Of all the things that could go wrong in your home, few will give you worse nightmares than a broken sewer line. No home is completely immune from a faulty sewer system but the good thing is that it’s fixable.
If you detect the problem early, you have a better shot at fixing it without spending too much money. There are almost always early warning signs if you are ready to look keenly. The following are some of the key signs that you are staring at a major looming problem with your sewer line.
1. Odor
Odor is often the first sign of a sewer line fault. Whereas sewer gas can seep into your house from other sources such as a dry drain in your basement, a strong smell may be an indicator that your sewer line is broken or blocked.
Whenever there’s a foul, unusual and unexplainable smell in your home, there’s a good chance that the sewer line is the culprit. How you resolve it will depend on where exactly the smell is coming from.
2. Gurgling Toilets
Flushing your toilet will always be accompanied by noise. But if your toilet produces a gurgling or unusual sound after you flush, your sewer line may be broken. Gurgling essentially means there’s trapped air in the pipes that produces this sound when it is forcefully displaced by the flushed water. It’s a sign that the pipe isn’t as airtight as it should be.
3. Slow Drains
Occasional drainage clogs aren’t unusual in the home. It’s a completely different ballgame though if nearly all your drains seem clogged and are very slow in evacuating waste water. It’s a sign of problems with your home’s main sewer line.
This can be one of the more difficult plumbing problems due to the inability to isolate the exact location of the issue. You need to contact a 24 hour plumber Sydney who has the experience and skills to identify the problem in the shortest time.
4. Pest and Bug Infestation
Rats, roaches, houseflies and other common household pests are drawn to sewer lines. They have a knack for picking up the cracks in the lines and using these to gain entry into your home. If you experience a sudden pest infestation that you cannot seem to exterminate no matter what you do, it’s possible that the pests are coming through a broken sewer.
5. Mildew or Mold On Walls or Ceilings
Mildew and mold are a sign that there’s moisture in the house that is not getting evacuated fast enough via the HVAC system or other air outlets. There are numerous potential causes of mold in the home and a sewer leak is just one of them. The good thing about investigating the source of mold is that it will usually be fairly close by.
6. Exceptionally Green Patches on the Lawn
Fecal matter is a fertilizer. Ergo, the presence of a broken sewer line on your lawn may cause certain patches of grass to look unusually greener. That may not sound like a bad thing if your goal is to have a lawn that looks good. However, not only is the bacterial contamination a risk to children who play on the lawn but the fungal cells could eventually damage your landscaping.
7. Cracks in Walls
This is a longer term problem compared to the others discussed here. If the sewer line that runs below your home is leaking, it will gradually start to change the strength and nature of the ground your building sits on. The softening earth may lead to a minute but steady shift in the position of the home that eventually causes wall cracks. This is an especially dangerous situation since it endangers the structural integrity of the property.
No one would want to live in a home that has a broken sewer line. Fortunately, a faulty sewer can be repaired thus ensuring your systems can run as well as they should.
