What You Need to Know for a Mississauga Pipe Clogged with Debris

A hand holding three sections of clogged pipes that are filled with debris, corrosion, and waste that is narrowing their interior.

Your plumbing system is kind of like your home’s hidden arteries, with the heart located in the basement or the area where your main lines come in. From there, numerous pipes run under floors, into the ceiling and behind walls. Supply lines provide your entire home with clean water, whereas drain lines direct wastewater to your main sewer line—all that with minimum effort required from you. Unfortunately, this makes it very easy for anyone to take their plumbing for granted. What you can’t see makes it difficult to understand potential issues that are slowly rising to the surface in your Mississauga pipe. Clogged plumbing doesn’t have to be a mystery though.

It's not until warning signs creep up and interrupt your everyday routine that you realize there's a problem deeper down your pipes. You may let a clogged pipe slip the first few times, until you find yourself grabbing your plunger or plumbing snake more often than usual—to a degree it's starting to take up a lot of your time and effort.

This is where your uniformed Mississauga plumber comes in with advanced plumbing tools and quality workmanship to quickly get down to the root cause of your clogged pipe. Mississauga, ON homeowners can rely on our team to provide all the services and information they need. A functioning plumbing system is an essential part of your home and your local pros at Mr. Rooter Plumbing of Mississauga aim to ensure yours are in working order, so that your home is always a safe, comfortable and secure environment.

What Are the Essential Household Pipes?

Buried under floors and hidden behind walls, with parts visible under your sink and behind your toilet, your pipes are literally everywhere, supplying you with hot and cold water for consumption and removing wastewater to keep you safe from potential infections. Your essential household pipes include:

  • Cold water supply lines (PEX, galvanized steel, copper)
  • Hot water supply lines (PEX, galvanized steel, copper)
  • Drain lines (PVC, ABS, cast iron, clay tile)

While your water supply lines connect to your hot water tank or tankless heater, your drain lines connect to your plumbing fixtures (toilet, shower, sinks) on one end and your sewer line on the other. These systems require routine maintenance to remain in working condition. Depending on your household habits, you might benefit from a detailed plumbing inspection from a professional plumber to make sure they're working properly. Having a clogged pipe is a common issue that everyone in Mississauga will experience in one form or another, whether it's calcium deposits in your water line or drain blockage due to someone flushing non-flushable items down the toilet.

Clogged Pipe Mississauga, ON: Common Warning Signs

Mississauga property owners who experience a change in water pressure or recurring toilet backups are recommended to take immediate action, as an underlying issue could quickly spiral out of control. Warning signs not only signify that your plumbing system is working through struggles, but something could be damaged or deteriorating to the degree that needs urgent repair or replacement. Common signs of a Mississauga pipe clogged by blockages include:

Decreased Water Pressure

Your water supply lines will collect a fair amount of calcium deposits on the interior walls, depending on the water hardness in your area. Mississauga water softener installation could help to better protect your supply lines from that mineral build-up. Otherwise, the high mineral content will cause immense buildup in your supply over time. Eventually, they will need to be cleared out.

Untreated mineral deposits will continue to grow and could lead to corrosion that would result in damage and a clogged pipe. Mississauga, ON property owners that experience low water pressure issues may also need a professional service technician to install a pressure regulator. But to be safe, we recommend a thorough plumbing diagnosis and inspection before getting any kind of service.

Plumbing Fixture Backups

While Mississauga clogged drains can appear at any time, they’re certainly a nuisance if they keep coming back. Unfortunately, there is a reason for that stubborn blockage—an underlying issue concerning your Mississauga pipe! Clogged sinks that require a plunger or drain snake every week could indicate a clogged p-trap, which is the p-shaped curve under your kitchen sink that prevents sewer gas smells from rising up the sink. If that’s not the culprit, the problem is deeper down the line.

Toilets and showers that gurgle or emit sewer odours also indicate a clogged pipe. Mississauga, ON property owners have to be prepared for issues concerning their drain pipes and sewer. A plumbing snake can only go so deep and dislodge nearby blockages, but it doesn’t clean the pipe’s walls, remove mineral deposits or grab the ultimate problem by the roots.

Kitchen appliances are connected to drain lines too, including your dishwasher, washing machine and garbage disposal. If those are all located in the kitchen area, your kitchen drains will have to work hard to properly dispose of the wastewater at your home in Mississauga. Pipes clogged by waste will frequently develop if you don't clear your dishwasher's filter regularly or keep your garburator clean from food particles. It's important to occasionally check the drain hoses of your appliances and look under the sink for leaks too. P-traps and sink flanges are the things to check before deciding if you need a plumber. If one appliance is stuck, it could affect the drain line and put your kitchen to a halt. Keeping up with routine maintenance will help keep your kitchen's plumbing system in good condition and stop this situation from developing.

Floor Drain Backup

Your basement floor drain is probably the most essential drain throughout your home. Any excess water from a heavy downpour or leaking pipes will go by the law of gravity and flow towards the lowest point of your home. Standing water in that drain could be the result of soil saturation, which can cause moisture damage in your basement, but it could also be caused by a clogged pipe somewhere else along your drainage lines.

Is the floor drain backing up after showering or flushing the toilet? Are your fixtures (shower, toilet or sink) showing any signs of slow-flowing drains? If sewage is seeping out of your floor drains, you likely have a sewer backup, which would also affect your drain lines that connect to your plumbing fixtures. This is by far the most severe of clogged pipes. Mississauga, ON homeowners with these issues should call their licensed plumber as soon as possible.

