Understanding Boundary Traps With Your Plumbing Company | Knoxville, TN
Clogs are major plumbing issues you will face now and then as a homeowner, even with meticulous maintenance. How swiftly you address this issue could mean the difference between considerable damage and minor issues. Clogging can affect any drain in your property, whether toilet or kitchen drains, large or small. This means you must give your blocked drains proper attention and have them cleared by a reliable plumbing company in Knoxville, TN. Otherwise, that could result in damaging consequences, proving hard to repair and costly. The sewer system isn’t immune to this issue, and several factors are at play whenever you see this happen. The boundary trap is one of the plumbing components affected by clogging.
What Is a Boundary Trap?
A boundary trap refers to a pipe from your property or home to the primary sewer line. It’s the last length of the pipes that a plumbing company can handle before you call a water service provider or municipal authorities. This plumbing component plays an essential role in your sewer network. It prevents the accumulation of harmful sewer gases that might build up inside your drains. When they are clogged, sewer odors start backing up into your Knoxville, TN home or wherever openings are connected to the drainage or sewer lines. Whenever this happens, you should call an emergency plumber.
Boundary traps also seal the lower/bottom part of your sewer line. They are normally made from metals such as steel or copper. However, nowadays, there are boundary traps made from ABS plastic and have rubber washers that allow airtight connections. The boundary trap pipe is designed such that it has a “U” shaped siphon tubing that allows the water to flow unidirectionally. Additionally, they run vertically from the ground to 1-6 meters deep. A boundary trap is a requirement of your water utility provider. However, it is the responsibility of the plumbing company to determine this boundary trap area.
Boundary Trap Clogging
With population increases, abundant subdivisions, and other forms of real estate developments, boundary trap problems have increasingly become common. It is recommended that the property developers and owners identify the inspection points and boundary traps before they build anything. Planting trees or building infrastructure without knowing the location of the boundary trap is among the main reasons affecting them, prompting you to call a plumbing company for a further inspection. Besides not knowing where the boundary traps are, below are the other main issues that cause blocked sewer systems:
Plumbing Vents
Did you know that your plumbing also has ventilation? Yes, it does and plays a significant role in draining wastewater. Whenever this important part of the plumbing is clogged or blocked, a vacuum arises in your pipes, making water trapped within rather than flowing out via the sewer line. Since the water cannot pass via the boundary trap, it starts to back up in your drains and sinks. Whenever you realize a sewer smell near the sinks, that could mean the plumbing vent is clogged and requires the attention of a plumbing company.
Foreign Objects
The foreign objects can easily cause clogging in your drains. Paper towels, coins, sanitary items, and other non-flushable materials are the main suspects of sewer blockage. Since determining the location and cause of the clog can be hard, you should call a plumbing company. The technician will come armed with an inspection camera that they use for inspecting your drains. This means they can easily identify the objects that cause the clog and where it is.
Plants
As mentioned above, planting trees, flowers, and other plants on the surface without determining where the boundary trap is can pose a problem. Tree roots are among the leading causes of sewer system blockages. If you plant a tree or shrub where the boundary trap is, that means soon, you might have to call a plumbing company for a drain cleaning.
What Should You Do Whenever a Problem Affects the Boundary Trap?
Since clogging is expected to arise in the boundary trap, what can you do when it arises? Prevention is critical in preventing clogging and other problems that affect the boundary trap. Thus, regular inspections and maintenance visits from a plumbing company can help avert these issues by catching and addressing them before they worsen. For the Knoxville, TN homeowners suspecting that clogging might happen at the boundary trap, a plumber can help remove the foreign objects and root-proof the sewer system.
Removing standing water and debris from the border trap needs compressed air, hydro jetting, or other equipment. The technician can use other tools, such as electric reels, to clean the boundary trap if other debris is left. If these options aren’t sufficient, trap disassembly or replacement may be necessary. Chronically clogged sewers benefit from boundary trap replacement. This is recommended when the trap no longer provides an air-inlet vent and sewage appears in sinks and other drains. This replacement operation installs a p-shaped sewer trap. This new pipe lets air in below the water level. Lacking outflow ventilation makes this approach optimal for eradicating unpleasant odors.
Who Can Help You Fix the Boundary Trap?
Who should you call whenever issues affecting the boundary trap start manifesting? Well, this depends on the cause. You could work with an arborist if the tree roots cause the issues. However, a plumbing company can help, regardless of the cause. Hence, plumbers are the best professionals to handle boundary trap issues. They have the knowledge and experience to identify and resolve these pipes’ needs. These professionals are experts in determining the root cause of the issues in your sewer system and boundary trap.
Do you suspect you have sewer Issues? Do you want to know where the boundary traps are as you want to erect a building or plant trees? Contact us at My Professional Plumber. After some checks, our plumbers will tell you where the trap is and resolve any present sewer issues.
See our previous post on this topic here.
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