Keep your outdoor drains running clear with these four tips
Summer is the season we run a lot of water outdoors and in areas where we don’t frequent in the winter.
Whether it’s to wash the car, fill the kids’ pool, water the plants or just cool off, we pump a lot of water in the yard and walkways around our home.
But if you’re not taking care of your outdoor drains, you may end up flooding your basement, yard or driveway.
Between sudden summer storms, outdoor watering events, and drains blocked from an accumulation of debris several years in the making, outdoor drains can become just as clogged as any household sink.
Here are some tips to keep your property from turning into an unwanted swimming pool:
- Find all your outdoor or service building drains. You may not even know you have them if you didn’t have them installed yourself, but many homes have several outdoor drains. If your home is in a low-lying area, you may have drains to keep the home’s basement from backing up with water. Drains in your basement or garage are easy to spot, but
- Clean the debris away from the drains. Between spring pruning sessions, summer grass clippings and fall leaves, chances are your outdoor drains have become overfilled with yard debris. This leaves them clogged and unable to channel water away from your home.
- Don’t pour motor oil or grease down the drains. Not only is this a bad idea for the environment — and illegal in most municipalities — it can also clog your outdoor or garage drains much like food grease can obstruct your kitchen sink. If you’re the handy type who likes to change your own motor oil, buy a resealable container and take the used oil to a local auto mechanic or auto parts store equipped to take in this type of environmental hazard.
- Replace old grates. Because these grates, which are usually metal or plastic, are exposed to the elements, they begin to rust and erode or break apart. This can allow dirt, leaves, sticks and even outdoor toys to easily flow into drains and stop them up. Make sure you’re regularly checking on your outdoor grates to ensure larger pieces of debris aren’t washed down the opening only to get stuck further down the pipes.
And just like your home’s water and sewer drains, your Roanoke plumbing experts at Southern Trust Home Services know how to keep your outdoor pipes draining smoothly. Whether the job calls for a simple drain clearing or something larger, like a pipe replacement, we are up to the task.
Simply call us at (540) 228-9287 to talk to us about your drain clearing needs.
