Have you ever noticed your plumbing smelling for no obvious reason? Stinky plumbing problems can happen out of the blue for all kinds of reasons, some more serious than others. If you notice your plumbing is stinking, keep reading. Here are 4 reasons why this might be happening.

Problems in the Sewer Line

There are many things that can cause damage to your home’s sewer line. Tree roots growing into the line, clogs putting pressure on pipes, and sinking sewer pipes due to soil changes are examples of typical sewer line damage. No matter what causes sewer line damage, the bottom line is that a broken sewer line causes sewage leaks and sewage water smells.

If you notice, the stinky smell coming from outside your home or from the drains, it’s likely a sewer breach has happened. To fix this problem, you need to call for professional sewer line repair in Escondido, CA, right away.

Clean Your Garbage Disposal

Think about all the stuff you toss into your kitchen garbage disposal. While the disposal’s job is to chop up and dispose of all the food waste, that doesn’t mean it can’t smell from time to time. If you don’t clean the drain regularly, eventually the garbage disposal will smell from all the food waste clinging to the inside.

The best way to clean a garbage disposal is to pour a little soap into the disposal and run cold water through the disposal for a few minutes. You can also use baking soda and vinegar with hot water to get rid of food particles or bits of grease. After cleaning the disposal, put some lemon or orange peels in the disposal and turn it on. The natural oils in the peels releases a pleasant smell and keeps your kitchen smelling good.

P-trap Problems

This is the u-shaped portion of the pipe that is under the kitchen or bathroom sinks. Ordinarily, there’s a small amount of water that stays trapped in the p-trap. The water is there to keep sewer gases from coming up and out of the drain.

Sometimes, when certain drains in the house aren’t used as often, the water in the p-trap evaporates and dries out. The smelly sewer gases are no longer blocked and come up, out of the drain. Although this stinks, the good news is that it’s easily fixed. All you need to do is pour water into the drain which will refill the p-trap.

Biofilm Build-up

Have you noticed your shower drain smelling? It could be a biofilm problem. Years of shampoo, body creams, shaving cream, soap, and bathing products create a film in drains called biofilm. This is natural bacteria that smells bad.

Getting rid of biofilm is actually quite easy. All you need to do is pour hot water, about 5-10 quarts, down the drain followed by a vinegar and backing soda mixture. Let the mixture sit for a couple of hours and then pour more hot water into the drain. This should clear out the biofilm and make the drain smell better.

At Escondido Plumbing Whiz, we know that smelly plumbing issues aren’t pleasant to deal with. Luckily, most of the problems are easily fixed. However, when you run into a problem or have a question, we’re here for you. Call your friendly neighborhood plumbers in Escondido, CA, for all sewer and drain repair, replacement, or maintenance.

That’s a loaded question because your home has many different kinds of plumbing pipes. You have interior water pipes, exterior water lines, and sewer pipes. Here at Escondido Plumbing Whiz we work on all residential pipes.

Here are some things you need to know about the life expectancy of your home’s pipes.

Interior Water Pipes

These are the pipes that connect to your kitchen and bathroom sinks, your shower heads, bathtub faucets, washing machine, water heater, and more. These pipes can be metal or plastic depending on their usage and the age of your home.

Older homes may have copper piping, cast-iron or lead pipes. Whereas, newer homes may have more plastic (PVC) piping because it’s more flexible and lasts longer.

Interior water pipes can last a long time as long as you maintain your plumbing system. Be careful about what you rinse down the sink or flush down the toilet. Also, stay away from liquid drain cleaners. The chemicals in the cleaners can corrode metal pipes and they don’t do a good job of getting rid of clogs anyway.

Exterior Water Line

These are the pipes buried under your yard. Everyone has a main water line that carries fresh water from the municipal water supply to the house. Some people may also have sprinkler water lines or water lines that connect to pond or other landscape water features. These lines offshoot from the main water line.

Underground water lines can be plastic or metal. They can last decades without any problems, but you have to be careful not to damage them. Digging accidents affect these lines the most. Make sure you know where your home’s water line is before you dig post holes, landscaping holes, or any other type of digging.

Sewer Pipes

Residential sewer pipes handle more water than interior or exterior water lines. The reason being that your home’s sewer pipe removes every bit of water from your house. Any time you rinse something down the sink, do a load of laundry, flush the toilet, or run the dishwasher, the water goes out through the sewer pipe.

Sewer pipe can last for 50-75 years. However, most don’t last as long as they could. There a couple reasons for this. First, older homes have sewer pipes made from clay or cast-iron. These materials don’t hold up well to changing soil conditions (clay) and have a tendency to corrode (cast iron).

The other problem with sewer pipes is that they often develop small problems that homeowners are unaware of and this leads to bigger issues. For example, all it takes is for a tiny crack to form in the pipe wall and a leak develops. This crack can also invite root intrusion, which can lead to serious clogs.

