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In the summer your focus is likely to be on how much use you are getting out of the garden furniture and if you have enough ice in the freezer. But if you have just sat down on the lounger with a long cool drink, you want to be smelling the softly heating barbecue and not the stench of something unpleasant from your drains.

Prevent drain pain and keep them smelling sweet

If you do suffer a drain blockage in the hotter months, it is likely to smell stronger quicker, and attract unwanted pests in droves. This is equally undesirable for businesses. Although people assume drains are more likely to block in winter, there are a number of reasons they can block in summer too. And with ideal growing conditions for trees, roots can start to interfere with your pipes.

Whilst it might not be at the forefront of your mind, summer is actually an excellent time to undertake drain maintenance. Going for the preventative approach and looking after your drains can save you dealing with bigger problems at a later point. In the summer, the weather is more conducive to an internal and external drain survey and work can be done quickly and easily at minimal costs.

Regular maintenance stops problems building up

We’ve encountered all problems imaginable, but the most common causes of problems in drains do not come from a single event, but from a build up. A small problem or blockage becomes a bigger one, until eventually internal drains can affect external ones or vice versa. This is why regular maintenance can be so effective and avoid unnecessary issues and disruptions.

We can check that pipes are in good order and fix or unblock any issues to ensure everything is flowing with no accumulated debris or any kind of issue.

Home tips to look after your drains

There are also things you can do at home over the summer to minimise problems. Scrap your plates well and avoid putting any necessary food down the sink – you may well notice the smell of food lingering in your pipes more over the summer. Always avoid putting fats down the sink. If you accidentally do, flush with plenty of boiling water. Also brush your hair before using the bath or shower as we lose more hair in the summer months.

If you do notice low water pressure or slow drainage then get in contact promptly. It’s easier to solve the problem before it gets too bad. The Drain Guys have all the right equipment from rods, jet system to drainage CCTV and we’ll ensure your summer stays smelling sweet.

At the Drain Guys, we have extensive experience in clearing blocked drains across the South East. We often use specialist tools to identify problems beforehand so we can deal with the problem quickly and efficiently. One of these techniques which we usually use is a CCTV survey, which allows us to asses the blockage. This then helps us to find an effective solution to remove the blockage. Take a look at one of our case studies below:

“Our high pressure water jetter works at 3000psi and flows at 8 GPM. It can be operated manually via the control panel or using radio remote. We used this today to clear a blocked rainwater drain at a country estate where the high pressure water jetter was over 90 metres from where the blockage was. We were able to clear this blockage with no problems and no safety issues as we were able to use the remote, which meant we did not need to leave a manhole open and unattended while walking back and forth.”

When you attend a domestic or commercial company property and begin carrying out work you assume responsibility for not only our own health and safety but our customers too. There no profit to high that would make us forget that and have ourselves walked away from jobs where our customers actions could have caused accidents. Thats why after a lot of hard work from the team were please to say we have achieved Chas Accreditation. CHAS (The Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) was created by experienced health and safety professionals improve health and safety standards across the UK.​

We were called to a customers house on Sunday (yes a tradesmen who actually does weekend call out) Water pouring into there back garden from there burst garden tap.

We fixed the problem we no real issues but it got me thinking about things you could do in your own home to stop this happening to you.

1) Make your its installed correctly
2) You need to have a internal isolation valve
3) Good quality lagging (not just external Loft pipework too)
4) in winter months turn the isolation valve off
5) when the isolation valve is off leave the tap open if the pipe freezes the left over water has some where to go as it expands.

Follow these simple rules and you are unlikely to suffer from burst outside pipework.

Have a great day.

They say moving is one of the 3 most stressful things you experience in your lifetime. Buying a home without having a camera survey carried out on your drains is leaving yourself open to a very expensive learning experience at a time when your budget is at it’s tightest.

This week we carried 10 meters of root cutting, 4 local internal point repairs to stop further root ingress and then 10 meters of drain liner to seal cracks and fractures in the same 10-meter length of 4-inch clay pipework. This work was carried out for one customer in Worthing who had been living at their current address only 4 weeks.

Unfortunately, they had decided against a CCTV Drainage Survey and the cost of carrying out this work was 15 times the cost of having a CCTV drainage survey done.

The Drain Guys CCTV Drainage Survey would have found these problems recommendations would have been made and a quote provided which would have been passed to the home owner before our clients would have brought the house or the cost to cover the repair works deducted from the purchase price of the home.

So before you buy your dream home don’t forget to Call The Drain Guys to carry out a CCTV Drainage Survey it could actually be your best investment.

Here at The Drain Guys were always looking to the best technology’s to help give our clients the best possible results.

By upgrading our CCTV Drainage software to Wincan VX where doing just that Wincan VX is the market leader in the CCTV reporting software universally accepted by insurance company’s and water authority’s.

So weather your a Domestic, Commercial and Industrial property you can benefit from the most Advance CCTV reporting software in the market today.

The Drain Guys offer CCTV Drain Surveys throughout West Sussex, Surrey and London.

Grease can create havoc on your drainage systems, as well as being dangerous for our environment. Understanding how to dispose of it properly and cleanly is essential if you want to avoid costly, disrupting and messy problems.

A staggering 75% of the sewer blockages in the UK are caused as a result of poor management of fats, oils and grease from our kitchens. Because of the significant impact on our environment, this issue is now one of the key priorities of The Environment Agency and water companies, and it is essential that households everywhere understand how to properly dispose of food and grease (FOG).

Following these simple guidelines will significantly reduce the amount of FOG related blockages in your home and workplace:

• Always scrape food scraps into a bin and never down the sink- even the most meticulous among us can allow tiny scraps to escape down the plughole, but using your food bin after preparing and eating every meal will significantly minimise the risk of a blockage.

• Collect cooking oil waste in a drum, and arrange for it to be collected regularly by a designated waste disposal provider- even domestic kitchens use fats and oils that will cause major problems to the environment if not properly disposed of. Pour any leftover fat into a proper container and keep it somewhere safe until collection. Your local council will be able to provide you with details of oil disposal providers.

• Disconnect food disposal units from your main drain network. The Drain Guys can advise you on effective use of food disposal units and how to avoid unwanted deposits.

• Keep food strainers in your sink at all times and make sure they fit your plughole securely- food strainers are essential in modern kitchens, but all plugholes are not created equally. Make sure your strainer and plughole are the perfect fit so you can efficiently collect the scraps of food and minimise the risk of a blocked sink.

For more information about food and grease management, contact The Drain Guys on 0800 043 5452 or read this free guide published by Water UK.