If your basement floor drain won't clear, it's safest to wait for your plumber to tackle this issue. Using reliable, advanced tools, they will get to the root problem fast and offer you long-term solutions. Since sewer gas contains harmful bacteria and other chemicals, we recommend that you steer clear from that area and don't enter the lower level of your home in Mississauga. Pipes clogged with sewage are certainly unpleasant, but trusted inspection and repair services from our expert technicians will help recover your plumbing system immediately.

Leaking Sewer Cleanout

This also indicates a problem with a pipe clogged by backups. In this case, the signs are easy to identify via the cleanout, which you will find in your basement or outside of your property. It's a capped pipe that gives plumbers direct access to your sewer line by inserting their video inspection camera to inspect any Mississauga pipe clogged with roots or damaged by debris.

Septic Tank Drain Issues

The purpose of a septic tank is to safely store your home’s wastewater because you’re not using the public sewer system. A septic tank requires a high level of responsibility and maintenance, but it is an effective alternative if you want to take matters into your own hands. Unfortunately, it can also suffer from the same issues that lead to a clogged pipe in Mississauga, ON.

While there are different types of septic tanks, you will still rely on an efficient drainage pipe that sends wastewater to the septic tank. There's also an inspection pipe (or two) outside with the same function as a sewer cleanout. Plus, another drain pipe transfers wastewater to the applicable drain field on your property. In all those lines, a Mississauga pipe clogged with debris could lead to issues like slow draining and sewage backups.

Causes of Clogged Pipes

Mississauga residents know their homes best and will be the first to notice anything out of the ordinary, whether walls suddenly smell musty or water pressure is lower than usual. Seeing—or smelling—those signs will make you think about what the causes might be. Have I been neglecting my plumbing system? Should I have called a licensed plumber about my recurring toilet backups?

Even with preventative maintenance, there are some problems you can’t avoid. All you can do is prepare for them as best you can. If you hire your trusted plumber for a plumbing diagnosis and inspection service, you can rest assured knowing that we will offer you preventative measures to take better care of your plumbing. This way, you won’t have to worry about these unpleasant causes of clogged pipes in Mississauga, ON:

Corrosion and Wear

Older homes often have outdated metal-based pipes that are going through corrosion as they age further. Without regular maintenance, those older lines are more likely to become another Mississauga pipe clogged and damaged as a result of rust, which can lead to plumbing leaks, low water pressure and even contaminate your water.

Households that use chemical drain cleaners to clean their pipes could also see issues caused by accelerated wear from those cleaning products. Many of those chemicals have corrosive components that will do your system more harm than good. This is an example where your service technician will likely offer you a replacement to ensure your home is equipped with efficient plumbing, and free from damaged, clogged pipes. Mississauga, ON residents who have galvanized steel or cast iron pipes should consider getting them inspected—and possibly replaced—before undetected corrosion causes severe damage.

Hard Minerals in Water

The water hardness in Mississauga is classified as moderately hard, which is reason enough for many homeowners to install water softeners. When you check your drain opening, do you notice calcium deposits and sludge? While you can clean that surface build-up with white vinegar and baking soda, you can certainly assume that it might look worse deeper down your plumbing. Decreased water pressure and visible limescale often indicate a Mississauga pipe clogged with hard mineral buildup on the interior walls.

Tree Root Intrusion

If your home is surrounded by many trees, your system is susceptible to tree root infiltration, especially if you have porous line materials that attract tree roots. Once they break into the material or push through small cracks, leaks and clogs are common.

If you don’t remember the last time you had an inspection and suspect that you may be the victim of tree root infiltration, your plumber highly recommends a sewer inspection. In the event of a clogged pipe, Mississauga ON property owners can witness us using our advanced plumbing tools, such as our video inspection cameras and HydroScrub® Jetting systems, to clear out the roots and restore your plumbing.

Plumbing Diagnosis and Inspection for Your Clogged Pipe in Mississauga, ON

If you have a Mississauga clogged pipe problem, you can depend on our team to provide the services you need for everything from routine inspections to professional Mississauga drain cleaning, and more. We rely on professional plumbing tools and non-invasive procedures, so that little to no damage is made to your property.

Video Camera Inspection

For in-depth inspections, we use our sewer camera to examine your pipe’s material and health from the inside. The visuals will tell us where the clog is and how severe it is. We may also use other advanced equipment to pinpoint the damage and complete your inspection. If it appears to be in overall good health but is filled with debris, we will move on to cleaning your clogged pipe. Mississauga, ON homeowners can rest easy with a thorough inspection from our team.

HydroScrub® Jetting

This is our advanced plumbing tool designed to effectively clear any clogged drains, from stubborn deposits to blockages. Its highly pressurized jets of water can blast away any debris with an average psi of 1500. Because of its pressure, it’s not suitable for every sewer or drain type. Hydro jetting is also an excellent maintenance solution that promotes your system’s health and will push the need for future repairs.

Need Service for Your Mississauga Pipe Clogged by Blockage?

When something stops your daily routine, you need a fast-reacting team that you can trust and rely on. Our plumbing experts have ensured the safety of thousands of homeowners in the Mississauga area, including Fairview, Erindale and Erin Mills. As a family-run business, we're proud to serve our local community.

Give our friendly customer service representatives a call to get the services you need, or ask us any questions you may have about our other professional plumbing services.