure was to meet Dr “Elliot”… This man is incredibly organised.
We were called to his home to run our drain cleaning equipment, the world famous “Rattlesnake” high pressure water drain cleaner, through his house drains downstream to the sewer boundary trap at the rear of his property, adjacent to the swimming pool.
He has had blocked drains in the past and declared he didn’t want the inconvenience of a blocked sewer pipe during the upcoming holidays when his extended family would be visiting and his old sewer line would be put under pressure.
The thought of having his beautifully manicured garden dug up or even disturbed, inspired this house proud professional to maintain one of his homes main arteries.
He compared our house visit to check his drains, just like a patient having a health check with their Doctor, especially as we get a little older. Pipes and people!
Dr Elliott knew where all the access points to his sewer were located, how to test his sewer and all the symptoms of a blocked drain. It was a pleasure to work with such a professional
An ounce of prevention will keep your drains running. Oh, and if pain persists………… see your Doctor
We went to Louisville to see how the best of the best plumbers in the United States, look after their clients. If you have blocked sewer drains, blocked sewer pipes caused by tree roots in your pipes or tree roots in your drains or overflowing toilets the experts we met at Pumper Cleaner 2010 know how to fix your problem.
As the name of the show suggests the focus is on pumping and cleaning up on that other topic very close to my heart, sewerage, thats right S – - T, because in our game S – - T happens.
Our short Youtube video shows some of the equipment on display and how it is used
Enjoy the trip!
Music by Chuck Mangione, “Give it all You’ve Got”
Please enjoy these images and come back to this blog page over the next few weeks to see Louisville KY through the eyes of The Lone Drainer and Pronto.
In the meantime enjoy these images of a very unusual public toilet,
I ask you, Would you use this Loo?
Now that you’ve seen the outsideview, take a look at the view from the inside out
It’s made entirely of one-way glass!
No one can see you from the outside, but when you are inside it’s like sitting in a clear glass box!
