5 Tell-Tale Signs of a Main Sewer Line Blockage
Posted on: 13 July 2017
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Your home's main sewer line is the pipe that allows waste water and sewage to flow out of your home and into the sewer. A blockage in this pipe can lead to serious problems with the plumbing in your house, so it's important to identify it quickly. Blockages in the main sewer line are difficult to fix yourself, so you main need to call out a plumber to resolve the problem. Here are five signs of a main sewer line blockage to look out for.
1. Slow-Draining Sinks and Showers
A blocked sewer line can make all the drains in your home drain more slowly than usual. If you notice water building up around your feet while you take a shower, you can try using a plumbing snake to snag hair from the drain, but if this doesn't solve the problem, check the other drains in your home. If they are all draining slowly, the issue could be located deep inside the main sewer line.
2. Gurgling Sounds
Even if you aren't struggling with completely blocked drains, you may still notice a gurgling noise when water goes down the drain. This is a typical symptom of a main sewer line blockage. Listen carefully when emptying the kitchen sink or bathtub to identify the earliest signs of a problem.
3. Backflow and Bubbling
Look out for water bubbling back up through the plug hole after you empty a sink or drain the bathtub. Sometimes when the main sewer line is blocked, water that drains down one plughole can come back up through another.
4. Smelly Drains
When water takes a long time to drain from your property, it can become stagnant inside the pipes. This can lead to unpleasant smells. If small pieces of food are going down the drains along with the water, the smell could be even worse, as these traces will eventually start to rot. Don't ignore bad-smelling drains; instead, call out a plumber to investigate the problem.
5. High Water in the Toilet
When you flush the toilet, pay attention to how high the water rises in the bowl. A single flush that rises high can simply be caused by flushing a lot of paper at once, but if it happens every time, that could be a sign that there is nowhere for the water to go. Instead of waiting for your toilet to block up completely, call a plumber out today to find out what the issue is and fix it.