Common Causes of Sink Drain Clogs and How to Prevent Them

Are your kitchen or bathroom sink clogged drains starting to annoy you? Even though a blocked sink may not seem like a huge matter now, if it is not fixed correctly in the future, it will cause serious plumbing problems. The water flow in your pipes will suffer if you ignore a drain clog in your home. A severe drain clog may also result in water damage, pipe deterioration, and sewage backups, among other problems. 

A clog is one of the most common causes for people to call a kitchen sink plumbing service. A clogged drain can cause significant disruptions in the kitchen sink, bathtub, or toilet. Clogs are more than just a nuisance. Flooding, corrosion, and in more extreme circumstances, sewage backups can all be brought on by clogs. Here is a list of the most frequent causes of clogged sinks and how to avoid them to assist you in maintaining the drains in your home.

1. Grease, Fats, and Oils

Every day, a lot of individuals dump small amounts of cooking grease and fat down their kitchen sink. Although they might seem harmless at first, these compounds start to coat the walls of pipes and eventually combine with other debris to form hard blockages. The simplest solution to this issue is to gather spent cooking grease in a can or jar and throw it away in your household trash.

2. Tree Roots

The presence of kitchen clogs is sometimes more clear than we would want. If you are trying to understand how your kitchen sink might be clogged despite your meticulous maintenance, investigate the potential that tree roots could be clogging your pipes. No matter how big or small, tree roots will find cracks in your sewer line and wiggle their way inside. Tree roots may have caused a backup in your sewage system, clogging your kitchen sink. A sink plumbing service will need to come out and have a look before clearing the sewer line, removing the tree root, and fixing the sewer line.

3. Food Remnants

Even if your sink has a garbage disposal, you should only dump a few food scraps down it. Most home garbage disposals can only process small amounts of food waste. Coffee grounds, eggshells, pasta, rice, and fibrous fruits and vegetables are a few examples of food waste that should never be put through a garbage disposal. Instead of throwing away large food scraps in your household trash, think about composting them. 

4. Recently, the Kitchen has Not Been Used

This scenario occurs frequently: a homeowner goes on vacation, and their kitchen sink is clogged when they return. Naturally, a lot of individuals find this to be puzzling. How is that even possible? So the solution is straightforward. Previously, the water could pass all the muck that had accumulated in your pipes. But sludge, grease, and buildup get extremely hard once the pipes become inactive and dry up. Your kitchen sink completely clogs as a result of this.

5. The Buildup of Calcium and Magnesium

Are you a resident of a region with hard water? Calcium, magnesium, and other minerals can be found in excess in this kind of water. When you flush hard water down the drain, your pipes may build up a lot of limescale. As the age of your pipes, the high levels of calcium and magnesium in your water supply may cause them to start clogging. Purchasing a water softener system is the greatest approach to stopping clogged drains and sinks in places with hard water.

6. Coffee Grounds

Garbage disposals can handle microscopic particles of food waste. Unfortunately, coffee grounds don't wholly pass through pipes once they get inside; they build up over time. Additionally, this gets worse when they get wet. They take up water, collect, and get sticky; after that, they adhere to the sides of pipes. Coffee grounds should not be dumped down the sink; instead, they should be disposed of in the garbage.

7. Soap Scum

Everybody uses soap in their kitchen sinks to clean their hands and dishes. When combined with hard minerals, a variety of soaps can cause kitchen pipes to stop. There are numerous soap and shampoo varieties with substantial grease content. Once your soap's grease is flushed down the toilet, the minerals in your water will mix with it. As a result, the inside of your pipes will start to build up with limescale. We advise familiarising yourself with your soap and shampoo components to prevent a blocked washbasin and an expensive repair. It would help if you got simple soaps to flush down the drain to prevent plumbing problems.

8. Corrosion

Your pipes are undoubtedly corroding if you reside in an older home with metal pipes. There are two things that corrosion does that enhance the likelihood of a clogged kitchen sink.

Pipes grow rough inside as they rust. Your lines become clogged with waste over time, which attaches to more garbage. It's a never-ending circle. Did you also realize that your pipes get smaller over time? But it's not at all as you probably imagined. The walls of rusted pipes get thicker as a result. Rust is substantially less dense than cast iron, which explains why.

Keeping Kitchen Sinks Clear in the Future

Preventing kitchen clogs from forming in the first place is the best method to handle them. You can accomplish this by taking the following precautions:

• After food or other material has been flushed down the drain, keep the water running. If you turn off the water as soon as food enters the drain, the debris may become stuck in the pipe, increasing the likelihood of a subsequent blockage.
• Reduce the quantity of food waste that is poured down the kitchen sink drain. Food scraps should be disposed of in the garbage or compost containers. Use your garbage disposal solely as a last resort to get rid of buildup and not as a means of getting rid of waste.

Are you seeking kitchen sink plumbing services? There is no need to look further; Special OPS Plumbing has solutions for all your house's drains.

Any emergency plumbing, sink faucet repair, kitchen sink drain cleaner, or water damage problem receives a prompt response from the Special OPS plumbing team of skilled plumbers and drains professionals. We also take care of the main sewer and water line excavations. Even on holidays, our immediate-response crew is accessible every day and night of the year.