How to Keep Your Pipes in Optimal Shape

The best way to keep your home’s piping in great condition is to maintain it. At Escondido Plumbing Whiz, we recommend that all homeowners have their plumbing inspected yearly. It doesn’t matter if you have a new construction home or a 50-year-old house. Committing to a yearly plumbing inspection means you’re less likely to be woken up by a burst pipe in the middle of the night.

For the best plumbing service in Escondido, CA, call your friendly neighborhood plumbers. We’re always here for you and take your calls 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!

Kitchen sinks always seem to clog at the worst times. Either when you’re cleaning up from a large family meal or when you have guests. Sometimes the clog is caused by excess food stuck in the drain and can easily be removed with your fingers. Other times, the clog is farther in the pipe past the point where it can easily be reached or plunged.

It’s easy to call a drain cleaning company in Escondido to clear a clogged kitchen sink, but what if you could avoid the time and expense of doing this? Here are a couple of tips to help you keep your kitchen sink clear and ready to work at a moment’s notice.

Keep Trash Away from the Sink

Trash never belongs in the kitchen sink. Packaging and food scraps should always be thrown directly in the trash. It’s tempting to use the sink as a temporary trash can while you’re cooking dinner, but it’s easy for non-organic substances to fall into the drain without your knowledge and become lodged. If you don’t like to walk back and forth to your trash can, consider a trash bowl to store your scraps and packaging in to throw away all at once.

Don’t Pour Cooking Oil into the Drain

Cooking oil, grease, and fat from cooked foods should be disposed of in other ways than rinsing them down the sink. These substances can harden and coat the inside of the drain pipes. The sink may not clog right away, yet over time you will start to experience problems.

Hydro Jet Drain Cleaning and Drain Camera Inspection

If your sink does become clogged, as your local drain cleaning company in Escondido, we can help you. Hydro jet drain cleaning and drain camera inspection are the tools of the trade we use to locate and clear the toughest drains – guaranteed!

Call us today to learn more!

Are you concerned that you may have a main line clog in your home? Years of plumbing usage can cause debris to collect inside the sewer line. Also, if you have an older home, the main line could have collapsed from age, corrosion, or even mature tree roots that have grown into the side of the pipe. All of these circumstances can make it difficult for water and waste to move through resulting in a very messy situation.

When one of these kinds of clogs go unnoticed, it’s possible that raw sewage could flood your house or yard. That’s why it’s important that you know the warning signs of a main line clog.

Sinks, Toilets, and Floor Drains

Clogs that are located in secondary lines won’t affect other drains in the house. The obstruction is only going to affect how the sinks connected to that pipe. With a main line clog, you’ll experience bubbling or backups in drains throughout the house. For example, when you drain the bathtub, the toilet may gurgle.

Raw Sewage in Toilets and Sinks

This is a big indicator that you have a main line clog. Raw sewage should never make its way back into your home. The sewer line is designed to direct waste from the home and never come in contact with clean water.

Call for Local Drain Cleaning

At the first sign of a main line clog, you need to call a plumber for inspection, diagnosis, and possible sewer drain cleaning. A licensed plumber will examine the situation and provide you with your cleaning or repair options. At Escondido Plumbing Whiz, we recommend regular drain cleaning and inspection services to catch clogs in their earliest stages to prevent big problems. How often you need drain cleaning depends on my factors and should be discussed with your plumber.

One of the trickiest aspects of sewer line repair is that it involves dealing with plumbing systems that we cannot see. Many homeowners do not know much about the location of their sewer system outside the house. However, Escondido Plumbing Whiz can help you locate your sewer system so that you can understand where to look when there is a sewer line problem. We have many years of experience in plumbing repair and have the knowledge and experience to handle any type of sewer line problem. Our company not only provides sewer line repair services, but it also provides clients with recommendations for the best plumbing systems to use and advice on sewer line maintenance.

Here are useful tips for locating where your home’s or business’s sewer line is located.

Check with City Hall

Obtain copies of your building permits from the city planning offices. You will find a rough drawing of your home, details of your lot, and the exact location of the sewer pipes from your home to the city sewer system in one of the documents attached to the permit. You may be required to pay a small fee to obtain these details from the city planning office. Use the rough drawing to determine the approximate location of your sewer pipes.

Leave the Job to the Experts

If you are unable to obtain copies of the permits or cannot comprehend the rough drawings, hire Escondido Plumbing Whiz to help you locate the sewer pipes buried under your lawn or home. We will start by locating the sewer cleanout valve, which is normally located near the bathroom, close to the outer walls of the house.

Our technicians will use a pipe wrench to remove the lid of the sewer and then use a device known as plumbing snake to map out your plumbing system. We may also use video plumbing to help locate the sewer lines placed outside your home. The video plumbing device will provide a video feed for your sewer lines.

It is advisable to know the location of the plumbing systems outside your house to make it easier for you to determine problems with your plumbing system. Schedule an appointment with one of our qualified Escondido plumbers to help you locate your sewer lines.