Drain lines can be found under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, under your shower, tub, and toilet, and in the back of your wash machine. You might have floor drains in your home as well. These drains all flow into your side sewer line and then into the city sewer line.
Slow Drains and Drain Line Health
A slow drain means something in the drain is preventing water from freely flowing out. Take care of a slow drain to avoid it becoming a clog or backup. As homeowners, we are used to a certain level of drain performance and a slow drain may seem normal. But imagine water flowing quickly from your sinks and tubs. That’s what a healthy drain should do.
Basement drains are good indicators of overall drain line health. If you have a side sewer clog, the drains on the lower level of your home will back up first. Therefore, we recommend paying attention to your wash machine drain, basement shower drain, and basement toilet. If these are running slow or backing up, you have a problem.
Avoiding Clogs in Your Drain Lines
Kitchen sink drains often rely on a garbage disposal, but disposals don’t reduce the amount of fats and oils in the drain line. Fats in drain lines are never recommended. When drains are already compromised, grease and oils contribute to problems. Use paper towels or rags to wipe up fats and oils before washing pans, and put the towels or rags in the garbage.
As you may know, we don’t recommend putting anything except waste water down your pipes. Screen out whatever you can before water flows down the drain, including food, hair, soap chips, wipes, etc. Use your compost bucket and garbage can instead and save yourself tons of drain problems and plumbing bills.
Drain lines aren’t really that wide, and are not designed to take a lot of debris.
- House drain pipes are 1 to 4” in diameter
- A toilet drain pipe is 3 to 4” in diameter
- Your side sewer pipe is 4 to 6” in inside diameter
- The city sewer main varies and is up to 8” in diameter
Raymark Helps
Call Raymark for regular drain cleaning, and to solve any water or drain problems. We want your drains to flow as designed and avoid problems with slow or backed up waste water.
In addition, Raymark performs plumbing maintenance service which includes routine cleaning, checking all fixtures for leaks, ensuring the toilet tank drains properly, and checking that pipes are properly secured and functioning. We strive to keep the water flowing.