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Any plumbing drainage in your house has the potential to get clogged, be it your kitchen or bathroom sink, or even bathtub.
Substances that don’t easily break down, and which get mixed with grease or oil, then find their way into your drainage system, can build up. With time, this can cause clogged drainage.
A drain blockage has the potential to cause significant damage to your home if left unattended. Here are some of those damages
1. Flooding
This is one of the most common results of a clogged drain. When water is poured into the sink and goes down the drain, but its pathway is blocked, it goes back up.
If your drainage pipes have a significant blockage, then it’ll not be long before you start seeing backed-up water in your sink or tub.
If the problem isn’t addressed immediately, it’s bound to cause flooding. You can visualize a scene where you have to deal with dirty, smelly water that might soak into your bathroom carpet or one that can be an unsightly scene on your kitchen floor.
2. Structural Damage
Structural damage to your home can be a devastating and costly affair. A clogged drain has the potential to direct the water that backflows into the foundation of your house.
When water seeps into your home’s foundation, it’ll weaken its structure, and cause damage to the floors and walls. To avert such events, it’d be prudent to nip the problem in the bud before it escalates by attending to a clogged drain immediately.
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3. Mold
As is the norm, plumbing works are always done behind walls, under the sink, or in other hidden places.
So, you may not immediately notice a leak behind a wall, resulting from a cracked drainage pipe due to clogging of the drain, until your walls start showing signs of bubbling and discoloration.
The presence of mold in a home is the worst nightmare for homeowners. It flourishes in humid and poorly ventilated areas and can cause damage to your home if not detected early.
A leak behind the wall is just the perfect setup for this. The worst part is that you may not even know that you have a problem until the mold is fully blown.
4. Burst Pipes
When a clog remains unattended for a significant period of time, it’ll start exerting pressure on the drainage pipes. The increased pressure inside the pipe will cause the pipe to crack or burst.
This is usually a messy situation, which can cause damage to your home’s plumbing system and can be very costly to repair.
5. Bacteria And Pests
Clogged drainage is just as bad for your health as it is for your plumbing works. When dirty water in a clogged drain backs up, it creates a conducive environment for the growth of harmful bacteria and becomes a breeding ground for pests.
When this happens, it’s only a matter of time before the insects and bacteria find their way into your home, causing illness to you and your loved ones.
6. Plumbing Leaks
Plumbing leaks caused by clogged drains are usually common in pipes connected to sinks, tubs, and garbage disposals. This happens when the water that backflows becomes stagnant for a long time, and causes leaks through the seals and caulking.
These leaks may not be noticed immediately, especially if the piping is positioned away from sight. This can result in damage to the surrounding wall or, even worse, mold growth or structural damage.
7. Bad Odors
A lot of things, like food, hair, soap, grease, and oil, go down the drain. The accumulation of these things can gradually cause a buildup in the drainage pipes before clogging the drain.
Their presence in the pipes causes bacteria to grow; as a result, a bad smell is produced. The bad smell may not necessarily cause damage to your pipes, but it’ll compromise the quality of air in your home.
The unpleasant smell will not only be near your sinks or tubs but will travel to other parts of your home as well.
Conclusion
Drains shouldn’t only receive attention when problems like clogging occur. As you’ve seen from the points above, they have the potential to cause significant damage to your home.
Scheduling regular clear-ups with professional plumbers can save you the headache of having to deal with the consequences of a clogged drain.
But, as you may know, even well-serviced drains can sometimes act up. So, the next time you hear your toilet bubbling, or notice water backflowing in your sink or bathtub, bad odor coming from the drains, puddles of water around the laundry area or floor near your sink, or a slow draining shower act fast.
