Taking care of your own home is a constant battle to stay ahead of problems before they get too big. Your plumbing and pipes need proactive rather than reactive maintenance unless you want to deal with a huge mess and possible property damage. To protect your home from plumbing issues, you need to have professionals check your sewer line regularly. Here are a few signs that you need a sewer line inspection sooner rather than later.
Stubborn and Slow Drains
It’s not uncommon for drains to get clogged in a way that you can fix yourself. Drain snakes and fluids can do the job just fine, provided you use them correctly. However, you may find that no matter what you do, water moves through your drains slowly. If so, the problem could be deeper than you realize. This is when you want to call in a sewer line expert for an inspection so that the cause of the clog doesn’t get worse.
Unpleasant Odors
Any sewage odor coming from a drain or toilet is a serious cause for concern. These smells come from the air that gets trapped inside your pipes when they become clogged. The gas can be detrimental to your physical health, so you must have your sewer line checked out right away if you start to smell anything weird.
Backflow Issues
As with odors, if anything comes back up from your drains, you already have a problem. Besides being disgusting, backflow issues can also be harmful to your health. Backflow only happens when there’s a large clog somewhere in your pipes that your DIY cleaning methods won’t be able to fix on their own.
Unexpected Water Bill Increases
A more subtle sign you need to get a sewer line inspection is a water bill price that keeps going up, even when you haven’t changed anything about your water consumption. This could indicate that you have a leak somewhere that causes your home to draw more water to compensate. Inspecting your sewer line is a short-term expenditure to fix a long-term problem.
Mold or Mildew Growth in Walls
Another sign that your sewer line could have a problem is a growing amount of mold or mildew. This could also signify that there’s a leak somewhere in the line. A professional plumber will be able to find this leak with minimal damage to your home and help you deal with the problem in the most efficient way possible.
