Prepare your drains for winter
As the Summer heat slowly slips away, the evening temperatures start feeling cooler, the tree leaves change colour and Winter is on the menu at your favourite local café – Before you begin to hibernate inside with your snuggie now is the perfect time to prepare your drains for the coming months.
Any blocked drains that are left undealt with could easily be exacerbated from the wet Winter weather, allowing water to backup, overflow or flood causing costly damage to your home or business. The quickest and easiest way to ensure that your drains are operating at peak efficiency over the cooler months is to make sure they are clean before it rains.
Trim the trees
Do you have any trees, bushes or plants that are overhanging your roof and gutters? This can cause a constant supply of leaves and debris to fall into your gutters. Giving them a good trim before they lose their leaves will prevent your gutters from filling up and causing blockages.
Inspect you gutters
When was the last time you looked at your gutters? You might be surprised by how much your gutters can accumulate and build up over the season, giving them a good clean can stop the leaves, twigs, branches and debris from washing into your stormwater drains and ensure that the water can easily flow away from your property.
Check your grates, pits and trenches
You’ve done the gutters but what about the stormwater grates, pits, and trenches? Any rubbish or debris that is covering pits, grates or trenches can block the flow of water to your stormwater drains. Ensuring that these outlets are cleared regularly will keep the water flowing smoothly through your drains, away from your property and prevent blockages in your stormwater system.
Check your septic
Have you had your septic tank emptied in the last 3-5 years? Now is a great time to inspect your septic tank and make sure that the pumps are working, the lids are free from damage and that the system is draining properly. If you find that there is an accumulation of sludge in the tank, contact your local provider to arrange to have your tank emptied. Once your tank is emptied its always good practice to get your drains cleaned to ensure you have good flow in to and out of the septic tank.
Saturated Ground
Do you have water pooling around your property when it’s raining? If there is pooling during heavy rains the ground can become saturated and start to expand and shift, causing damage to your pipes if they are older or brittle. If you notice that the ground continues to be saturated even after the rain stops, you may have a problem and it would be worth getting a CCTV inspection to see what’s going on.
While your trees appear dormant because they have shed all their leaves, you may think that they are doing absolutely nothing, but Winter is a big growing season for trees . . . well, for their roots that is.
In Winter, the underground root system of your trees is busy growing, searching and retaining nutrients to survive through the Winter and prepare for the Spring. The roots are attracted to the warmth, water, oxygen, and nutrients found in your underground sewer pipes.
With any blocked drain, there is always potential for flooding. If there are any warning signs of blocked drains such as bad odours, slow draining or gurgling toilets and basins or overflowing outdoor drains it’s a good idea to get a professional to check it out.
If you find that you have water pooling, and your rainwater is slower to drain away than normal, or you detect a bad smell coming from the drains it is probably a blockage developing. This is a good idea to have a professional attend with a drain camera to examine the obstruction and clear the blockage before it gets any worse.
When you have a drainage disaster you can count on us to get you back up and running.
“Nuck, Nuck, Pipe Doctor” 1300 737 337
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