Averting the fatberg in your home drains

Saying modern life is busy is like saying the Kardashians like the occasional happy snap, a gross understatement. Brisbane and Gold Coast residents are spending more time in transit to and from jobs than ever before, more time at work, and more time generally trying to keep up with the Joneses. Somehow we find time to sleep, eat, and occasionally have a crack at socialising with other time-poor, exhausted humans.

The tiny fissure of valuable spare time we have left is usually allocated to keeping on top of the laundry, giving the grass a sporadic trim to stop the snakes from moving in, and running the vac around the house.

We don’t have time for anything else, let alone to think about the more involved aspects of our home maintenance, our lives are full to overflowing.

The problem with this fast-paced schedule is being too busy to deal with general home upkeep can cost you in the long run. We’re all guilty of it, even those who are specialists in it. (Have you ever seen the state of a mechanic’s car, landscapers garden, or a chef’s kitchen?)

Case in point, (mind you on a grand scale) is the recent discovery of a whopping 64-metre long fatberg uncovered in a council drain in the south of England. The monster blockage of nightmare proportions is clogging up a drain in the small seaside town of Sidmouth, Devon.

This putrid mass of grease, oil, fat, wet wipes, food scraps, and many other nasty items is expected to take clean up crews armed with an arsenal of drain cleaning equipment, shovels, and pickaxes over 2 months to clear.

We understand you’re flat out busy so we’ll get to the point.

This could happen in your home. Neglecting your plumbing can leave you with your personal sticky, stinky fatberg problem. One could be lurking in your drains as you read this.

It doesn’t happen overnight, the Sidmouth fatberg probably took years to accumulate, but bad drain habits will eventually lead to blocked drains .

The good news is it really doesn’t take much of your valuable time to avoid this situation altogether.

Avert the fatberg in your home drains

It’s easy, not like keeping your New Year’s resolution to be a better person easy, actually easy (and doable). Here’s the low down.

What not to put down your drain?

• Grease, oil, fat – put them in an old jar or can after cooking till they cool or solidify and throw them in the bin.
• Wet wipes – throw them in the bin, all of them, even the ones which claim to be flushable (they’re not).
• Food scraps – use a sink strainer to catch food scraps in the kitchen sink
• Cotton balls, buds, make up remover pads
• Disposable nappies
• Sanitary items

What is ok to put in the drain?

• Water
• Toilet paper
• Poo
• Pee
• Full stop, the end, nothing else unless you want your very own smelly, slimy, drain clogging fatberg.

Just in case you already have trouble brewing in your home drains, give our drainage team a call, at 1300 762 260 we’ll sort it out quickly and get your drainage system flowing freely.