Silco Plumbing

What Causes a Clogged Drain?

If a sink is slow, a tub has standing water, or a toilet will not fully flush, one of your first questions is probably: “What did we put in there?”

There isn’t one cause that fits every house. In Kalispell and throughout the Flathead Valley, everyday buildup and older lines can turn a slow drain into a backup.

That’s because what goes down the drain, and what is already in the ground, both matter.

Here are the five biggest things that clog a drain.

1. Grease and Cooking Oils

Pouring grease down the kitchen sink is one of the fastest ways to create a blockage. Even if it goes down hot, grease solidifies as it cools, sticks to the pipe wall, and traps whatever comes after it.

If you can, put grease in a sealed container in the trash instead.

2. Hair

Bathroom drains often clog because hair combines with soap residue. It does not take a dramatic amount. It builds- quickly.

Inexpensive screens over the drains that catch hair will keep a lot of it out of the pipe.

3. “Flushable” Wipes

Despite the label, most wipes do not break down like toilet paper. They can clog the line in the house and the line out to the sewer.

Only flush toilet paper.

4. Food Scraps

Even homes with a garbage disposal should not send fibrous or starchy food down the drain — potato peels, celery, rice. The disposal is not a trash can.

5. Tree Roots

In older Kalispell neighborhoods, tree roots can get into underground sewer lines. A line roots have found, tends to block again and again rather than stay clear.

That is a different conversation from a kitchen sink that clogged once after a holiday.

Same house. Different drain. Different job. One homeowner may have a slow bathroom sink drain – clogged from hair. Another may have more than one fixture backing up because the mainline is blocked. It is normal for those two calls to be different jobs.

If more than one drain is backing up, tell us that when you call.

What should you have ready when you call? You don’t need to know which cause it is. Just tell us what you can see:

• Which drains are slow or backing up, and how many
• Whether this has happened before, and how recently
• Whether the house is on city sewer or a septic system
• Photos of the fixture, if you can send them

Drain Causes in Kalispell & the Flathead Valley. Silco Plumbing helps homeowners with slow drains and backups in Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Whitefish and surrounding areas—from a single sink to a line that keeps coming back. Have questions? Ask us. You don’t have to figure out what’s in the pipe before you call, and you can send a message instead of calling.

406-471-1851 | silcoplumbingmt.com