Drain Manners: What Stays Out of the Pipes

The Markham angle

Each house connects through a private lateral to the municipal sewer under the street. A blockage anywhere in your own pipes, from the kitchen trap to the property line, is the homeowner's problem. In older neighbourhoods like Thornhill and Markham Village, laterals may be decades old and already narrowed by roots or sags, so they forgive very little.

The municipal side suffers too. York Region and its local municipalities have run public campaigns about wipes and grease clogging pumping stations. What leaves your house still has to go somewhere.

One step after another

Use this as a short household rule list, and post it near the laundry sink if it helps.

Toilets

• Yes: human waste and toilet paper.
• No: wipes of any kind, even those labelled flushable; paper towels; tissues; cotton swabs and pads; dental floss; hair; cat litter; medication; condoms; feminine products.

Kitchen sink

• No: fats, oils and grease, including bacon fat and pan drippings; coffee grounds; rice and pasta, which swell; eggshells; fruit stickers.
• Better: let grease cool in a can, then drop it in the green bin or the trash as your municipality directs. Scrape plates before rinsing.

Laundry and basement

• Lint traps on laundry tub drains catch fibres that otherwise settle in the floor drain line.
• Paint, solvents and paint thinner belong at a household hazardous waste depot, not in any drain.

Bathroom cupboards are a common source of trouble. Keep a small lidded bin beside every toilet, including the one in the basement, so guests and children have an obvious place for the things that should never be flushed. Teenagers and visiting relatives are far more likely to use a bin that is right there.

Unused medication deserves a special word. Pharmacies in Ontario accept old prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs for safe disposal, which keeps them out of the water supply altogether.

Slip-ups we see often

• Running hot water after pouring grease, believing it washes the fat away. It cools and hardens further down.
• Relying on chemical drain openers every month. They can harm older pipes and rarely remove the cause.
• Treating a garburator as a garbage can. Our garburator brief covers what it can handle.

Time to pick up the phone

Call if more than one fixture drains gradually at once, if a toilet backs up when the washer drains, or if a floor drain gurgles. Those are signs the problem sits in the main line rather than a single trap. We handle drain cleaning, main sewer line clearing and camera inspections that show exactly what is in the pipe.

Quick answers