Most people only think about their drains when they stop working — usually at the worst possible moment. A little prevention is far cheaper than an emergency callout for a flooded kitchen. Here is how often your drains actually need attention.
For the average home: every 18–24 months
A typical household with no recurring problems benefits from a preventative drain clean every year and a half to two years. It clears the slow build-up of grease, soap, hair and silt before it becomes a blockage.
Clean annually if you have…
- Large trees near the sewer line (root ingress is the number-one cause of serious blockages)
- A kitchen that produces a lot of grease and food waste
- An older home with earthenware drainage
- A history of repeated blocked drains
Businesses: quarterly
Restaurants, complexes and body corporates should schedule quarterly mechanised cleaning of kitchen, grease and ablution lines. Grease build-up is relentless in a commercial kitchen, and a blockage during service is expensive in every sense.
The warning signs not to ignore
Slow drainage, gurgling toilets, bad smells from gullies, and water backing up are early warnings that build-up is closing in. A multiple-drain backup or sewage at an outside gully means the main line is blocking — call a plumber immediately before it gets worse.
Why a CCTV check pays off
During a clean we can push a CCTV camera through the line to catch root ingress, a collapsed section or a back-fall before it turns into a dig-up. Finding it early is the difference between a clean and a costly excavation.
Book a preventative clean
We clean and inspect drains across Sandton, Midrand and the East Rand. Call 082 886 9119 to schedule before a blockage schedules you.